Roosevelvis

RoosevElvis (Rose-of-Elvis”) tells the story of Ann, a thirty-five year old meat-processing plant worker living in Rapid City, South Dakota. Painfully shy, Ann has recently begun to inhabit the character of Elvis Presley at home. In his skin, Ann begins to find the courage to open up to the world. Ann meets and sleeps with Brenda, a woman whose online dating profile lists taxidermy and Teddy Roosevelt among her interests. The two take a weekend camping trip to the Badlands, but it doesn't go well. Frustrated by Ann's passivity, Brenda leaves, prodding Ann to do something, like get in a car and drive to Elvis’ house in Memphis. Ann begins a hallucinatory drive south, accompanied by the increasingly present and invasive spirits of Presley and Roosevelt (played by the actresses). As Graceland comes ever closer, these two icons of American masculinity battle for what type of man or woman Ann should become. Set against the boundless blue skies of the Great Plains and endless American highway,RoosevElvis is a new work about gender, appetite, and the multitudes we contain.

"RoosevElvis is the Team's most intimate work that I've seen, and also its warmest... a spirited and insightful commentary on two archetypes of American masculinity." -New York Times

The TEAM is a Brooklyn-based ensemble dedicated to creating new work about the experience of living in America today. Once described as Gertrude Stein meets MTV,” the TEAM’s work crashes American history and mythology into modern stories to illuminate the current moment. We combine aggressive athleticism with emotional performances and intellectual rigor, keeping the brain, eyes and heart of the audience constantly stimulated. The company was founded in 2004 by a group of 6 NYU alumni, and has since grown to 13 core members and a continually expanding group of associate artists. We devise plays by examining a wealth of material, ranging from existing texts (fiction, theory, drama, etc.) to images taken from visual art and film, and then combining that research with original writing and staging.