hosts annual Opera Potluck Salon
at the Flea Theater
Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at 7:30pm
Rhymes With Opera (RWO) will present its annual Opera Potluck Salon on Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at the Flea Theater, 20 Thomas Street, NYC. Doors open at 7pm and performances begin at 7:30pm, with a suggested donation of $10. The Salon features performances from the Rhymes With Opera ensemble, composer and cellist Fjóla Evans, songs from the Downtown alt-cabaret songwriting No Hope, and sound artist Matthew Sullivan.
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The RWO Salon series was founded in the fall of 2011 as a communal event at which composers and new musicians could try out new work in front of their peers. As much a social event as it is a performance, the RWO Salon is a celebratory gathering where performers are invited to share their work, and attendants are invited to bring dessert to share as they experience new pieces performers have to offer. By design, the boundaries between performer and audience fade, so the audience gets to witness professional new music at close range and the performer gets the rare chance to interact with their audience face-to-face.
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This year's RWO Salon will take place at The Flea Theatre, where Rhymes With Opera serves as an Anchor Partner for the 2019-20 season.Â
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For more information, visit www.rhymeswithopera.org.
No Hope songwriting team, Tim Aumiller and Scott Schneider, has written five full-length musicals and presented more than a dozen evenings of new music including two sold out shows at the legendary Joe's Pub - Siren/Kings In Concert and their anniversary celebration Pulling The Plug: a decade of NO HOPE. Their musical Hello, My Name Is Billy was a FringeNYC award winner and a Backstage "Critic's Pick." On film, their song "Fools Like You" was featured in the award-winning documentary Actress and their music video for "Evolution" featuring Siren was released in the Fall of 2017. Sheet music for their compositions is available through The NO HOPE Songbook Volume I: 2003-2013 (published by Scissortail Press), which includes their MAC Award nominated song "So Many Reasons." Their song cycle The Year After debuted to a sold out house at The Green Room 42 in the fall of 2018. Their most recent work, Once Begun, was presented at The Fresh Fruit Festival this past summer and received an award for Outstanding One Act.
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Fjóla Evans is a Canadian/Icelandic composer and cellist. Her work explores the visceral physicality of sound while drawing inspiration from patterns of natural phenomena. Commissions and performances have come from musicians such as Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow, Grammy-winning ensemble eighth blackbird, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Her work has been featured on the MATA Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Ung Nordisk Musik, and the American Composers Orchestra's SONiC Festival. As a performer, she has presented her own work at Cluster Festival of New Music, (le) poisson rouge, and at Toronto's Music Gallery.
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Matthew Sullivan is a Brooklyn-based sound artist and producer whose diverse career in creating and curating sound encompasses records, films, dance, and theater. He graduated from the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins before moving to New York to work with Quentin Chiappetta at Medianoise and at the recording studios Sear Sound and Reservoir Studios. Recent projects have included collaborations with Tyrone Page Jr, Rhymes With Opera, Tender Creature, Will Wells, and Regina Spektor. msullivan.bandcamp.com
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Rhymes With Opera (RWO) was founded in 2007, and includes founding company members Ruby Fulton (composer); Elisabeth Halliday (soprano); George Lam (composer); Bonnie Lander (soprano); and Robert Maril (baritone). During the 2012-2013 season, Rhymes With Opera expanded to include a house band, the Rhymes With Orchestra, a chamber ensemble comprised of some of this generation's most exciting contemporary instrumentalists. With the addition of the RWOrchestra, RWO has become a self-contained contemporary opera machine, commissioning and producing works that can be performed whole-cloth by the company. Since 2007, RWO has commissioned more than 17 new operas, ranging from one-minute "signature" pieces to evening-length productions. New operas commissioned and produced by RWO include Travis Sullivan's Three Modern Pieces, Thomas Limbert's Numbers / Dates, Jenny Olivia Johnson's Book of Gazes, Kathleen Bader's Leads, Douglas Buchanan's Goblin Market, David Smooke's Criminal Element, Adam Matlock's Red Giant, and Erik Spangler's Cantata For A Loop Trail, an outdoor hiking opera set in Gwynn Falls Leakin Park in Baltimore and Inwood Hill Park in New York City.
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Many years from now, long after The Flood That Drowned the World, a stranger, queerer, more loving world has sprouted from the rubble and ruins. Once a year, the many communities of this new world become one, gathering on a barren island for the Remembrance Festival. Amidst the games and food and drink, the sharing of knowledge and the telling of Big Stories, they are visited by a mysterious and legendary wanderer who has arrived to tell the biggest Big Story of all.
