Deus Ex Machina
Friday, June 22, 2018, 7:00 pm until 8:00 pm
Presented by Eggtooth Productions and the Shea Theater Arts Center. This SOLD OUT show returns to the Shea. Buy your tickets quickly as this remount WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY.
Eggtooth Productions is proud to remount their sold out immersive theater production of Deus Ex Machina directed by John Bechtold on June 20-24th at the Shea Theatre in Turners Falls, MA. We offer two shows each night at 7 pm and 8:30 pm for five nights only with a limit of 250 participants total. Tickets are $25:
For the uninitiated, what is immersive theater? Immersive theater is a brand of performance that puts the audience directly into the world of the show, often in non-traditional spaces and with a higher level of agency than a conventional performance. Unlike "audience participation" moments in more traditional theater, immersive theater audiences are not put on the spot for entertainment purposes so much as invited into the show's universe, where meaningful connections between characters and audience begin to take form.
In Deus Ex Machina, audience members will be invited to explore the many corners of the historic Shea Theater, which has been a home for 1920's vaudeville troupes, a controversial 1970's commune called the Renaissance Community, and much more. Though a carefully-curated experience, they will get the chance to play with the ghosts of the building in exciting and sometimes unexpected ways.
Indeed, the star of the show is the Shea Theatre, a venue with a long and wondrously checkered past. Denis Shea opened the theatre on Valentines Day 1927. The stage was the home for amateur theater productions put on by such groups as the American Legion Auxiliary, the Rotary Club, and the Turners High School. Mr. Shea also brought in occasional vaudeville shows. He died in 1945 and his family sold the theatre two years later. It continued to operate under various owners until 1956. The Shea then remained dark except for a short time in 1963-64.
In 1973, the Renaissance Community bought the Shea and used it as a recording studio and site for their religious activities under the leadership of Michael “Rapunzel” Metelica. In 1986, they sold it to the Franklin County Community Development Corp, who launched the restoration project whereupon the town of Montague bought the property. Most recently, in 2015, a new board of directors took on the lease and restored the building to once again become an active and vibrant community cultural center.
The cast of Deus Ex Machina includes Eggtooth regulars and a few new performers: Linda Tardif, Marina Goldman, Reynolds Whalen, Katie Spurgin, Atticus Belmonte, Enzo Belmonte, Pax Belmonte, Amelia Chalfant, Jack Golden, Katherine Adler, Monte Belmonte, Lindel Hart, Lori Holmes Clark, Michayla Robertson-Pine, Emma Ayres, Troy Mercier, Emily Pritchard, Matt Ferrari, Joe Dulude, Deb Banks, and Julia Whalen.
