Art House Productions’ New Play opens June 4^th

By Sally Deering

“A cursed bloodline. A family on the edge.  If this house could speak, what stories it would tell.”

 That’s the tagline for the new play THE HOUSE OF ATREUS which premieres Thursday, June 4, at Art House Productions in Jersey City. It’s a collaborative work between Christine Goodman (Executive Director of Art House Productions) who wrote the piece, Mason Beggs, who directed, and choreographer Meagan Woods.

THE HOUSE OF ATREUS is an immersive and unconventional theater piece. Instead of putting the actors on stage and the audience in rows of seats to observe, the set takes up the entire theater with a chair and TV in one area, a broken down porch in another, and a dining room table at center. The audience enters through a haze of smoky fog and is encouraged to find a spot of their choosing to watch the play as it unfolds around them. This immerses the audience into the play’s action, which becomes part of the overall theater experience.

“The audience will be active observers,” Goodman says, sitting on set with Beggs and Woods during a break in tech rehearsal. “We’re changing the audience’s perspective.”

The play’s plot focuses on the main character Alan who returns home after serving in Iraq. He comes back only to find his house in ruins and his family broken and as war torn as the place he left behind. Continue reading HOUSE OF SHARDS-Art House Productions “The House of Atreus” an American Vet Returns Home to More Casualties →