Written by Gabriel Rodriguez
Directed by Gabriel Rodriguez and Madeline Wall
Original music composed by Lukas Papenfusscline
Produced by Experimental Bitch Presents
Starring Gabriel Rodriguez (Water by the Spoonful/Lyric Stage Company) as Jack of Cups, featuring the Remembrance Festival Planning Committee, Lukas Papenfusscline, and Kayla Yee.
The creative team includes scenic design by Jennilee Aromando, lighting design by Elizabeth M. Stewart, costume design by Madeline Wall, stage management by Bleu Zephra Santiago, and technical supervisor Jack Scaletta. Produced by Tatiana Baccari, Wednesday Sue Derrico, associate producer Sophia Valera Heinecke.
Producing company EBP is an assembly of femme, queer artists dedicated to building community and creating new and experimental work that disrupts, engages, and redefines the process of art-making. They embrace controversial questioning and seek out artistic forms that innovate the field by producing diverse bodies of work concerning contemporary feminism. EBP encourages audiences and artists to engage in action and conversation.
Spicy Witch Productions’ seventh season will explore the vital relationship between speech and power with William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in repertory with the World Premiere of The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows by 2019 Writer-in-Residence Gina Femia. In the wake of the political and cultural tumults women have endured this year, SWP's season re-examines a frustratingly timeless question: even if you speak the truth, who will believe you?
The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from Our Lady of Sorrows, inspired by Shakespeare’s famous problem play, is a hilarious exploration of teenage revolution in the face of petty authoritarianism. Set in a Catholic girls’ school, Gina Femia's play recounts the ripple effects caused by one student's decision to produce M4M2, a controversial sequel to Measure for Measure.
SWP’s fresh take on Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure tells the story of women coming together to uncover a history of sexual harassment buried within the Justice System. This production explores sisterhood through a problematic classic and uncovers the zany humor at its core.
About the Company: Spicy Witch Productions
Spicy Witch Productions explores gender and identity through the pairing of classical and contemporary plays in repertory. Dedicated to creating roles for women on and offstage, Spicy Witch aims to help close the gender gap in theater and to use the conversation between classical and contemporary text to initiate a dialogue and be a catalyst for social change.
Previous reps include The White Wife Series: Shakespeare's Othelloand Paula Vogel's Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief in 2013, Un-Rom Com: Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Veronaand Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw in 2014, The Cuntry Wife: William Wycherley's The Country Wifeand Elle Anhorn's (SWP 2015 Writer-in-Residence) The Cuntin 2015, Tragislasher Season: Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedyand Annette Storckman's (SWP 2016 WIR) Bonesetter: A Tragislasher in 2016, Reigning Women: Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuartand Kristin Slaney's (SWP 2017 WIR) COULD THIS MEETING HAVE BEEN AN EMAILin 2017, and Dream Season: Life Is But a Dream(a new translation of Pedro Calderon de la Barca's La vida es sueño by Shawn Morgenlander) and Iris Dauterman's (SWP 2018 WIR) Merrily, Merrilyin 2018.
Scrambled Porn by playwright/performance artist Brennen Vickery, is an experimental play about why people build relationships only to destroy them—unearthing the fear and longing buried underneath it all. In the aftermath of their relationship, in the abyss of someone’s front yard, Adam, Sam, and June try to prove why they couldn’t be alone but can’t stay together. At their individual mics like a busted En Vogue live set, the ‘throuple’ share the creation of their own suffering.
“I am so excited to be working with Eden Theater Company again after our earlier collaboration of my Secret Science Fair production in 2015,” says writer/artist Brennen Vickery. “ETC has embraced me, and I feel privileged to share this new play with the company.”
Scrambled Porn is directed by Ran Xia. The cast includes Cassandra Paras as Sam, Brennen Vickery as June, and Niccolo Walsh as Adam. Alfred Schatz is the Scenic Designer, and Becky Heisler McCarthy is lighting designer. Jordan Gemaehlich is stage manager. Scrambled Porn runs on The Siggy stage at The Flea Theater April 17th – 21st, 2019, 20 Thomas Street, New york, NY.
About the Company: Eden Theater Company
Eden Theater Company (ETC) was founded by Diane Davis Steiker and Cassandra Paras, mother and daughter working together to bring original experimental theater to New York City stages. ETC brings together a tribe of artists to devise courageous stories that question the unknown. Their mission is to provide a variety of opportunities for the development and production of original works of theater of emerging writers and innovators, while also building and financially sustaining a collective of artists supporting each other’s work. You can learn more about Eden Theater Company on our website.
