The Pod Project

Inspired by elevator rides, The Pod Project offers audiences thirteen short scenes performed for one audience member at at time. Created and directed by Nancy Bannon, each scene is performed within an enclosed “pod” created specially for the project. Enclosure heightens the senses, giving each scene immediacy as it unfolds inches away from the viewer.

Thirteen audience members gather together in a lounge. Individual audience members are personally ushered into a landscape of large, glowing, cylindrical pods. He or she is assigned a pod to enter and become part of a private one-on-one performance. Crossing the threshold, you may pop into: a dentist’s office, a mountaintop ski-lift, a cocoon, a peep-show, a snow globe, or a bathroom with a woman in the shower. The scene content ranges from highly interactive to resolvedly voyeuristic. Opening the door to a chamber you may find: a woman listing what she doesn’t want you to know; a sleeping man and a hillside of glistening white sheep; a waitress playing “Die Valkyrie” on water glasses; a bespectacled man in a melting caterpillar suit talking about the future; a woman behind a table of wigs; or a little girl singing beside her weary mother. Once the lights fade, each viewer is guided to his next destination, eventually experiencing the full complement of scenes. Highly individualized, no two viewers have the same experience.

The production stars Debra Winger (three-time Academy Award nominee for Shadowlands, Terms of Endearment and An Officer and a Gentlemen), Bob Moss (Playwrights Horizons founder), Marc Kenison, Stephanie Liapis, Risa Steinberg, Arnie Apostol, Keith Johnson, Megan Brunsvold, Tricia Nelson, Jennifer Gillespie, Rick Meese, Dr. Jose Souto, Netta Yerushalmy, Ryan Corriston, and Lily Fischer.

No latecomers will be admitted.