C(ovell)

The ABC Project is the critically acclaimed site-specific play cycle that was named Los Angeles's "Most Extreme Audience Immersion," in LA Weekly's Best of LA issue.

The ABC Project

<P>"You can only lose if you play. But playing is half the game."</P>
<P>A MESSAGE FROM CREATOR ANNIE LESSER: This piece is inspired by wine, dime museums and the questions that playfully haunt me.</P>
<P>Regular Ticket includes admission for one to the 45min preshow, hour and a half long show, and 45 min long post show.</P>
<P>VIP add on when purchased in conjunction with a GA ticket only includes a souvenir necklace, post-show dessert, and a special letter</P>
<P>This show is part of the ABC Project. A series of site-specific, immersive theater pieces at various venues starting with each letter of the alphabet.<BR></P>
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<P>Praise For C(ovell)</P>
<P>"I<SPAN>ts carefully orchestrated illogic is one of the show’s genuine pleasures. Lesser’s playful, semi-nonsensical lyricism and emotionally wounded comic caricatures evoke the double-edged paradoxes and existential absurdities most associated with Lewis Carroll,"-LA Weekly</SPAN></P>
<P>THRILLIST RECOMMENDED BEST THINGS TO DO MARCH 2017</P>
<P><SPAN>"<SPAN>I found myself wanting to stay inside the world that she had created. That’s a feeling that I’m always looking for in an immersive, and the longing to be back there in that room with those characters held on strongly for hours afterward...<SPAN>Fans of Lesser’s previous work should know that she’s firing on all cylinders here,</SPAN>"-No Proscenium</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN>"This is a blast!"-MY HAUNT LIFE</SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN>"C(ovell) isn’t just a game, it isn’t just a side show, it isn’t just an open bar; no, it’s a carefully curated immersive experience with a narrative, a theme, and a heart. It’s a magical evening spent drinking with friends, sharing secrets, and learning of another world. It’s a piece of art. Do yourself a favor and see this show. It is fun, it is entertaining, and it is emotional."-HAUNTING.NET</SPAN></P>
<DIV>PRAISE FOR THE <SPAN CLASS="il">ABC</SPAN> PROJECT:</DIV>
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<DIV>LA Weekly 2016 Theater Wrap Up: <A HREF="http://www.laweekly.com/arts/some-of-2016s-best-theater-wasnt-found-on-a-stage-7736614" TARGET="_blank" DATA-MSYS-CLICKTRACK="0" REL="nofollow noopener noreferrer">http://www.laweekly.com/arts/some-of-2016s-best-theater-wasnt-found-on-a-stage-7736614</A></DIV>
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<DIV>LA WEEKLY BEST OF LA 2016 MOST EXTREME AUDIENCE IMMERSION: "It's difficult to express the exhilarating sense of the uncanny produced by an Annie Lesser immersive stage show. Since her L.A. debut at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival, the experimental theater auteur has fearlessly explored a densely poetic, deeply intimate and intensely personal dimension of the actor-audience relationship where few other directors have dared to go. How intimate? Let's just say it's hard to imagine being more in extremis with a performer this side of a Tinder hookup. 2015's Getting to Know You used the in-your-lap proximity of eight actors to probe eight different points in a relationship in rotating one-on-ones. This year, she debuted the <SPAN CLASS="il">ABC</SPAN> Project, her large-scale play cycle, which, over the next four years, will survey the full alphabet of intense catharsis and connection from A to Z. "</DIV>
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<DIV>Stage Raw: "In the few years since she landed in Los Angeles, experimental playwright-director Annie Lesser has firmly established herself as one of the most fearless and adventurous forces in the city's emerging immersive scene."</DIV>
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<DIV>Critics on E(levator) (September 2017)</DIV>
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<DIV>"We were so involved, they completely pulled us in...Annie Lesser is the Quentin Tarantino of Immersive Theater." -My Haunt Life</DIV>
