One of the many programs which Kristin Marting runs is the Spring Artist Lodge at HERE, where she serves as the Artistic Director. Kristin gave a fascinating interview on Hamilton Dramaturgy’s TheatreNow! in Season One.

I am pleased to have been introduced to an emerging theatre company called The Anthropologists, which recently completed a full production at the Spring Artist Lodge. Their devised piece called ANOTHER PLACE was written and directed by Melissa F. Moschitto. Most amazingly, they spent only $15 on the costumes. Some of the pieces shown to me by costume designer Christina Kim? An apron made of wallpaper and a necklace made of plastic bags sourced from a takeout lunch. The entire design budget (lights, set, costumes) was $500, almost entirely using repurposed and recycled goods.

(Photo credits: Kim-Nora Moses)

Here is a short statement by Melissa, who is also The Anthropologists’ Artistic Director, on the development of ANOTHER PLACE.

“The performance-in-process at HERE was an incredibly successful exploration of character, story and design elements. Over the course of the five weeks of development the script changed tremendously thanks to the inquisitive and generous nature of the acting ensemble. We worked to both condense the scope of the subject matter and characters (based on our Spring 2010 exploratory workshop), while enriching characters with a lot of detail. We also gave ourselves space to test out potential characters and storylines as well as ideas related to choreography and movement. We’ll now take a close look at what was successful and what might not make it to the next draft. Our next steps will include further development in Fall 2011 with workshops focused on script development and movement and dance. We’ll be looking to involve the audience in less formal but more intimate ways. We’re also building partnerships with scientific organizations to augment our research as well as environmental and community organizations with whom to develop free theatre-based workshops surrounding themes in the play. The ultimate goal will be a full production in early 2012.” – Melissa F. Moschitto