The Little Prince tells the story of a world-weary and disenchanted Aviator whose sputtering plane strands him in the Sahara Desert, where he meets a mysterious, regal young boy: The Little Prince. Over the course of the next eight days stranded in the desert, The Little Prince recounts the miraculous story of his life, while the Aviator reconnects with his lost youth.
EPIC’s inclusive adaption employs a neuro-diverse cast who share the story of the Little Prince and his new friend and their adventures through the galaxy. The audience as with our heroes, will go home with a new understanding of how to laugh, cry, love and accept all that life may have in store for us. Appropriate for kids and grown-ups of all ages.
Produced by EPIC Players Inclusion Company
The cast features Miles Butler, Kim Carter, Jesus Chevez, Gianluca Cirafici, Talia Eapen, Samantha Elisofon, Ben Hill, William Ketter, Nick Moscato, Gideon Pianko, Anton Spivack, and Imani Youngblood.
The Flea Theater – The Siggy, 20 Thomas Street (between Broadway & Church Streets), New York, NY 10007. Running time: 90 minutes. Subways: A/C/E/1/2/3/J/M/Z to Chambers Street, N/Q to Canal Street, and the R/W/4/5/6 to City Hall.
About the Company: EPIC Players Inclusion Company
EPIC Players Inclusion Company is a resident theatre company that seeks to use the performing arts as a vehicle to empower artists with developmental disabilities and pioneer increased inclusion within the mainstream arts scene.
SOUND HOUSE is inspired by the haunted and often funny sound worlds of idiosyncratic 20th century British composer Daphne Oram, inventor of Oramics, a precursor to the synthesizer. This multi-strand sound-generating machine serves as a structural model for an architectonic play in which disparate eras, worlds and time signatures collide as Daphne’s present-day alter ego, Constance Sneed, investigates the condition of invisibility that plagues her, too, and envisions a world in which old ladies do not die alone or forgotten.
The collaborators have developed the play not only as text but as a “multidimensional object” -- precisely constructed yet constantly shifting -- in which sound not only carves out story, but functions as an experiential road map to the distortions of time and space that are central to Oram's ideas. Their mission: create a true “sound house,” an immersive sonic experience.
The cast for SOUND HOUSE will feature Vicky Finney Crouch (Piper Theatre Productions), James Himelsbach (The Talking Band’s The Room Sings at LaMama; The Assembly’s I Will Look Forward to This Later at The New Ohio), and Susanna Stahlmann (Hedda Gabler with Wandering Bark Theatre). The design team will include Sound Design by Tyler Kieffer and Brandon Wolcott (Signature Plays at Signature Theatre Company; The Profane at Playwrights Horizons), Set Design by Marsha Ginsberg (Master at The Foundry Theater; Angel Reapers with Signature Theater), Costume Design by Olivera Gajic (God’s Ear with New Georges/Vineyard Theater; This Was the End at The Chocolate Factory), Lighting Design by Kate McGee (The Hunger Artist at The Tank; My Lingerie Play at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), and Movement by Brendan Spieth (Those Lost Boys: 10 Year Reunion at Ars Nova).
Performances will be Tuesday, February 20 at 8pm, Wednesday, February 21 at 7pm, Saturday, February 24 at 2pm & 7pm, Sunday, February 25 at 2pm, Thursday, March 1 at 7pm, Friday, March 2 at 3pm, Saturday, March 3 at 7pm, and Sunday, March 4 at 2pm.
About the Company: New Georges
New Georges, founded in 1992, is one of New York City’s premiere downtown theaters, a strategically small company with a national reputation as a hub and a launchpad for the most adventurous theater artists (who are women) working today. Through productions of boundary-pushing new plays, several varieties of play development programs, and our indispensable workspace, The Room, we support the largest ongoing working community of women theater artists in New York City and have launched an unprecedented generation of women playwrights and directors. Honors for New Georges, its plays and its people include 3 Obie Awards, The Lilly Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Kesselring Prize, and New York Magazine has called New Georges an “important, risk-taking organization.” Notable productions include Hilary Bettis’ Alligator, directed by Elena Araoz, the first production in The Sol Project; Kate Benson’s 2015 Obie Award-winning A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes, directed by Lee Sunday Evans; Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl, directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde and Rachel Eckerling; Eisa Davis’ Angela’s Mixtape, directed by Liesl Tommy; Jenny Schwartz’s God’s Ear, directed by Anne Kauffman; Heidi Schreck’s Creature, directed by Leigh Silverman; Sheila Callaghan’s Dead City, directed by Daniella Topol; and Lisa D’Amour’s Anna Bella Eema, directed by Katie Pearl; we have provided critical early-career opportunities to additional playwrights and directors who include Lucy Alibar, Rachel Bonds, Rachel Chavkin, Rachel Dickstein, Portia Krieger, Maria Mileaf, Lila Neugebauer, Jen Silverman, Diana Son, Kathryn Walat, Tracey Scott Wilson, Anna Ziegler and many more.
