June 17th, 2021

Welcome Leonie Bell/Local Grandma THIS WEEKEND in the Doxsee! Join us in celebrating the conclusion of our June Residencies and the longest day of the year! 

Sommersonnenwende & Other Arrivals  
June 19th, 7:00pm & 8:30pm 

Target Margin Theater (TMT): How did this piece come to be for you? 

Leonie Bell (LB): I knew that I wanted to create some sort of summer solstice ritual for us and our audience and then the bingo-salon-touring-band, local-weeds-tour-fundraiser, and trampoline dance entered after that. And here we are with what will be another ode to local grandmas near and far. 

TMT: Why tell this story now? 

LB: In my life and creative practice, it feels very meaningful to greet the incoming seasons with small intentional gestures of affection. Hence, thus, ergo, I am extra excited and grateful to be creating a communal theatrical gathering with some of my favorite artists this week, all in preparation of the one and only summer solstice! We hope to offer our in-person audience a shared experience that centers joy and humor, and which also makes space for some collective moments of fellowship and memory-making. Sommer, Sonne, Sonnenschein! 

TMT: What does the longest day of the year look like for you? 

LB: I will probably chill, call my parents, watch that day’s episode of Tatort (“Crime scene” in German), and hopefully go to the beach with my beau. 

TMT: How did you keep your creative energies alive amidst the lockdown? 

LB: One of the hidden gifts this last year offered me was more time to play around with mediums I have long been curious about such as animation, song-writing, and filmmaking. In December 2020, I combined these new amateur hobbies and spent the month in my apartment, making a multi-media mockumentary theater film for the all-virtual Exponential Festival. It’s about four nuns who live in a crumbling convent and involved some very DIY greenscreen action, a lot of wigs, dirty ditty-singing, and stop-motion animation. And most importantly, 25 of my thespian friends created short nun cameos for the nun town hall of complaints. I also pursued my more tactile and visual arts hobbies such as drawing and sending out postcards, making tiny (and ugly) rugs, printmaking with linoleum, and gardening.

TMT: What do you envision for this show post TMT Residency, and what is next for you after this show goes up?

LB: This performance gathering will occur once and then continue on its merry way, just like the longest day of the year. This summer, I’d like to spend my time catching up on some long-desired reading, going on walks, working on my little flower garden, and spending time with my parents at home in Berlin. Then, come September, theater-based things will probably liven up again. I look forward to making some good ol’ theatrical messes with my favorite people again. 

***

For Tickets: RSVP HERE

If you missed your chance at snagging tickets to the show, we have now opened up a WAITLIST! Prior to each showing (following capacity standards), we release waitlist tickets to as many people as we can.

Join the WAITLIST: HERE