Troy, NY – Troy Foundry Theatre launched their 2023 season this month at 518 Craft with the first pop-up event of the year with musical performances by TFT Company members Connor Armbruster, Hold on Honeys (Emily Curro, Shannon Rafferty, Raya Malcolm) and Michael Gregg. The night ended with a performance by Joe Barna Trio and an open jam session that went well into the night. The company announced the rest of the plans for their fifth year of programming in Troy, NY which includes: the launch of a new creation initiative culminating in a TFT curated city-wide festival of emerging work that will take place across eight days in several venues across downtown Troy, NY in June of 2023 (Half-Baked: A Festival of Emerging Work), pop-up events and Summer Salons, the continuation of the Dark Day Mondays Free Reading Series, and a performance of Henry IV Part 1 and 2 by William Shakespeare in Fall of 2023.
The first half of the TFT Season (February – June) is devoted completely to company development projects. Company members have submitted proposals for new projects and those selected will go into development during the 2023 year. During this time, the company will also present multiple surprise pop-up events in the city of Troy, curate Summer Salon parties, and present another Dark Day Mondays Free Reading Series in May of 2023.
In June, Half-Baked: A Festival of Emerging Work will highlight the in-process, brand new work being developed by Troy Foundry Theatre company members during the first half of 2023, as well as selected submissions from other regional artists. The projects selected for presentation at Half-Baked will be IN PROCESS. The festival will be a unique celebration of the artistic process and it will engage our community in a way that is not often typical with theatrical performance. Several of the projects slotted for Company Development and presentations in at Half-Baked will likely move into mainstage slots in seasons to come.
In the Fall, the company will present William Shakespeare in true TFT style with Artistic Director David Girard helming an adaptation of Henry IV Part 1 and 2. Our production will consist of a gender-fluid company of players. The company will reveal the mechanics and minutiae of the theatre while performing a streamlined and sleek production of Henry IV. This concept will allow the actors to interact with the audience, take on more than one character, and create multiple layers of interpretation by way of Epic Theatre devices and the use of musical accompaniment. The performing company will spin the text in an innovative way, redistributing lines and reinterpreting age-old characters, while never undermining the heart and history of the story. The staging will be inventive and clever (always with intentionality), as this motley group of actors will use a found space in a myriad of unexpected ways.