I conquered my dreams! – John Wilkes Booth

A fierce, undead tension animates the American frontier: the struggle between the freedom of the individual and the question of who or what belongs in the club. FREEDOM CLUB is a savage comedy about the delirium and danger in American extremism, a hallucination on national themes. It time-travels from a feverish dream-play starring Shakespearean assassin John Wilkes Booth to Virginia, 2015, where a determined group of self-styled radicals are rapidly coming unglued.

Funny, lyrical, and provocative, FREEDOM CLUB is the result of an intense collaboration between New York experimental theater company The Riot Group, known for their potent barrage of language, and New Paradise Laboratories, who are famous for their witty and dynamic physicality. Together the two companies present a Lincoln White House full of prophetic visions, a Tea Party from beyond the grave, and a group of feckless separatists careening to their destiny.

"The Riot Group has established its considerable reputation these past few years with scalpel-sharp, ultra-modern satires on American public life."
Brian Logan, Time Out London

"New Paradise Laboratories is a wild, sensory, erotic experience. Astonishingly acrobatic. Mind-bending. Fearless."
The Louisville Courier-Journal

In short: a bad day at the compound, all-American cultists, cherished notions no longer, dreams and delirium, behind the scenes at a White House séance.

Past Live Arts Festival shows by New Paradise Laboratories include FATEBOOK (2009), BATCH (2007), and Don Juan in Nirvana (2004). The Riot Group, headed by playwright and artistic director Adriano Shaplin, were last seen here in Hearts of Man (Live Arts Festival, 2007). Adriano also wrote Pig Iron Theatre Company's Hell Meets Henry Halfway (Live Arts Festival, 2004).

Playwright Adriano Shaplin Director Whit MacLaughlin Lights Maria Shaplin Costumes Rosemarie McKelvey Sound Whit MacLaughlin and Adriano Shaplin Scenic Design Consultant Matt Saunders Projection Design Jorge Cousineau Production Stage Manager Emily Rea Executive Producer New Paradise Laboratories Performers Drew Friedman, McKenna Kerrigan*, Jeb Kreager*, Mary McCool*, Paul Schnabel, Adriano Shaplin, Stephanie Viola

Post-show discussion moderated by Josh McIlvain, information manager, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, following the performance on September 8.

*Appearance courtesy of Actors Equity Association

To read blog articles about this show, click here.

Whit MacLaughlin (director) is the Obie and Barrymore Award-winning artistic director of New Paradise Laboratories. He has conceived, directed, and designed 13 original performance works with the company since its inception in 1996. Prior to founding NPL, he was a charter member, for 17 years, of the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, originally under the artistic direction of Alvina Krause. Since 1978, he has acted in, directed, or written over 100 productions—most of these involved researching the techniques of collaborative theater creation. NPL’s work has been presented at the Ontological Theatre and PS 122 in NYC, at the Walker Art Center and Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, at the Humana Festival of New American Plays, as well as at residencies at colleges and universities nationwide. MacLaughlin earned a BA in Buddhism from Northwestern University and an MFA in directing from Virginia Polytechnic University. He has studied Suzuki Actor Training Method in Toga-mura, Japan, Grotowski Actor Training in France, and mime with Bud Beyer in Chicago.

Adriano Shaplin (playwright/performer) is a playwright and co-artistic director of The Riot Group, an ensemble he cofounded in 1997. He has written nine plays for The Riot Group, including: Wreck the Airline Barrier, Victory at the Dirt Palace, Pugilist Specialist, Switch Triptych, and Hearts of Man (Live Arts, 2007). In 2004 he joined Pig Iron Theater Company to create Hell Meets Henry Halfway, an Obie award-winning adaptation of The Possessed by Witold Gombrowicz. In 2006 Adriano became the first international playwright-in-residence with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He is a four-time recipient of the Scotsman Fringe First Award and has been commissioned as a playwright by Pig Iron Theatre Company, the Sloan Foundation, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Theatre (London), the RSC, Interact Theatre Company, and New Paradise Laboratories.

Mary McCool (performer) is a cofounder of New Paradise Laboratories and thrilled to be collaborating with The Riot Group. She has created and performed with NPL at P.S. 122, the Andy Warhol Museum, Humana Festival of New Plays, the Ontological-Hysteric, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Walker Arts Center, and more. She last performed Mr. Shaplin’s text as the prince in Hell Meets Henry Halfway with Pig Iron Theatre Company. McCool has also worked with 1812 Productions, the Arden Theatre Co., Brat Productions, InterAct Theatre Co., Lantern Theater, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Theatre Exile, and the Wilma Theater, among others. Recent credits include the Off-Broadway hit Enjoy at 59E59th with the Play Company, and the US premiere of Vaclav Havel’s Leaving at the Wilma. She is a recipient of a 2010 Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts.

Jeb Kreager (performer) is a founding member of New Paradise Laboratories; FREEDOM CLUB marks his 12th original work with the company. His recent work includes THE ELABORATE ENTRANCE OF CHAD DEITY and FROZEN (both at InterAct), Mr. Marmalade (Theatre Exile), and the ESPN 30 for 30 film Silly Little Game. Jeb is a graduate of Virginia Tech and attended Antonio Fava's Scuola Internazionale dell'Attore Comico (Reggio Emilia, Italy) and Circle in the Square (NYC).

