B&B opens The Vault with Spinning into Butter

B&B OPENS THE VAULT WITH SPINNING INTO BUTTER

REBECCA GILMAN’S POWERFUL PLAY ABOUT WHITE PRIVILEGE AND LATENT RACISM IS THE FIRST SHOW IN THE COMPANY’S NEW HOME,
REDOUBLING B&B’S COMMITMENT TO EQUITY AND DIVERSITY

Hillsboro, OR – Bag&Baggage Productions, Hillsboro’s resident professional theatre company, opens the doors to their brand new permanent home, The Vault Theatre & Event Space, on September 7^th, 2017 with their inaugural production; Rebecca Gilman’s Spinning Into Butter. The play has been described as “splendid…a play of blistering force,” by Variety Magazine and “an extraordinarily fresh, eloquent, and candid play,” by The Chicago Tribune.

When a shocking incident of racism stuns the campus of idyllic, progressive Belmont College, Sarah Daniels, the liberal-minded dean of students, must confront her own demons of prejudice and fears while also exposing the shallow minds and insincerity of the other school administrators.

Spinning Into Butter runs from September 7 through the 24 at The Vault Theatre & Event Space, 350 E Main Street in downtown Hillsboro, and is directed by B&B’s Founding Artistic Director Scott Palmer.

“Spinning is an amazing play,” Palmer says. “Relevant, gripping, thoughtful, often funny, and always engaging. As a company, we are committed to opening up a dialogue with our audiences and our community about social justice and inequality, so there really wasn’t a better choice as our first production in our new home.”

Throughout the run, audiences will be invited to attend talk-backs and facilitated discussions to explore the themes reflected in the play. In addition, B&B will be partnering with The Seventh Art Stand for their fall film screening series, Uplifting Black Voices. The intimate documentary Raising Bertie, the story of three African-American boys coming of age in Bertie County, North Carolina, will be presented on Wednesday September 20^th at 7:30pm. Tickets to the screening are free, with a suggested donation of $5, and can be reserved online at www.bagnbaggage.org.

Spinning Into Butter stars B&B Resident Actors Kymberli Colbourne (as Sarah Daniels, the Dean of Students), Peter Schuyler as Professor Burton Strauss, and Andrew Beck as Professor Ross Collins. Carlos Trujillo, a Hillsboro High School graduate and current student at Southern Oregon University studying theatre, joins the cast for his first professional role as Patrick Chibas, a Belmont College student of Nuyorican descent. Other cast members include B&B Associate Artists Morgan Cox as Dean Kenney, Phillip Berns as Greg Sullivan, and Rusty Tennant as Mr. Meyers. B&B resident artists Megan Wilkerson (Scenic Design), Jim Ricks-White (Lighting Design), and Melissa Heller (Costume Design) provide designs for the first show in The Vault.

The playwright, Rebecca Gilman, has been celebrated as one of America’s most talked-about and sought-after playwrights. An Artistic Associate at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where many of her most celebrated works premiered, Gilman is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, The Harper Lee Award, and the Roger Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center. Gilman received her MFA in playwriting from the University of Iowa and is an associate professor of playwriting at Northwestern University.

“Our new space will provide our audiences with an entirely new experience,” says Ricks-White, who has been working for the past few months on creating the lighting and sound infrastructure in the smaller, intimate performance space of The Vault. “When we performed in The Venetian, our audiences were so far away, so distant; but here, in this flexible new venue, they will be up close and personal with the action. It really is a completely different way to experience our work.”

Performances take place Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 2:00pm from September 7 – 24, 2017. Tickets are available online at bagnbaggage.org or by calling 503 345 9590. Group tickets for students, schools, or University classes are also available and can be paired with talk-backs after performances. More information about The Vault can be found online at vaulttheater.com.