Pangs Theater Ensemble

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Pangs Theater Ensemble is a performance company founded in San Francisco in 2003. It began by performing several classic plays, including Woyzeck, Faust, and Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing in San Francisco.

Pangs Theater has been involved with the San Francisco Theater Festival and has performed at the festival annually since 2004.

Since 2006, Pangs Theater has ventured into a new direction by performing multi-genre pieces written by its Artistic Director, Wolfgang Thompson. As of 2007, Mr. Thompson has directed all the Company's productions. Mr. Thompson's direction incorporates a number of original concepts and approaches, including physical tension, realism, and shared line. His direction and work can be described as emotional, violent, real, and physical. Mr. Thompson conducts workshops teaching his approach to acting and directing.

Wolfgang Thompson, Artistic Director of Pangs Theater Ensemble

Pangs Theater's first original multi-genre production, Resolved, was performed at Gallery One in San Francisco's Embarcadero in December of 2006.^[1] Resolved incorporated the performance of the poetry of Andrew Marvell, music, modern and classical dance, and architecture into an emotionally evocative performance piece. The San Francisco Chronicle, the leading newspaper for the San Francisco area, has written about Mr. Thompson and Resolved and recommended the work. ²

In July of 2007, Pangs Theater produced Lamb. Lamb interweaves modern poetry of Paul Celan, the prophet Jeremiah, and body movement into a performance of lament about destruction and suffering. Metaphorically, it is a symphonic composition of body and language. Lamb was performed in San Francisco on August 9, 2007 and previewed at the San Francisco Theater Festival on July 22, 2007. It was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner and was the subject of a KQED affiliate interview. The Company intends to perform it in New York City and several European cities at its first opportunity.

Mr. Thompson is currently developing another emotional multi-genre performance, entitled Sonderkommando, which Pangs Theater plans to stage in 2008.

Pangs Theater also plans to continue staging classic work, including King Lear and plays by Molière, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Anton Chekhov. In October of 2007, Pangs Theater performed Moliere's Don Juan in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.

Within the next several years, Pangs Theater Ensemble plans to move its base in New York City while maintaining its connection with San Francisco. The Company also plans to tour throughout the United States and Europe.