In THIS IS THE COLOR DESCRIBED BY THE TIME, collaboratively created by the performance laboratory Door 10, audience members wear individual headphones to drop inside the imagined unconscious of avant-garde writer Gertrude Stein. Through this intimate approach, the audience experiences Stein’s repeated and unusual phrases as layers of thoughts, voices and memories interwoven into a rich soundscape.
THIS IS THE COLOR DESCRIBED BY THE TIME is a fractured journey through Stein’s daily routine in France during World War II as she struggles with writer’s block, listens to the radio, shares a meal with Alice B. Toklas, and confronts her own mortality. Dramatizing her friendships with Vichy official Bernard Faÿ and humanist playwright Thornton Wilder, the piece examines Stein’s forgotten politics and raises questions about the inextricable link between the political, personal, and artistic.
The cast for THIS IS THE COLOR DESCRIBED BY THE TIME will feature Stephanie Roth-Haberle (Drama Desk Award nominee for Artist Descending a Staircase; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), Christina Rouner (The Malcontent with Red Bull Theater; Coram Boy on Broadway), Ean Sheehy (Red-Eye to Havre de Grace at New York Theater Workshop; Shrunken Heads at Playwrights Horizons), and Ben Williams (Gatz with Elevator Repair Service; A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes with New Georges/Women’s Project). The design team will include Sound Design by Ben Williams (Elevator Repair Service), Costume Design by Alice Tavener (PIONEERS#goforth at Jack; I’m Bleeding All Over at LaMama), Lighting Design by Reza Behjat (Tear a Root from the Earth at the New Ohio) and Set Design by Amy Rubin (Miles for Mary with The Mad Ones at Bushwick Starr/Playwrights Horizons; How to Live on Earth with Colt Coeur) with Associate Director Jim Dawson and Door 10 line producer and co-founder Sarah Peterson.
Performances will be Wednesday, February 14 at 7pm, Thursday, February 22 at 7pm, Friday, February 23 at 3pm & 8pm, Sunday, February 25 at 7pm, Tuesday, February 27 at 7pm, Wednesday, February 28 at 7pm, Friday, March 2 at 8pm, and Saturday, March 3 at 2pm.
About the Company: New Georges
New Georges, founded in 1992, is one of New York City’s premiere downtown theaters, a strategically small company with a national reputation as a hub and a launchpad for the most adventurous theater artists (who are women) working today. Through productions of boundary-pushing new plays, several varieties of play development programs, and our indispensable workspace, The Room, we support the largest ongoing working community of women theater artists in New York City and have launched an unprecedented generation of women playwrights and directors. Honors for New Georges, its plays and its people include 3 Obie Awards, The Lilly Award, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Kesselring Prize, and New York Magazine has called New Georges an “important, risk-taking organization.” Notable productions include Hilary Bettis’ Alligator, directed by Elena Araoz, the first production in The Sol Project; Kate Benson’s 2015 Obie Award-winning A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes, directed by Lee Sunday Evans; Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl, directed by Sarah Cameron Sunde and Rachel Eckerling; Eisa Davis’ Angela’s Mixtape, directed by Liesl Tommy; Jenny Schwartz’s God’s Ear, directed by Anne Kauffman; Heidi Schreck’s Creature, directed by Leigh Silverman; Sheila Callaghan’s Dead City, directed by Daniella Topol; and Lisa D’Amour’s Anna Bella Eema, directed by Katie Pearl; we have provided critical early-career opportunities to additional playwrights and directors who include Lucy Alibar, Rachel Bonds, Rachel Chavkin, Rachel Dickstein, Portia Krieger, Maria Mileaf, Lila Neugebauer, Jen Silverman, Diana Son, Kathryn Walat, Tracey Scott Wilson, Anna Ziegler and many more.
