Written and Directed by Leigh Fondakowski

On April 20, 2010, the massive DEEPWATER HORIZON oil rig, leased by BP, and owned and operated by Transocean, exploded and burned off the coast of Louisiana, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest oil spill in history. For 87 days, millions of gallons of environmentally damaging oil flowed into the Gulf of Mexico.

SPILL is based on over 200 hours of interviews collected in the aftermath of this spill. This theatrical event goes beyond the headlines to tell vivid personal stories from all sides of the country’s greatest environmental disaster.

Featuring Michael Cullen*, Vince Gatton, Alex Grubbs*, Ronald Alexander Peet, Molly McAdoo, Maurice McRae, Kelli Simpkins, and Greg Steinbruner

It’s hard to forget the 2010 news images of the BP Deepwater Horizon blowout, the pathetically sad marine life gasping for air, daubed in the viscid black oil that spilled into the Gulf of Mexico for 87 days. Despite BP paying a record-breaking $18 billion settlement deal after being found guilty of gross negligence and reckless conduct, the fallout continues to gather aberrations from the deep. Writer and director Leigh Fondakowski’s play SPILL, presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre in partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, is based on court hearings and over 200 interviews with survivors of the accident, the loved ones of the 11 employees that perished, the BP CEO and the chemically poisoned Louisiana locals who were paid $300 a day by BP to clean up the toxic abyss. The eight-person cast switch roles in and out of the events leading up to and including America’s biggest environmental disaster. The fate of the Macondo Prospect, named after the town in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, was written in its contest winning name. SPILL quotes the novel’s description of Macondo as “no one knew for certain where the limits of reality lay.” The BP version w …Read more