MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM for today’s New York City that imagines our fellow New Yorkers - the buskers, the lovers, the neighbors, the leaders - as the wild and magical Spirits of Shakespeare's classic comedy. It is a celebration of the energy, danger, uniqueness and soul of the place that we call home, and its potential to evoke in all of us a wondrous transformation. This play dares to show us the extraordinary magic and everyday miracles that are hidden in plain sight.
Smith Street Stage is the proud honoree of three Innovative Theater Awards: OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE for Much Ado About Nothing and OUTSTANDING REVIVAL for both Much Ado About Nothing & The Tempest.
The production stars Baize Buzan* (Yale Rep,Yale MFA, Steppenwolf) as Helena, Brandon Dial as Snout, Shaun Bennet Fauntleroy* (Theatre Hall of Fame’s 2017 Emerging Theatre Artist) as Hippolyta, Justin Gillman* (Classic Stage) as Egeus & Starvling, Patrick Harvey as Puck, Beth Ann Hopkins* as Titania, Brian Lee Huynh* (Lincoln Center’s War Horse, Off Bway: A Clockwork Orange, The Light Years) as Oberon, Pete McElligott as Theseus, Jonathan Minton as Flute, Alex Purcell*, as Demetrus, Nowani Rattray* as Hermia, Will Sarratt as Lysander, Hannah Sloat* (Lincoln Center’s War Horse) as Quince, and Corey Whelihan* as Bottom.
(*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production)
The production is produced by Yuriy Pavlish & Beth Ann Hopkins, assistant directed by Katie Willmorth, features scenic and prop design by Andrew Diaz (The Public, Classic Stage, Disney, Roundabout) costume design by Bevin McNally, and lighting design by Conor Mulligan. Joe Jung (The Old Globe, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) is the composer and Allie Grant* and Lindsay Kipnis* are the stage managers. Amanda Browne is the ASM. Assistants are Madison Cerniglia, Danica Clauser, Josephine Hurshell-Hobson and Kayla Prestel.
About the Company: Smith Street Stage
Smith Street Stage is dedicated to presenting classic plays. It is our ultimate goal to demonstrate just how effective live theater can be when it concentrates on its strengths and not its weaknesses, by creating honest moments in a very personal, very direct and highly imaginative way. Based in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
GOD IS A VERB is an engaging and urgent portrait of a world - and a man - on the brink. In the fall of 1969, an eccentric professor gathers a team of offbeat academics to play a game with one goal: make the world work for all humanity. What unfolds tears spacetime as we are whisked from a beatnik cafe to a treetop congressional hearing and back by way of a university telephone. As the clock ticks, the lines blur between the game and the real world and we wonder if we've detached from reality altogether. Hook & Eye Theater presents the World Premiere of GOD IS A VERB, an absurdist comedy inspired by the mind and myth of architect and designer Buckminster Fuller. The production, directed by Chad Lindsey (The Summoners with Hook & Eye) will run November 4-21 at The Actors Fund Arts Center @ The Schermerhorn (160 Schermerhorn Street between Hoyt and Smith Streets, Brooklyn). Performances will be Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7pm and Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm with matinee performances on November 7, 8, & 15 at 3pm, and an additional performance on Monday, November 16 at 7pm. Tickets ($25) are available at www.artful.ly/godisaverb. The show will run approximately 100 minutes.
The cast features Cynthia Babak, Roger Casey, Jamie Effros, Hannah Hartmann, Carrie Heitman, Elizabeth London, Sade Namei, Jacob Trussell, and Renee Wilson with Set Design by Ryan Howell, Costume Design by Krista Intranuovo, Lighting Design by Christopher Weston, Projections by Weston G. Wetzel, with Composer Diarmid Flatley and Dramaturg Colin Mannex. The production will be Stage Managed by Leah McVeigh.
About the Company: Hook & Eye Theater
HOOK & EYE THEATER is an ensemble company of theater-makers, actors, dancers, musicians and artists based in Brooklyn, NY. Founded in 2010 by Carrie Heitman and Chad Lindsey, the company uses a unique collaborative method to craft totally new theatrical pieces full of joyful athleticism, soul, and song. They believe in heavy cross-pollination among disciplines and use an extended creative process, which they believe yields memorable theater. The Core Members teach playwriting at New York's Professional Performing Arts School, and offer free PlayLabs where new work is brought forward, built and developed. Hook & Eye's performance history includes Unlawful Gatherings, an original play about hoarding and the Velvet Revolution; Fidgital Spring, a rhapsody of movement and mobile devices done in homage to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, (performed at the Figment Project on Governors Island, the Stampede Lab at the Chain in L.I.C, and Muffins in the Window at the COW). Their most recent piece, The Summoners, an impressionistic flipbook of modern small-town America, ran in January 2014. Work continues on two new full-length pieces, Wander/Lust and GOD IS A VERB, which opens on November 4th, 2015. The mission of Hook & Eye is to build inspiring and inquisitive theater productions to embolden audiences of every age. They are committed to compensating artists for their work, and offering low-or no-cost tickets to audiences and students.