EPIC Players presents a neuro-inclusive musical production of You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown. EPIC is a theater troupe for actors living with (and without) developmental disabilities such as autism. Performances pioneer increased inclusion in theater arts, breaking through social barriers and debunking stigmas. Charles Schultz’s beloved musical—now celebrating its 50th Anniversary—explores love, friendship and acceptance of others’ differences through the antics of the beloved peanuts gang.
Produced by EPIC Players Inclusion Company
The cast features Travis Burbee (Snoopy), Gianluca Cirafici (Charlie Brown), Samantha Elisofon (Lucy), Melissa Jennifer Gonzalez (Sally), Dante Jayce (Ensemble), Andrew Kader (Ensemble), Elizabeth Kotite (Ensemble), and Gideon Pianko (Linus).
The creative team includes choreography and assistant direction by Travis Burbee, musical direction by Paolo Perez, scenic design by Michael LeBron, lighting design by Zach Weeks, costume design by Caetlyn Carbuhn, and stage management by Talia Eapen.
Performances take place at The Flea Theater – The Sam, 20 Thomas Street (between Broadway & Church Streets), New York, NY 10007. Subways: A/C/E/1/2/3/J/M/Z to Chambers Street, N/Q to Canal Street, and the R/W/4/5/6 to City Hall.
Black Moon Theatre Company presents BLISS based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead with performances on September 8-25, 2016, at 7pm with 3pm matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at The Flea Theater, 41 White Street New York, NY 10013. Tickets are $20-$30 and can be found at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/961264. Performances: Tuesdays-Sundays at 7pm, Saturday and Sundays at 3pm (no 3pm performance on 9/11).
BLISS follows the journey of consciousness after death, during the interval between death and rebirth (bardo), and serves as an allegorical guide for the living. In this new multi-disciplinary production, Artistic Director René Migliaccio’s staging is a visual and poetic dance/theatre odyssey within the mind of an individual striving to awaken to a Higher Consciousness. The journey is theatrically of double nature: the actor living the text of the Bardo and a Butoh dancer manifesting as his supra consciousness on the path of liberation. Original music features a fusion of ambient and accents of sounds and voices from the world, journeying on a wide spectrum from dark to ethereal moods. Projections create the pictorial environment for the journeyer on his path to liberation, immersing the audience in the symbolic dimension of dreams.
The Creative Team
Directed by Rene Migliaccio
Text adaptation by Alessio Bordoni
Performed by Alessio Bordoni
Art work by Estella Dupree
Original Music by Amaury Groc
Choreographer Consultant: Eric Pettigrew
Assistant Director of Production: Isabella Schiller
Rene Migliaccio (Director): French-Italian born Rene Migliaccio is an award-winning director and the artistic director of Black Moon Theatre Company (New York), and founder of La Compagnie de la Lettre 5 (Montreal). An accomplished director and adaptor, Migliaccio’s work has been performed at notable theaters and festivals across the globe. He began his career in the “expressionistic realism” style and went on to direct a wide range of plays for the Drama Theater Company, among them: Deathwatch by Jean Genet, and Awake and Sing by Clifford Odets. – In 1990, Migliaccio founded Black Moon Productions and directed Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (1996, Los Angeles Playhouse), Nosferatu, and Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni (1997, Los Angeles Playhouse), among others. In 2000 Migliaccio’s adaptation of Nosferatu performed in Paris, at the Here Arts Center in New York, and travelled to Telluride, Colorado and the Prithvi International Theatre Festival in Mumbai, India in November 2000. – Migliaccio established the non-profit organization Black Moon Theatre Company with Lori Vincent in Brooklyn, NY in 2001. Black Moon brings together multi-disciplinary works. The company launched with a production of The Bakkhai (2001, The Here Arts Center, NYC) and has continued to produce to critical acclaim, nationally and internationally, notably the Kafka Series- The Metamorphosis and The Trial, Fragments (2009), Dante’s Divina Commedia – Inferno (2010), Oscar Wilde’s Salome (2011), and Ponzi, A Dollar and a Scheme by Alessio Bordoni (2012). Rene Migliaccio’s directing work has been published in the Sixth edition on Directing by Francis Hodge and Michael McLain, published by Allyn and Bacon, 2005; and The Electronic Version (eBook) in Perspectives, Pearson Education, 2016.
