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Ghostbird Theatre production ‘ORBS!’ brings Koreshan leader back to Estero

In a manic rampage Dr. Cyrus Teed, played by Jim Brock, attempts to snuff out the Calusa spirit animals in Ghostbird Theatre Company's upcoming play ÒORBS!Ó at Koreshan State Park late Monday, Feb. 5, 2018 in Estero.

Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed will return to the grounds of Koreshan State Park this weekend.

In its latest site-specific performance, Ghostbird Theatre Company’s production of “ORBS!” will bring Teed back to the Koreshan Unity Settlement in Estero, where he brought more than 200 followers to establish a utopian community in 1894.

The play, written by Barry Cavin, Ghostbird Theatre Company’s artistic director and a professor of theater at Florida Gulf Coast University, imagines Teed returning to the Koreshan site in Estero.

As Teed walks along the now-historic buildings, he pictures a new, electric utopia. But his reverie is interrupted when Calusa animal spirits come out of the woodwork to taunt Teed and his mad new vision.

Actors and actresses with the Ghostbird Theatre Company prepare for their upcoming play ÒORBS!Ó at Koreshan State Park late Monday, Feb. 5, 2018 in Estero. The story honors the history of Koreshan and its unique setting by focusing on Dr. Cyrus Teed, the man who lead the once utopian community and his followers known as "Koreshans", as well as the Calusa spirit animals.

“What I wanted to do with this piece is to ground it with a very simple and kind of funny battle between the forces of nature and Teed as he explores the idea of an electric god,” Cavin said.

While the show is on the historic grounds of Koreshan State Park, Cavin said the animal spirits, which take the form of puppets created by Tallahassee artist Linda Hall, help to highlight the Calusa Indians who lived in Southwest Florida, including nearby Mound Key.

“In this play from the start, we remind the audience that this is the land of the Calusa,” said Jim Brock, Ghostbird Theatre Company’s producing director. Brock also plays Teed in the show. “We’re not that far from their mounds. That becomes an important grounding point for our audience.”

Hanny Zuniga, left, shares a laugh with Kaleena Rivera while the two wait for the start of dress rehearsal for Ghostbird Theatre Company's upcoming play ÒORBS!Ó at Koreshan State Park late Monday, Feb. 5, 2018 in Estero.

Cavin said “ORBS!” is a "processional play," meaning the audience will brush shoulders with the actors as they walk from stage to stage around the historic site. During "ORBS!" audience members will witness a trial and a marriage ceremony. They will also learn a song and a dance step and carry light orbs as they make their way through the park, Cavin said.

“There’s a kind of involvement in the audience that’s a different kind of experience than an indoor theater and sitting quietly in the dark,” Cavin said.

Film is also a component of the “ORBS!” experience. Two videos will be a part of the performances: one projected onto a sphere hanging in the trees of the park and the second on the wall of the Koreshan bakery building, Cavin said.  

This isn’t the first time Ghostbird Theatre Company has performed a Teed-inspired play at the Koreshan State Park.

Ghostbird Theatre performed “The Perfect Island of Doctor Teed,” also a Cavin-written play, at the historic site in Estero in 2016.

Dr. Cyrus Teed, left, played by Jim Brock, and Angel, played by Katelyn Gravel, rehearse a scene for Ghostbird Theatre Company's upcoming play ÒORBS!Ó at Koreshan State Park late Monday, Feb. 5, 2018 in Estero. The story honors the history of Koreshan and its unique setting by focusing on Dr. Cyrus Teed, the man who lead the once utopian community and his followers known as "Koreshans", as well as the Calusa spirit animals.

Cavin said the 2016 play was more researched, which included the reading of fellow FGCU professor Lyn Millner’s book on Teed and the Koreshans, and Teed’s own work, “The Cellular Cosmogony."

The 2016 performance mirrored the Koreshan history a bit closer than “ORBS!," Cavin said. 

“For ‘ORBS!,' I base a little of it on the memory of the research I did, but it’s all just crazy imaginations,” Cavin said. “He didn’t really do the stuff about electricity. It’s just me with the character of Teed in my mind.”

Brock, who also played Teed in 2016, has a second opportunity to embody the Koreshan leader in “ORBS!”

“My sense of it was when we did the first Teed, it was probably more historically accurate, but this gets at something more truthful about him,” Brock said. “We offer a commentary on this mania he has.”

Actors and actresses with the Ghostbird Theatre Company prepare for their upcoming play ÒORBS!Ó at Koreshan State Park late Monday, Feb. 5, 2018 in Estero. The story honors the history of Koreshan and its unique setting by focusing on Dr. Cyrus Teed, the man who lead the once utopian community and his followers known as "Koreshans", as well as the Calusa spirit animals.

Brock said Teed, as a larger-than-life being, makes the Koreshan leader easy for dramatization.

“You admire someone having the gumption, this vision, this ability, this charisma but he’s also someone who’s profoundly corrupt,” Brock said.

Actress Katelyn Gravel also was in Ghostbird’s 2016 production at Koreshan State Park. In “ORBS!” she plays Angel, who Gravel said, is a construct of Teed's mind.

Gravel said there is a unique feeling to performing the Teed-inspired "ORBS!" on the land where the Koreshans once lived. 

"There is one part in the play where I'm standing in the bakery, waiting to make my entrance, and it's almost like you can feel all the people that were there," Gravel said. 

For Cavin, the Koreshan story includes plenty of conflicts — and a local connection — for a fascinating piece of theater.

“That’s why I do a lot of work that has a local knowledge base to it,” Cavin said. “The more local you get, actually, the more effective and powerful the theater event is.”

Ghostbird Theatre Company's ÒORBS!Ó takes advantage of its unique setting in Koreshan State Park and utilizes four separates spaces in the park throughout the course of the play. Transporting audience members back in time.

If You Go

Ghostbird Theatre Company presents “ORBS!”

>>When: 8 p.m. Feb. 9,10,16 and 17 (Doors open at 7:30 p.m. Show begins at 8 p.m.)

>>Where: Koreshan State Park, 3800 Corkscrew Road, Estero

>>Tickets: $20 general admission, $10 for students (Seating is limited)

>>To buy: ghostbirdtheatrecompany.org

>>Additional Information: The play is not suitable for children. Audience members are encouraged to dress for the weather and wear comfortable walking shoes,