Running to Paradise: Venus
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Celebrity Big Brother in the 1800s: black woman sells herself as freak to make a buck.
Venus is a mix of carnival freak-show, poetry, 19th-century boulevard theatre, medical lecture, music and comedy – all to make a very modern point: how a young black woman who wants to escape poverty is complicit in her own exploitation and ultimate destruction.
Venus offers a perfect example of exactly how to combine fractured form, lyricism, striking verbal and concrete imagery, in-your-face politics and emotion with thrilling art.
Venus by Pulitzer Prize-winning Black American writer Suzan-Lori Parks [Topdog/Underdog] , is the first production from Running to Paradise, the new production company from award-winning duo Cheryl Martin and Mark Distin [director and lighting design 'Iron' Manchester Evening News Award Best Studio Production].
Venus by Susan-Lori Parks presented by Running to Paradise at PANDA-monium 2007. Photo by Stacey Potter.
Biographies
Cheryl Martin – Artistic Director
Cheryl Martin, Associate Director for New Writing/New Work at Contact Theatre, has written over 25 stage, radio, and television plays, and performed as a poet, including a stint as Writer-in-Residence for the 2002 Commonwealth Games and winning an MEN award along the way. Cheryl’s first solo directing work, IRON by Rona Munro for Working Girls at Contact, was a sell-out and won the Manchester Evening News Award for Best Studio Production 2005. She also teaches at the University of Central Lancashire.
Mark Distin – Technical Director
Mark Distin is a prominent Manchester based theatre technician and lighting designer. Mark worked full time as a technician at the Exchange and Contact before going freelance as a designer in February 2007. A selected history of design credits include: SHOOT THE CROW; THE SANCTUARY LAMP; BASIL AND BEATTIE; and A CONVERSATION (winner of best overall production at the 2004 MEN awards) all at Royal Exchange Studio. TRANSFORMATIONS; BLOG; SKID 180; THE MAN WHO WAS BURIED ALIVE BY HIS MOTHER; I HEAR VOICES; and IRON ( winner of the best studio production at the 2005 MEN awards) all at Contact. VENT a touring show for LeKoa.
Jenny Brown - Producer
Having recently joined the Running to Paradise team in January 2007 as Producer, Jenny Brown is currently undergoing a traineeship with PANDA (Performing Arts Network and Development Agency). She has spent the past year working at Contact after graduating from the University of Manchester with an MA in Art history and Performance Studies.