Balagula Theatre to Host New Play

The Balagula Theatre, Lexington, KY, will help honor the lives of 146 workers killed in an industrial fire with the presentation of Fabric, Flames and Fervor: Girls of the Triangle and to support the Looking for Lilith Theatre Compamy's effort to bring a work by Kentucky artists to the national attention.

Fabric, Flames, and Fervor: Girls of the Triangle was created by Lauren Argo, Kathi E.B. Ellis, Trina Fischer, Kelby McIntyre, Kelly McNerney, Laura Morton, Jill Schierbaum, Jennifer Thalman Kepler and Shannon Woolley. The play stars Lauren Argo, Trina Fischer, Carolyn Purcell(NY)/Jennifer Thalman Kepler(KY), Dawn Elizabeth Schulz, Karole Spangler, and Shannon Woolley.

The play has been evolving since 2006 when director Kathi E.B. Ellis first brought the idea of this project to Trina Fischer and Shannon Woolley of “Looking For Lilith”, who themselves had been interested for years in the topic and hoped to one day create such a play. Finding this synchronicity of interests, they began working together on other projects until the time was right to begin "The Triangle Project." Most of 2008 was spent creating this new play and it premiered on the 98th anniversary of the fire, March 25, 2009.

Kathi E.B. Ellis directs; Casey Clark did the lighting design; Lindsay Chamberlin designed the costumes; Jill Marie Schierbaum did the set design; Nathan Roberts did sound design; and Robert Quinlan served as dialect coach.

In 2006 This production was made possible in part through grants from the Kentucky Foundation for Women, sponsorship by the KY AFL-CIO, and generous contributions from many individuals in the Kentuckiana area. Efforts to take the show to New York City for a brief run are being underwitten in part by proceeds from benefit performances being put on in both Lexington and Shelbyville, KY.

The benefit performance at Natasha’s Bistro and Bar, 112 Esplanade, Lexington will be held on Wednesday March 16, 2011. Tickets are $18 for adults and $12 for students. Dining seating is available from 5:30- 7:30 pm. Theatre seating begins at 8:15 with the curtain rising at 8:30. For reservations call 859-259-2754 or visit beetnik.com.

Balagula Will Host a Louisville Theatre On Its Way to New York

The Balagula Theatre, Lexington Kentucky, will host a Benefit Performance of Fabric, Flames, and Fervor: Girls of the Triangle, an original play created and produced by “Looking For Lilith”, a Louisville based ensemble theatre.

The play was inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 in New York City, and explores the lives of women and girls who were tragically killed in that garment factory fire, the ensuing trial against the owners, its effect on the labor rights movement and a drastic change of the US labor laws that it inspired.

The March 16 Benefit Performance in Lexington, as well as a number of performances in Shelbyville (Feb 24-26, Mar 3-5), aims to commemorate the 100th anniversary of this important event in the American History as well as to raise funds for this Kentucky theatre to present their powerful original work at the Manhattan Theatre Source (March 24-27) as a part of the national centennial remembrance event in New York.