FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Sarah Pressler
November 18, 2009 240.644.1387
Round House Theatre presents Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, and Karen Hansen in Happenstance Theater’s
Look Out Below!
December 4 – 6, 11 – 13, 18 – 20, 2009 at Round House Theatre Bethesda
240.644.1100 or roundhousetheatre.org
Fun for the whole family
Adults $15; kids age 18 & under $10
(BETHESDA, MD) Round House Theatre continues its 2009/2010 season with the premiere of Look Out Below!, a delightful new treat for the entire family developed especially for the Round House stage by Happenstance Theater. Featuring Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, and Karen Hansen, Look Out Below! is a fun and affordable alternative to the usual holiday season entertainment.
Look Out Below! runs December 4 – 6, 11 – 13, and 18 – 20, 2009 at Round House Theatre Bethesda, 4545 East-West Highway. Performances are Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 1 and 5 p.m., and Sundays at 1 p.m. Adult tickets are $15 with kids age 18 and under only $10. Tickets may be purchased by phone at 240.644.1100, online at www.roundhousetheatre.org, or at the Round House box office in Bethesda. Groups of 10 or more should call 240.644.1387.
Thunder! Moonlight! Slapstick! The end of the 19th century is at hand. Pierrot is on his way to Paris to make the very first recorded sound. En route he meets Augustine, the would-be Hot Air Balloonist. Accompanied by an eccentric one-person Band, they encounter comic misadventures at the Circus, the Paris Metro, the Eiffel Tower, and the Moulin Rouge. Happenstance Theater employs whimsical imagery, physical comedy, and live music to engage imaginations of all ages.
Round House Theatre Producing Artistic Director Blake Robison said, “All of us at Round House are thrilled to have Mark, Sabrina, and Happenstance Theater on our stage in such a fun and wildly imaginative new creation. This is truly something the entire family will enjoy during the holiday season.”
Mark and Sabrina said, “We are eager to share this latest Happenstance adventure with Round House audiences. Like our favorite great works of illustrated children’s literature, we’ve crafted a simple story full of beautiful imagery, comedy, history, whimsy and fun that will enchant audiences of all ages.”
The work of Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, and Happenstance Theater has been acclaimed by critics and audiences around the world. Washington City Paper wrote that Happenstance is “an extended family of gifted physical comics, and whether dancing, singing, miming, preaching, mumbling, or staring vacantly at the audience, they execute with equal aplomb…[Happenstance] offers its audience a reprieve from the economic doldrums.” The Washington Post hailed Mark Jaster as a “clown extraordinaire and one of the most graceful performers you will ever see on a stage” while The Baltimore Sun called him “immensely gifted.”
Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell have entertained Round House audiences in The Seven Ages of Mime, Low Tide Hotel, and FarFar Oasis. They’re known to Maryland Renaissance Festival audiences as A Fool Named “O” and La!La!. Mark recently won the 2009 Montgomery County Executive’s Excellence in the Arts and Humanities Outstanding Artist Award for his achievements in, and contribution to, the arts in Montgomery County.
Look Out Below! is supported in part by funding from the Montgomery County government and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County.
Artist Biographies
Mark Jaster (Pierrot) trained with 20th-century masters Marcel Marceau and Etienne Decroux, and is an avid observer of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harpo Marx. Round House audiences may remember his Helen Hayes nominated performance as the Mute in the 2000 production of The Fantasticks, or perhaps roles like The Butterfingers Angel from his days as a company member at Bushey Drive. Jaster served as teaching assistant to Mr. Marceau in a series of seminars in Michigan, and he teaches frequently in Artist residencies, theatres, and dance programs. Mark is also the Artistic Co-Director of Happenstance Theater. In January 2007, he created The Seven Ages of Mime with his wife and partner, Sabrina Mandell, for an extended, sold-out run at Round House Theatre Silver Spring. In addition to annual appearances as Herr Drosselmeyer in the Maryland Youth Ballet’s Nutcracker, frequent performances with the Washington Revels, and many years as a featured stage act at The Maryland Renaissance Festival, he also collaborates regularly with world-class musicians like Piffaro, Celtic Harper Sue Richards, Hesperus, and the late, great jazz bassist, Keter Betts. Mark is a proud member of The Big Apple Circus’ Clown Care Program, performing at the Children’s National Medical Center and Johns Hopkins University Hospital.
Sabrina Mandell (Augustine) is the founder and Artistic Co-Director of Happenstance Theater. With her partner Mark Jaster, she has written, produced and performed Prufbox based on the TS Eliot poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” which premiered at the Capital Fringe Festival in July 2006 and was remounted at both the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC, and the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA, as part of their Joseph Cornell exhibits. Together she and Mr. Jaster have also created The Seven Ages of Mime for Round House, Low Tide Hotel which was voted Best Comedy of the 2007 Capital Fringe Festival and was selected as a Best Bet by the Washington City Paper, and Manifesto! which was a 2008 Capital
Fringe hit and then had a run at the New York Clown Theatre Festival at The Brick in Brooklyn, NY. Last summer their Cabaret CooCoo won Best Comedy of the 2009 Capital Fringe Festival. They have also created FarFar Oasis (a desert companion piece to Low Tide Hotel) which ran in April, 2009 at Round House Theatre Silver Spring and which will be remounted in March 2010 with Low Tide Hotel at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Sabrina also performs regularly with the Big Apple Circus’ Clown Care Program in DC and Baltimore and is the partner to A Fool Named “O” at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. She is also a visual artist and poet.
Karen Hansen (Max Calliope, “the Band”) began her musical life as a trumpet player. She received an M.F.A. in Early Music Performance from Sarah Lawrence College in 1988. Before that, she earned a B.A. in “Religious Studies with an emphasis in Sanskrit” from UCSB. She has played early music with Ex Umbris for many years. She has also performed with New York’s Ensemble for Early Music, Piffaro, Artek, and the Boston Camerata. An Associate Artist at Centerstage in Baltimore, Karen has composed and performed music for many plays, most recently Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Other theatre credits include One Flea Spare and The Illusion at Dartmouth College, as well as several scores for the Mettawee River Theatre Company with mask and puppet maker Ralph Lee, a Guggenheim Fellowship recipient. In 2005, she set Emily Dickinson’s poem Heart! We will forget him! to music for the group reconstruction. Karen has co-written and co-directed two children’s shows, A Space Oddity and The Hartland Code, under the auspices of Hartland Community Arts. She freelances as an organist in Vermont, where she lives.
Happenstance Theater is a professional company committed to creating and producing original theater pieces that rely on the exquisite skill of the performers. With the simplest means they create a visual and accessible theatrical experience. Happenstance seeks to elevate the moment when the performers and the audience meet, to lift their encounter beyond the daily and the pedestrian into the realms of dreams, poetry, and art. They bring humor, strive for beauty, investigate mysteries, and share generously. Meaning is often found by happenstance. www.happenstancetheater.com.
Look Out Below! Performance Calendar & Ticket Information
Look Out Below! runs December 4 – 6, 11 – 13, and 18 – 20, 2009.
Performances are Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 1 and 5 p.m., and Sundays at 1 p.m.
Tickets may be purchased by phone at 240.644.1100, online at www.roundhousetheatre.org, or in person at Round House’s Bethesda box office.
Performances are at Round House Theatre Bethesda, located at 4545 East-West Highway, approximately one block from the Bethesda station on Metro’s Red Line. Directions and information on parking can be found online at www.roundhousetheatre.org/planvisit.
Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more ‑ call 240.644.1387.
Look Out Below! is recommended for all ages.
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