Alessio Bordoni (Performer) Alessio Bordoni is an Italian-born American actor who has performed in numerous productions throughout Europe as well as in NYC, where he resides. He was trained in Germany by Zygmunt Molik, in NYC at HB studio and at the American Mime Theatre under Paul Curtis. Alessio made his stage debut solo, in his own adaptation of Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais (Teatro Tordinona Rome). He then embarked on a two-year tour of Paolo Poli’s staging of Jacques the Fatalist by Diderot, playing Marquis des Arcis. He subsequently portrayed Jean and Schlome, in French and Yiddish, in Primo Levi’s If This is a Man (tour), starred in Dostoevsky’s Demons (Teatro Sala Uno Rome), played solo in Dante’s Divina Commedia – Inferno (New York Fringe Festival/Prague Fringe Festival), performed King Herod in Oscar Wilde’s Salome (BMTC/Flea Theater) and again solo in his first play Charles Ponzi – A Dollar and a Scheme (United Solo
Theatre Festival). BLISS is his second work as a playwright and he is thrilled to be presenting it at the Flea. Alessio is also a passionate reader of Dante’s Divine Comedy which he recites regularly at CUNY/NYU. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Dramatists Guild of America. Alessio’s work has been positively received. (For details check www.alessiobordoni.com)
Amaury Groc (Composer) is a French composer who over the last 20 years has composed original music for 7 shows with Rene Migliaccio. He also collaborated with dancer / choreographer Richard Siegal on some of his creations. His compositions are classical, electronic and world music inspired. Amaury has also worked as a sound engineer for recording studios and radios for fifteen years. Amaury is a developer and programmer at Ableton Live, a composition and performance software company.
Eric Pettigrew (choreographer) began performing in Québec, Canada, as a dancer and later as an actor exploring stage work, film and television. In order to follow his passion for discovering new ways of expressions of life through the human body, Eric spent several months in Japan studying Butoh dance under Butoh founders Kazuo Ono and Min Tanaka. He has been collaborating with Blackmoon Theatre Company since 2005.
ABOUT BLACK MOON THEATRE COMPANY
New York City’s Black Moon Theatre Company was founded in 2001 by Artistic Director Rene Migliaccio and Lori Vincent. Black Moon’s New York productions include Oscar Wilde’s Salome, Dante’s Divina Commedia – Inferno (FringeNYC, Prague Festival Praha), Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (FringeNYC, Philly Fringe, La MaMa, Prague Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe), Carlo Goldini’s The Servant of Two Masters (Lincoln Center, Meet The Artist Series), Euripides’ The Bakkhai (HERE), and Internationally, the company has been seen in Germany, the UK, Canada, Norway, and the Czech Republic. http://www.blackmoontheatrecompany.org/
ABOUT THE FLEA THEATER
Non-institutional and resolutely noncommercial, The Flea embodies the spirit of adventure and experiment that has defined Off-Off-Broadway since its inception. We are one of the only professional theaters in the city that maintains an open-door policy for artists—a policy that we believe is crucial to keeping New York theater vital. Part playground, part laboratory, part training ground, The Flea has been home to established artists taking new risks, emerging artists developing their ideas, and mid-career artists building sustained audiences and identities. Each year The Flea presents and produces dozens of new works in an environment that is professional, welcoming, and intimate. As a testament to our success, Flea artists have been honored with two OBIE Awards, an Otto Award and, in May 2004, The Flea was given a Drama Desk Award for Distinguished Achievement commending our dedication to adventurous theater. With the continued participation of our founders and an ever-growing community of diverse and creative talents, The Flea strives to represent the wide range of what is possible Off-Off-Broadway. http://www.theflea.org/
Inspired by true events, The Good Earth is the explosive new story of a Welsh village fighting to save their homes and mountain unravelled through physical theatre akin to the Welsh-trained Frantic Assembly, new writing and Welsh folk song, bringing to life a valley torn apart by their council, big business and eventually themselves.
Facing pressure from the local council to move when a new development is proposed, a small group of ardent Welsh villagers decide to fight back. This explosive new play provides cultural context to the anti-establishment sentiment of rural Wales that has partly led to the recent "Brexit" vote.
The piece was developed in residency in the Rhondda Valley, Wales, working with one of the few still standing ex-mining theatres of the 1800’s to tell the story of a family, who against all odds, fought for what they believed in.
The play is bilingual with all songs sung in Welsh. The songs were first recorded in New York in 1965 by Welsh language activist Dr. Meredydd Evans.