Stephanie Viola (performer) is a founding member and co-artistic director of The Riot Group. Company credits include: Speaker 1 in Why I Want to Shoot Ronald Reagan, Sarah/Stewardess/Witch in Wreck the Airline Barrier, Trout in The Zero Yard, K. Mann in Victory at the Dirt Palace, Lt. Emma Stein in Pugilist Specialist, Lucille in Switch Triptych, and Vicki DeFazio in Hearts of Man. National. Venues include: Philadelphia Live Arts, Ice Factory, Edinburgh Fringe, Arches Live!, Theatre der Welt festivals; Traverse Theatre, The Pleasance, Riverside Studios, Soho Theatre, The Arches, Walker Center for the Arts, Magic Theater, Flynn Space, Arden Theatre; Ohio Theater, 59E59, Culture Project, The Kitchen (NYC); 2010 Atelier Artists in Residency Program, Princeton University and Field Artists Residency, FAR Space. Stephanie holds a BA in anthropology and theater from Sarah Lawrence College.

Paul Schnabel (performer) has acted professionally for 34 years. He studied theater at the University of Vermont, and while working with the Champlain Shakespeare Festival, he studied acting with Dudley Swetland and stage combat with David Leong. He was nominated for The Irene Ryan Excellence in Acting National Award for his performance as Vigil in Bus Stop and was named Best Actor by the Vermont Stage and Screen Awards for his performance in Stephen Goldberg’s Arnie Gets It Good. He is cofounder and president of Off Center for the Dramatic Arts in Burlington, Vermont. Schnabel has many feature and independent film credits and has taught elements of drama in workshops and classes at middle school, high school, and adult levels. He has worked with The Riot Group since 2001.

Drew Friedman (performer) is a founding member and co-artistic director of The Riot Group. Since 1997, he has co-created and performed in every Riot Group production to date. He is the 2006 recipient of the Arches New Work commission in collaboration with Stephanie Viola and Alan McKendrick. The resulting production, Finished with Engines, opened at the 2006 Arches Live! Festival in Glasgow, Scotland and was produced at the Traverse Theatre for the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Currently, he is a Theatre PhD candidate at CUNY’s Graduate Center and teaches theater history and acting at City College in New York.

McKenna Kerrigan (performer) New York: The Really Big Once and 10 Blocks on the Camino Real (Target Margin); The Bereaved (Partial Comfort); NPL's Fab 4 Reach the Pearly Gates (PS 122); Love Dr. Mueller (West End Theatre); SOHO/Think Tank’s Ice Factory Festival (Ohio Theatre). McKenna is a company member of NPL, and has performed with them at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, Actors’ Theatre of Louisville’s Humana Festival, Walker Art Center and the Andy Warhol Museum, among others. She has also performed with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Pig Iron Theatre Company, People’s Light & Theatre Company, Headlong Dance Theatre, Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and toured Ireland performing in the ReJoyce Festival. McKenna is an Associated Artist with Target Margin Theatre and a company member of Partial Comfort Productions. Film: “Lebanon, PA” “Ready or Not” TV: Hack, All My Children, My Father’s Gun.

Emily Rea (production and stage manager) FREEDOM CLUB marks Emily's third production with NPL, following last season's FATEBOOK, and BATCH at the Humana Festival in 2007. She is currently assistant stage manager at Philadelphia Theatre Company and most recently was working in New York at HERE Arts Center on Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge (assistant stage manager) and rainpan43's machines machines machines. . . (production manager). Other production and dramaturgical credits include The Lark Play Development Center, The Play Company, The Assembly, Everywhere Theatre Group, The Anthropologists, Pig Iron Theatre Co., Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental/Thaddeus Philips, Emmanuelle Delpech-Ramey, and Seattle Repertory Theatre (assistant director and literary intern '07-'08). Emily earned her BFA in directing from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.

Maria Shaplin (lighting design) is a Philadelphia-based lighting designer who received her MFA from Temple University. Recent projects include Survive! with Swim Pony, The Robot Etudes with Pig Iron, and Black Pearl Sings! with InterAct. Other projects include Twelfth Night, Big Love, Ses Voyages Sauvages, Never the Sinner, Victory at the Dirt Palace, Pugilist Specialist, Mort, Crumble: Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake, Hedda Gabler, and Angels in America: Part One. Maria is a member of The Riot Group and Applied Mechanics Theatre Company.

Rosemarie McKelvey (costume design)FREEDOM CLUB is Rosemarie’s fifth production with New Paradise. Previous designs include Batch, Prom, Planetary Enzyme Blues, and This Mansion is a Hole. Other companies Rosemarie has designed for include the Arden Theatre Company, People’s Light and Theatre Company, The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, InterAct Theatre Company, Theatre Exile, and Pig Iron Theatre Company. Rosemarie has won two Barrymore awards (2007, Caroline or Change, Arden Theatre; 2009, Something Intangible, Arden Theatre) and she was also nominated in 2009 for her work in Cinderella at People’s Light & Theatre Company. When Rosemarie is not designing she is an adjunct professor at Moore College of Art and Design.