Spark Movement Collective celebrates its fifth anniversary of creating accessible dance experiences with an evening of new works and past favorites. FIVE brings together former and current Spark dancers for a multifaceted performance highlighting the breadth and depth of the company's work, featuring two world premieres choreographed by Chelsea Koenig and Matt Dittes.
About the Company: Spark Movement Collective
Founded in 2009, Spark Movement Collective (Spark) has quickly become a fixture on New York City’s independent, contemporary dance scene. Established with a mission to create accessible dance experiences, Spark is focused on developing innovative pieces that connect with the everyday lives of its audience members and community. Spark self-produced its first solo show, a sold-out two performance run, in April 2012 at University Settlement’s Speyer Hall on the Lower East Side. Spark has previously performed at WAXworks, The Rover Soho, Fertile Ground, and ARTCade, to name a few. The company was selected to perform at the DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL in September 2010 & 2011, and was a 2011 RAWards Performing Arts semifinalist. Other highlights include performances at the 2011 and 2012 NaChMo Galas and a collaborative show with VESSEL and Vital Dance at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange in March 2011. Spark recently presented an evening-length work "Eavesdropped," a show inspired by quirky things that people say when they think no one is paying attention. The new work premiered over two evenings in May 2013 at Dixon Place.
Spark Movement Collective premieres Impact, an evening-length dance in collaboration with live music from Cloud Fighter and Conrad Clifton. This new work explores how different people and milestones shape who we become and how we interact with our environment. Inspired by dancers’ experiences and classic archetypes, Impact weaves together multiple narratives to examine personal growth.
Please join us for our upcoming shows at the Actors Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn on June 5 at 7:30pm or June 6 at 8:00pm. Tickets are $15 in advance at sparkmovementcollective.org or $20 at the door. We hope to see you there!
About the Company: Spark Movement Collective
Founded in 2009, Spark Movement Collective (Spark) has quickly become a fixture on New York City’s independent, contemporary dance scene. Established with a mission to create accessible dance experiences, Spark is focused on developing innovative pieces that connect with the everyday lives of its audience members and community. Spark self-produced its first solo show, a sold-out two performance run, in April 2012 at University Settlement’s Speyer Hall on the Lower East Side. Spark has previously performed at WAXworks, The Rover Soho, Fertile Ground, and ARTCade, to name a few. The company was selected to perform at the DUMBO DANCE FESTIVAL in September 2010 & 2011, and was a 2011 RAWards Performing Arts semifinalist. Other highlights include performances at the 2011 and 2012 NaChMo Galas and a collaborative show with VESSEL and Vital Dance at BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange in March 2011. Spark recently presented an evening-length work "Eavesdropped," a show inspired by quirky things that people say when they think no one is paying attention. The new work premiered over two evenings in May 2013 at Dixon Place.
Choreographer:
Rebecca McCormac
Dance Artists:
Kate Bishop
Rose Buis
Maddison Clay
Kayla Collymore
Julie DeGregorio
Jessica Nolan
Arts.Dance
"complex, arresting...remarkable."
Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times
Arts.Dance
It chronicles a year in the life of the Fletchers as they deal with the fallout from the mental incapacitation of their shining star.
Starring:
Baindu Kalokoh as Doctor Rockwell
Bonnie Jones as Sandra
Correne Bolds as Abigail
Douglas Walker as Michael
Metushaleme Dary as Gilli
Teniece Divya Johnson as Lola
Arts.Performance
The equivalent of a late night talk show for dance, Dance.Talk.Show! 2.0 is hosted by Matt Mohr, featuring new work by Keely Garfield, an excerpt by Mark Dendy, a video/live performance by Elizabeth Dement and brand new segment: "In the closet with Mark Dendy", plus interviews and musical guest Matthew Brookshire.
Arts.Dance
The evening is the first installment of Dance.Talk.Show, a format that promises short dance works and conversations with exciting and diverse choreographers, as well as comedic variety elements in the style of a late-night talk show. In addition to works by Miller and Steffensen, acclaimed dancer and choreographer Mark Dendy will preview an excerpt from his evening length solo show, slated for La Mama ETC in 2013. Also on the bill: Ayo Jeanine Jackson (Broadway's Spiderman), Whitney V. Hunter, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Visual Thinking Strategist Nick Gardner and Bessie winner Luke Miller who will host the proceedings.
Arts.Dance