VALLEY TRACTION
WE ARE a group making performances in the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania.
Our work incorporates the people, materials, and methods that directly surround us.
We collect, assemble, and then share. We value both the physical and the digital,
and believe that they can be explored concurrently. Our work is temporal –
acknowledging that nothing is permanent. We push against the distillation of meaning,
and that leads us to prioritize experience over understanding. To us, realism
is not a necessary part of accessible artwork. Our accessibility embraces the power of obscurity, absurdity, argument, humor, and re-imagined media to function in hyper-local contexts.
The Wooster Group
Kent worked for several years as a company member and then associate with The Wooster Group, working on such shows as Hamlet, Vieux Carre, North Atlantic, Early Plays and Troilus and Cressida. In his tenure with TWG, Kent had the opportunity to work with Jennifer Tipton, Liz Le'Compte, Richard Maxwell, The Royal Shakespeare Company and many others touring to such countries as Norway, Chile, Brazil, France, Canada, Belgium, Scotland and Ireland as well as multiple cities throughout the United States.
Water Street
In 2010, Kent had the honor of teaming up with Tim Altmeyer in taking a new play, Water Street, by Alex Lewin, to Dublin, Ireland as part of the New Gay Play Festival. Kent production designed / managed the show (preliminary renderings shown). The production was nominated for Best Production, Best Production Design and Best Supporting Actor.
The New Works Festival
While completing his graduate studies at the University of Florida, in 2008 Kent initiated and produced a New Works Festival with the aid and funding of The Florida Players and then president, Danny Sharron. Kent wrote, produced and production designed for the festival for 2 years, presenting 6 world premiere plays in that time. The festival is now in it's 8th season and while he is no longer an active participant, he is proud of this lineage and the fact that the NWF has presented more than fourteen previously unpublished, fully produced plays.