ROLE
Production Manager
Volunteer Coordinator
Additional Sound Design
Artistic Collaborator (Uncredited Performance)
Production Manager
Volunteer Coordinator
Additional Sound Design
Artistic Collaborator (Uncredited Performance)
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Sweet Dreams, Alfie is psychological horror smeared with blood and pock-marked with brevity, embodying the claustrophobic, hopeless feeling that comes part-and-parcel with existential dread.
Alfie is about the wounds we think we wear on our sleeves. The ones we're too scared or polite to bring up because, obviously, they're right there. And every one is too busy worrying about their own to see what we see. It's not selfish. It just is. It's about solipsism. It's about existential dread.
It's about the thing that goes *bump* in your mind.
Alfie deals with depression. Many of us in Savage Umbrella do, too. It can be scary, but sometimes making art about/around/with it helps us feel less like it’s the monster under our bed. As part of this piece, we find ways to provide the audience with local mental health resources and conversation topics for themselves and others. By opening the conversation in a theatrical way, we can mitigate some of the barriers and get to a place of authenticity.
Sweet Dreams, Alfie is psychological horror smeared with blood and pock-marked with brevity, embodying the claustrophobic, hopeless feeling that comes part-and-parcel with existential dread.
Alfie is about the wounds we think we wear on our sleeves. The ones we're too scared or polite to bring up because, obviously, they're right there. And every one is too busy worrying about their own to see what we see. It's not selfish. It just is. It's about solipsism. It's about existential dread.
It's about the thing that goes *bump* in your mind.
Alfie deals with depression. Many of us in Savage Umbrella do, too. It can be scary, but sometimes making art about/around/with it helps us feel less like it’s the monster under our bed. As part of this piece, we find ways to provide the audience with local mental health resources and conversation topics for themselves and others. By opening the conversation in a theatrical way, we can mitigate some of the barriers and get to a place of authenticity.
DETAILS
Full Production
October 31 - November 6, 2016
The Southern Theater
1420 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
Presented as part of the Twin Cities Horror Festival.
Full Production
October 8 - 24, 2015
Savage Umbrella's SPACE
550 Vandalia Street Studio 306
Saint Paul, MN 55114
Full Production
October 31 - November 6, 2016
The Southern Theater
1420 Washington Ave S
Minneapolis, MN
Presented as part of the Twin Cities Horror Festival.
Full Production
October 8 - 24, 2015
Savage Umbrella's SPACE
550 Vandalia Street Studio 306
Saint Paul, MN 55114
PRESS
"[...] a harrowing, immersive ride that offers more genuine, heartfelt scares than a hundred haunted houses packed with zombies, ghouls, and animated skeletons. [...] Mid-century existential dread sits side-by-side with horror-film scares and the workplace horrors of Thomas Ligotti."
- Ed Huyck, City Pages
"Sweet Dreams, Alfie is a window into a state of mind. It is not a play in the sense of a plot with a beginning, middle and end. Indeed, we come in to Alfie's torment in the middle, with absolutely no clue as to how it began, and leave uncertain of how it will end. It offers no parting wisdom or ray of hope, but gives us a chilling sense of how it feels to be dealt afflictions of the mind, conditions that are difficult to talk about or even admit to, and which too often go unrecognized and untreated. For that reason, for those with the stamina to live, even for an hour, in Alfie's nightmare, it is an important, well-wrought work of theater."
- Arthur Dorman, Talkin' Broadway
"[...] a harrowing, immersive ride that offers more genuine, heartfelt scares than a hundred haunted houses packed with zombies, ghouls, and animated skeletons. [...] Mid-century existential dread sits side-by-side with horror-film scares and the workplace horrors of Thomas Ligotti."
- Ed Huyck, City Pages
"Sweet Dreams, Alfie is a window into a state of mind. It is not a play in the sense of a plot with a beginning, middle and end. Indeed, we come in to Alfie's torment in the middle, with absolutely no clue as to how it began, and leave uncertain of how it will end. It offers no parting wisdom or ray of hope, but gives us a chilling sense of how it feels to be dealt afflictions of the mind, conditions that are difficult to talk about or even admit to, and which too often go unrecognized and untreated. For that reason, for those with the stamina to live, even for an hour, in Alfie's nightmare, it is an important, well-wrought work of theater."
- Arthur Dorman, Talkin' Broadway
FEATURING
2016 Production:
Russ Dugger, Claire Morrison, Mark Sweeney, Megan Clark
Conceived by Russ Dugger
Directed by Laura Leffler-McCabe
Created with Savage Umbrella and the ensemble
Creator . . . Russ Dugger
Director . . . Laura Leffler-McCabe
Stage Manager . . . Meghan Gunderson
Original Lighting Designer . . . Adam Raine
Original Sound Designer . . . Spencer Witter
Props/Effects Designer . . . Megan Clark
Production Manager / Addt'l Sound Design . . . Hannah K. Holman
2015 Production:
Russ Dugger, Amber Bjork, Mark Sweeney, Allison Witham
Conceived by Russ Dugger
Directed by Laura Leffler-McCabe
Created with Savage Umbrella and the ensemble
Creator . . . Russ Dugger
Director . . . Laura Leffler-McCabe
Stage Manager . . . Jessica Spivey
Light Designering . . . Adam Raine
Sound Designer . . . Spencer Witter
Props/Effects Designer . . . Megan Clark
Production Manager . . . Hannah K. Holman
2016 Production:
Russ Dugger, Claire Morrison, Mark Sweeney, Megan Clark
Conceived by Russ Dugger
Directed by Laura Leffler-McCabe
Created with Savage Umbrella and the ensemble
Creator . . . Russ Dugger
Director . . . Laura Leffler-McCabe
Stage Manager . . . Meghan Gunderson
Original Lighting Designer . . . Adam Raine
Original Sound Designer . . . Spencer Witter
Props/Effects Designer . . . Megan Clark
Production Manager / Addt'l Sound Design . . . Hannah K. Holman
2015 Production:
Russ Dugger, Amber Bjork, Mark Sweeney, Allison Witham
Conceived by Russ Dugger
Directed by Laura Leffler-McCabe
Created with Savage Umbrella and the ensemble
Creator . . . Russ Dugger
Director . . . Laura Leffler-McCabe
Stage Manager . . . Jessica Spivey
Light Designering . . . Adam Raine
Sound Designer . . . Spencer Witter
Props/Effects Designer . . . Megan Clark
Production Manager . . . Hannah K. Holman
