1812 Productions

HOPE & GRAVITY - Reviews and Photos by Gregory Isaac

Somehow, we're already entering our final weekend with HOPE & GRAVITY with 1812 Productions.  Time definitely flies when you're having fun!  It's been a really great process from start to finish and from on stage to back.

It's been a good while since I have worked on a piece with the playwright in the room with us, let alone one with the success and clout that Michael Hollinger has.  I can't say enough about the the amount of trust he gave us while he allowed us to work out his words in front of him every day.  He was gracious and lovely and supportive and patient.  No actor could ask for more.

I can also confirm, the rumors are true: Jennifer Childs is kind of a genius, kickass, director/human.  I learned a LOT from her in this process, and, as I told her on opening night, there is a great deal of her work in my work on this show.  I really don't know if I would have been able to find the right place for Hal and Peter without her help.

Plus, Suli, Jessica, Sean, David, Grace, Jess, Julia, Lindsay, and Tom BRING IT every night down there at the Plays & Players Theater on Delancey Street.  You've got 'til just this Sunday to come and see it before it's gone!

Here's a little bit of what they've been saying about us...

"Michael Hollinger’s title, Hope and Gravity, refers to elements in opposition: hope raises us up, gravity pulls us down. In his comedy, locally premiered by 1812 Productions, hope prevails — not only in the play’s themes but in Jennifer Childs’s entertaining production."
---Mark Cofta, Broad Street Review

"Producing artistic director and company cofounder Jennifer Childs directs a strong cast with broad strokes and high energy, nailing the laughs and most of the darker moments."
---Julia M. Klein, Philadelphia Inquirer

"There’s a thrill in chasing this plot — it’s always tantalizingly ahead of you — and finally nailing it. The thrill extends to witnessing five agile actors, some in dual roles, as they lay out this story that happens in the past, or sometimes in the future, yet also in the present."
---Howard Shapiro, WHYY

Gregory Isaac, David Ingram, Sean Close, and Jessica Johnson - Photo by Mark Garvin

Gregory Isaac, David Ingram, Sean Close, and Jessica Johnson - Photo by Mark Garvin

David Ingram, and Suli Holum - Photo by Mark Garvin

David Ingram, and Suli Holum - Photo by Mark Garvin

Suli Holum and Gregory Isaac - Photo by Mark Garvin

Suli Holum and Gregory Isaac - Photo by Mark Garvin

Coming Up! - 'IPHIGENIA' and 'HOPE & GRAVITY' by Gregory Isaac

My summer months have been anything but quiet, and my 2017-'18 season continues to get clearer and clearer as it quickly approaches.  

I'm already in the thick of rehearsals for Philadelphia Artists' Collective's fall production of IPHIGENIA AT AULIS, the 2,500 year old Greek tragedy by Euripides. Dan Hodge, one of P.A.C.'s founders, is directing.  I've admired his work in various capacities around the city since I got here, and I'm really happy to finally be spending some time in the same room with him on IPHIGENIA.

The show is being produced in conjunction with FringeArts as apart of the annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival, and will be performed on board the U.S.S. Olympia at the Independence Seaport Museum, underneath the Ben Franklin Bridge.  It's my first Greek play, and I'll be trying my hand (and left foot?) as "Achilles".

--> IPHIGENIA AT AULIS will run from September 7th - 22nd, 2017

ALSO:
I've been cast in 1812 Productions' spring staging of HOPE & GRAVITY, a comedy by Michael Hollinger about the curious ways that nine people's lives intersect when an elevator crashes in an urban high-rise.  Jennifer Childs will direct the five person ensemble, and the show will run at 1812's home, the historic Plays & Players Theatre in Center City.

--> HOPE & GRAVITY will run April 26th - May 20th, 2018

And, yes, I'm still on target to appear at Professor Higgins in Quintessence Theatre Group's holiday production of MY FAIR LADY.  That show will, I'm sure, be right on top of me before I know it.  I am still thrilled and appropriately daunted at the prospect.  I'll soon be growing very re-accustomed to Leigha Kato's very talented face, as she prepares what I'm sure will be a star turn as Eliza Doolittle.

--> MY FAIR LADY will run from November 15th - December 17th, 2017 at the Sedgwick Theater in the Mount Airy Neighborhood of northwest Philly.  

IaA Postcard.jpg
hope - gravity image final small.jpg
QTG MFL.jpg