Featuring Rachael Boulton, Anni Dafydd, Kate Elis, Gwenllian Higginson (Forever Young - Young Vic Theatre, London; England’s Dreaming - Unicorn Theatre, London) and Michael Humphrey (War Horse - World Tour).
The production is musical directed by Max Mackintosh and features scenic/costume design by Buddug James Jones, lighting design by Katy Morrison, and graphic design and illustration by Tom Flannery. Jason Rost is the New York Associate Producer and Matt Davies is the general manager.
AF PRODUCTIONS is pleased to announce the world premiere production of Anna Fishbeyn’'s SEX IN MOMMYVILLE, directed by Sane Shurin. SEX IN MOMMYVILLE will play a limited engagement at The Flea (41 White Street, TriBeCa). Performances begin Wednesday, August 18 and continue thru Sunday, August 29. Opening Night is Friday, August 20 (7 p.m.).SEX IN MOMMYVILLE is a musical feminist comedy about the hilarious misadventures of a neurotic, guilt-ridden, health-conscious, sex-starved Manhattan mom trying to please her high-maintenance children, her lawyer-husband Zeus, and her Russian parents who live upstairs. As she discovers ingenious ways to escape her children (i.e. the TV and then some more TV) and seduce her husband (i.e. sing Russian gypsy ballads in her grandmother’s shawl and don old tan pregnancy underwear), she also discovers the inherent struggle and contradictions in what it means to be a mother and ultimately a woman in today’s hyper-anxious, self-perfecting, wrinkle-eradicating society.
For more information, please visit www.sexinmommyville.com.
A married couple prepare with dread for the annual PARENTS' EVENING at their daughter's school. Doran's play examines the land mines of modern marriage and parenting.According to director Jim Simpson, "PARENTS' EVENING is an extraordinary play about modern married life - particularly the working woman's struggle to be mother, lover, breadwinner and wife - to be it all and to have it all. The play is a striking look at the way we live now. Bathsheba is a powerful new voice - and I'm very pleased to be taking this wonderful play on."
Directed by Flea Artistic Director Jim Simpson, the production stars Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order: Criminal Intent) and James Waterston (A.R. Gurney's Buffalo Gal). Previews for this limited run Off-Broadway engagement begin April 17 with opening night slated for Thursday, April 29.
The design team includes Jerad Schomer (sets), Brian Aldous (lights) and Claudia Brown (costumes).
In this bold drama, Mr. Reynolds, whose previous controversial play, Stonewall Jackson’s House (short listed for the Pulitzer Prize), took on issues of racial victimization, has turned his attention to women's rights and abortion. Performances, originally schedule to end March 15, will now continue through April 11th.GIRLS IN TROUBLE dares to explore the controversial history of abortion through its life-changing affect on women across three generations. This darkly humorous, shocking new work continues to inspire spirited debate.
GIRLS IN TROUBLE features 7 actors from The Bats, the resident acting company of The Flea: Andy Gershenzon, Brett Aresco, Betsy Lippitt, Akyiaa Wilson, Eboni Booth, Laurel Holland and Marshall York. The design team includes John McDermott (sets), Zack Tinkelman (lights), Amanda Bujak (costumes) and Jeremy Wilson (sound).
GIRLS IN TROUBLE takes on abortion in the sixties, when backrooms in the wrong part of town offered hope or death, as well as abortion in the twenty first century. In 2010, has abortion become merely another form of birth control?
GIRLS IN TROUBLE features 7 actors from The Bats, the resident acting company of The Flea: Andy Gershenzon, Brett Aresco, Betsy Lippitt, Akyiaa Wilson, Eboni Booth, Laurel Holland and Marshall York. The design team includes John McDermott (sets), Zack Tinkelman (lights), Amanda Bujac (costumes) and Jeremy Wilson (sound).
Jonathan Reynolds has had 9 plays produced in New York: Pulitzer Prize finalist Stonewall Jackson’s House; Dinner With Demons, a solo show in which he prepared a full five-course meal onstage eight times a week; Geniuses, produced by Playwrights Horizons and which ran for a year off-Broadway; the one-acts Yanks 3 Detroit O Top of the 7th and Rubbers at The American Place; Fighting International Fat; and Tunnel Fever or The Sheep is Out. He has had five screenplays produced, most notably Micki and Maude and My Stepmother is an Alien. He is the recipient of Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundation grants as well as The Dramatists Guild Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement.