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<DIV>"F<SPAN>ew directors could execute concurrent shows that bleed so deftly into each other; with impeccable timing between all three. </SPAN><EM>E(levator,) Students, and Friends</EM><SPAN> suffer only from the audience being left with a desire to do </SPAN><I>more</I><SPAN>, to talk </SPAN><I>more</I><SPAN>,</SPAN><I> </I><SPAN>to care </SPAN><I>more, </I><SPAN>to delve into the hidden stories of the mentally ill.</SPAN><SPAN CLASS="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><SPAN>Lesser’s mind has adeptly created genuine characters; the disorders featured, and mental health issues themselves, become deeply accessible due to the impressive cast.</SPAN><SPAN CLASS="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN><SPAN>You may not be able to fix what is broken, but it will be far easier to see the cracks." -HAUNTING.NET</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV>Critics on D(istillery) (August 2017)</DIV>
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<DIV>"<SPAN>Immersive theatre is more than byzantine plots and the landscapes to match. At its core is the most fundamental connection between speakers and listeners — verbal or otherwise-where the lines blur as to who is whom. While D(istillery) hews to a more traditional theatrical role of audience as listeners, the signal has rarely come through with such clarity and resonance. All thanks to Lesser’s impeccable immersive instincts"-No Proscenium</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV>"...<SPAN>one of the most refreshing, creative, and innovative approaches to immersive theatre to date...<SPAN>D(istillery) is a self-contained discourse on the very human feeling of being trapped within one’s own mistakes. Like an exhalation after a stiff drink, Annie Lesser’s words breathe fire.  D(istillery) is an exploration of what remains when you crawl back from regret.</SPAN>" -HAUNTING.NET</SPAN></DIV>
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<DIV>Critics on The Chalet (April 2017)</DIV>
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<P>"<SPAN>If you have a chance to be a part of an encounter like this from The ABC Project, please do it. It’s an incredibly special experience, one that will stay with you and maybe even change you a little."-Birth.Movies.Death./AV Club</SPAN></P>
<P>"<I>The Chalet</I><SPAN> is incredibly effective, well-conceived, and truly terrifying." -Buzzfeed</SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN>"'<SPAN>The Chalet' is creepy and disorienting, but also deep with feeling."-IndieWire</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN>"...<SPAN>put the lone audience member inside a situation where they’re forced to grapple with their own darker impulses, to heartbreaking effect."-The Verge</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN>"...<SPAN>an extremely intense experience...something I'll think about for a long time."-Portland Mercury</SPAN></SPAN></P>
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<DIV>Critics on <SPAN CLASS="m_3583826170094760277gmail-il">B</SPAN>(<SPAN CLASS="m_3583826170094760277gmail-il">arbershop</SPAN>) (November 2016)</DIV>
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<DIV>"<SPAN CLASS="m_3583826170094760277gmail-il">B</SPAN>(<SPAN CLASS="m_3583826170094760277gmail-il">arbershop</SPAN>) is a step back from the precipice of the irrational violence that so charged A(partment 8) with its sense of audience-implicating danger, what continues to be exciting is seeing Lesser fearlessly experiment without the firewall of the physical and figurative distance between spectator and performer that mediates the traditional drama. Even when its fireworks prove less than incendiary, the <SPAN CLASS="il">ABC</SPAN> Project provokes an introspective self-awareness all too rare for the stage."</DIV>
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<DIV>"With any immersive piece the moment you make me forget I'm in a play, that I'm in something theatrical, and I treat it as if it's real, it's job well done you've got me. And that's what happens and that's what happens with this."-MY HAUNT LIFE</DIV>
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<DIV>Critics on A(Partment 8) (June 2016)</DIV>
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<DIV>"Lesser not only successfully implicates audience members in their own sundry crimes of the heart but opens a space between empathy and horror for something more critically and morally contemplative." - Stage Raw</DIV>
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<DIV>"Those looking for a darkly original work that sticks with you long after it's finished, A(partment 8) is worth the admission price."-LAist</DIV>
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<DIV>"Annie Lesser has a small wonder on her hands, and actress Keight Leighn pretty much defines the term fearless at this point." -No Proscenium</DIV>
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