March 1, 2005

The Civilians, one of New York City’s most exciting and innovative theater companies, performs the touching and comic Gone Missing, in its area debut at UCSB Campbell Hall

Summary Facts:

• The Civilians
• Gone Missing
• The area debut of the Obie Award-winning theater troupe
• Its most recent play has earned rave reviews from New York to London
• Wednesday, April 6 / 8 pm
• UCSB Campbell Hall
• General public: $30 / UCSB students: $18
• Tickets/information: UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535

The Obie Award-winning Civilians, one of downtown New York’s most acclaimed theater companies, will present its latest play Gone Missing for one night only on Wednesday, April 6 at 8 pm at UCSB Campbell Hall. An innovative blend of documentary and cabaret, Gone Missing uses real life to take a close look at what’s not there anymore. The six member cast plays over 30 characters—each one based on an actual person. With stories and songs ranging from the banal to the bizarre, Gone Missing finds the extraordinary in the everyday. The New York Times hailed the production as “cunningly constructed and charmingly performed” while Time Out New York raved, “To understand what The Civilians do so brilliantly, think of the public radio program This American Life. If you don’t know The Civilians—and nothing in New York is quite like them—go immediately. It’s quite a find.”

The Civilians is a production company that develops original projects based in the creative investigation of actual experience. Using methods that combine documentary and artistic practices, the company creates engaging shows that illuminate the interplay between the personal and larger social phenomena. The performances are boldly theatrical and rooted in a dynamic relationship to the audience, taking inspiration from the full range of theatrical forms—from cabaret to experimental theater. The Civilians work with a multidisciplinary group of Associate Artists who generate ideas and collaborate on the development of new work. Since its founding in 2001 by Artistic Director Steven Cosson, The Civilians have created four original shows that have been presented by a range of venues including Joe’s Pub, The Public Theater and other theaters, nightclubs and art centers.

When The Civilians won its Obie Award in June 2004, presenter Swoosie Kurtz’s speech read: “According to its theme song—and we wish more theater companies would provide themselves with theme songs—this company thinks pretty hard about stuff. They decide on a subject. They do little and mostly inconclusive research. People bring snacks. And then...they make a show of it! In its brief history, this company has already created cheerful, cheeky works about geese, French revolutions, wives of dictators, and stuff that gets lost. Do they rock? You betcha. In recognition of their irreverent reportage and uncanny approach to documentary theater, the judges have awarded a Village Voice OBIE grant to The Civilians.”

The troupe’s latest work Gone Missing opened at New York City’s Belt Theater in October 2003 for a six-week run to sold-out houses and is on a national and international tour in spring 2005. Gone Missing uses actual stories of lost and found things to tread the line between fact and fiction. Most of the stories follow the thread of a lost thing. Some of the objects are mundane things somehow invested with great importance—a ring, an Agnes B. scarf, a sock doll named “Sniffle.” Other losses are more unexpected, like a sudden inability to remember words, or a husband’s head left in the sidewalk garbage. One section of the show follows unusual “finders:” a retired NYPD cop with a lifetime of morbidly amusing stories or a psychic who’s asked to find things from a drowned corpse to a runaway kitten. Original songs by Michael Friedman intertwine the texts, charting a musical landscape of loss. And tying the show together are excerpts from a radio interview with Dr. Palinurus, author of Losers Weepers: A Cultural History of Nostalgia. Dr. Palinurus weaves together the Platonic Ideal, the Bermuda Triangle, and the reproductive details of the eel to make an oddly compelling thesis about the mystery of lost things. The Times of London called Gone Missing, “A show about the stuff of life, and the life of stuff, this is a thing of beauty.”

The cast of six will include Jennifer R. Morris, who starred as Matt in Arts & Lectures presentation of Matt & Ben in November 2004.

In UCSB Arts & Lectures’ on-going effort to make events accessible to all who wish to enjoy them, this event will be signed. American Sign Language interpretation is made possible by the California Arts Council in collaboration with the National Arts and Disability Center and by the

Santa Barbara Foundation’s Access Theatre Endowment Fund.

The Civilians are presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Holiday Inn Express-Hotel Virginia. Tickets are $30 for the general public and $18 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.