Ameryka

2010-2018

Awards

Production of the Year & Best Ensemble from Stage Raw; nominated for 7 L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation Awards (including Best Production, Best New Play, Best Ensemble); LA Drama Critics’ Circle nomination for Best Ensemble.

Ameryka is a kaleidoscopic epic, detonating an astonishing universe of associations between the U.S. and Poland, from the American Revolution to the global War on Terror, from the struggle for civil rights to the fight against communism. The multi-disciplinary piece turns history inside out, as people and their stories intersect across continents and centuries, in a breathtaking quest for freedom and justice.

Written, directed, scenic design by:
Nancy Keystone

Created in collaboration with:
Critical Mass Performance Group

Original music & sound design:
Randall Robert Tico

Premiered at Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles, 2016
Remounted at Center Theatre Group’s Block Party at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, 2018

Ensemble

Curt Bonnem, Russell Edge, Ray Ford, Richard Gallegos (2018), Lorne Green, Drew Stafford Harper (2016), Danielle K. Jones (2016), Jeff Lorch (2018), Christopher Salazar (2016), Nick Santoro, Liza Seneca (2018), Valerie Spencer

Production

stage manager: Julia Colbert (2016), Susie Walsh (2018)
lighting designer: Elizabeth Harper (2016), Adam J. Frank (2018)
costume designer: Lena Sands
projections designer: Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh
prop designer: Amanda Rountree (2016), Andrew Thiels (2018)
dramaturg: Tom Bryant
production guy who does things: Turner Munch

Lighting also developed through workshops by Francois-Pierre Couture & Jeremy Pivnik
Costumes developed through workshops by Sarah Brown & Sybil Mosely

Reviews

“…a remarkable new work, an expansive, time-hopping piece…Keystone’s complex tapestry is a unique writerly accomplishment–no theatrical work I know of has aspired to fashion this sort of dancing duet through time between two nations and its citizens. But every bit as important as the writing is Keystone’s directorial consistency…and her scenic mastery…These are what make “Ameryka” both comprehensible and emotionally resonant for spectators… …”Ameryka” deserves a wide audience in the U.S. and abroad.” –Jim O’Quinn, American Theatre Magazine

“…wildly ambitious, serious and satiric, psycho-social-historical-political theatrical collage…plenty to entertain and plenty to provoke …sequences that are flat-out brilliant…the passion and commitment of all concerned infuses every minute of it.” –Bob Verini, Stage Raw

“The arc that’s created…is far from the traditional linear narrative. Instead, we’re exploring and building meaning through accumulation and coincidence. Ms. Keystone is not using the theater in the ways we’re accustomed to – to tell a simple story that we already know. Instead, she’s using it as a tool for discovery — theater as a way of uncovering or grappling with a deeper truth… AMERYKA is a remarkable journey.” –Anthony Byrnes, KCRW

Press

American Theatre Magazine — High Noon for Democracy in ‘Ameryka’
https://www.americantheatre.org/2018/05/14/high-noon-for-democracy-in-ameryka/

Broadway World – BWW Interview: AMERYKA’s Nancy Keystone’s Constantly Creating Cultural Conversation https://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/article/BWW-Interview-AMERYKAs-Nancy-Keystones-Constantly-Creating-Cultural-Conversation-20180424

Capital and Main – ‘Ameryka’ a Biting Commentary on Our National Psyche
https://capitalandmain.com/ameryka-a-biting-commentary-on-our-national-psyche-0426

Photos:
Lawrence K. Ho, Patti McGuire, Turner Munch

Video