The Show
A recluse is confronted with the unexpected in this highly physical, visually rich stage production charting the all too futile need for certainty and the beauty in being a hapless human. In a world where the familiar moves from mundane to magical, Shapiro plays with the likes of tissues, bed sheets, table and chair to wrap her arms around the unknown within and without. Inspired by the work of Carl Sagan, supernovae, New York City’s general public and unbridled joy, Kinds of Light crafts unfolding whimsy to find light is everywhere, even in the darkest spaces.
Kinds of Light was postponed during its development at The Tank in 2011 when Summer Shapiro learned she had cancer. Now, two years later and healthier than ever, this award-winning comedienne and theater-maker returns to New York with the knowledge that human beings are built to fall apart and such a breaking can be the gem of a life time.
“Ring the bells that still can ring, forget your perfect offering, there is a crack in everything - that's how the light gets in.” —Leonard Cohen
The Artist
Summer Shapiro writes, directs and performs theater productions fueled by a fascination with everyday life and explore the magic in the mundane. Since 2007 Shapiro's primarily silent physical comedy works have toured to San Francisco, Hawaii, Orlando, Los Angeles and New York. Shapiro's Legs And All, co-starring Peter Musante of Blue Man Group, won Best of The Best in 2009 Bay Area Theatre from SF Bay Times, best in show at the 2010 FRIGID New York Festival and the 2009 Ticketholder Award for Best Special Event/Performance from Los Angeles Entertainment Today. Her original solo show, In The Boudoir, shared the bill with Cirque Du Soleil veteran John Gilkey and headlined the 2009 WOW Festival. Shapiro's work enjoyed sold out runs in the San Francisco and New York Clown Theater Festivals in 2008, 2010 and 2012. She has been a company member and teaching artist with The Medea Project: Theater For Incarcerated Women as well as assistant director for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival's The Merry Wives Of Windsor.
Shapiro has trained, performed and taught in her craft in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Ireland, and has performed on the streets of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Berlin. She currently balances her stage time with teaching devising workshops as well as writing and teaching experiential performing arts lesson plans for The New Victory Theater in New York. She holds a B.A. in acting from UCLA's School of Theater, attended the Samuel Beckett School of Theater at Trinity College, Dublin and graduated from the Clown Conservatory in San Francisco.