For five years, he was Treasurer of The Dramatists Guild, and for six years wrote a bi-weekly food column for The New York Times Sunday Magazine. His memoir, Wrestling With Gravy: A Life, With Food, was recently published by Random House.
One of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies, TWELFTH NIGHT tells the story of Viola, a young woman shipwrecked in the country of Illyria who chooses to go incognito as a boy eunuch. She comes to serve the lovesick Count Orsino in his courtship of Lady Olivia, who instead falls for the fetching young go-between. This sets a series of events into motion that creates a tangled knot of romance and confusion that only time and fortuitous appearances can untie. Along the way, we meet Sir Toby Belch, Feste, and other riotous court characters, as well as that officious steward, Malvolio. With raucous antics, ravishing language and rich characters, Shakespeare creates a bittersweet tale of laughter and longing.
Asher’s straight-forward production stars Greg Mocker, Jonathan Emerson, Brandan Hunt, Rachel Crouthamel, Lindsey Larkin, Danny Makalil Mittermeyer, Adam Gallinant, Nathaniel Vaky, Zack Locuson, Viktoria Papayani, Rachel Marcus, David Wescott, Jeremy Patrick Hamilton and Anne Roser with set & lighting by Jonathan Emerson, graphic design by Greg Mocker, costumes & stage management by Tara Schmitt, and music by Justin Asher.
New York City area. Since 2003, Arts for All, Inc. has led professional artists of all disciplines to
share moments of joy and creation with disadvantaged youth.
This year, we are relying on you to support our mission, by coming to a cabaret of songs and true
stories of the inspiration that brought art into the lives of our performing artists when they were
children. We need you in the audience, to help us continue to bring that kind of inspiration to the
children we serve!
Please join Arts for All, Inc. at the renowned Flea Theater, located at 41 White Street,
between Broadway and Church Street, on Sunday, April 26th, and Monday, April 27th, at
7:00pm, to benefit New Yorkʼs in-need youth.
Performers
JUSTIN BRILL* ROBIN CANNON NANCI DOORLEY* SUSIE HAND* AMANDA HUNT
KRISTIE KERWIN* PAUL MARTIN KOVIC* MEGAN JIMENEZ* JENNY LONG
HARRIET PICKER ANNA ROBERTS* CHANA ROTHMAN LENA MOY-BORGEN
ALAN OSTROFF* TOM PATTERSON ANDREW RASMUSSEN* JASON ROSENBAUM
MIRANDA SHEILDS ADAM SHORSTEN*
*Appears courtesy of the Actorsʼ Equity Association
Production Team
CO-PRODUCERS-ANNA ROBERTS OSTROFF, ALAN OSTROFF, DIRECTOR-TINA MARIE
CASAMENTO, ACCOMPANIST- DAVID LIBBY, STAGE MANAGER-ARIENNE PELLETIER*
Dates
Sunday, April 26th and Monday, April 27th
Time
7:00PM
Location
The Flea Theater
41 White Street
Between Broadway and Church
Subway
A, C, E, N, R, Q, W, 6, J, M, Z to Canal Street or the 1 to Franklin Street.
Suggested tax-deductible donations will be credited on our website as follows:
$25 - $49 - Stagehand
$50 - $74 - Artist
$75 - $99 - Director
$100 and up – Producer
Tickets available at the door, or send a donation and reserve in advance by email: info@arts-forall.
org. For more information, call 212-591-6108 or visit www.arts-for-all.org.
The Flea Theater, under Artistic Director Jim Simpson and Producing Director Carol Ostrow, is one of New York's leading Off-Off-
Broadway companies. Founded in 1996, The Flea's mission is to raise the standards of Off-Off-Broadway for artists and audiences
alike. The Flea's two intimate spaces are a home for established artists taking new risks, emerging artists developing their ideas, and
mid-career artists building sustained identities. The Flea has been awarded a Drama Desk, an Otto, and numerous OBIEs for its
commitment to adventurous theater. Past productions include the premieres of Anne Nelson's The Guys, four plays by A.R. Gurney
(Post Mortem, O Jerusalem, Screenplay, and Mrs. Farnsworth), Mac Wellman's Cellophane and Two September, Roger Rosenblatt's
Ashley Montana Goes Ashore..., Elizabeth Swados' JABU, Karen Finley's Return of the Chocolate Smeared Woman, Yussef El
Guindi's Back of the Throat, Julian Sheppard's Los Angeles, Adam Rapp's Bingo with the Indians and Will Eno's Oh, The Humanity..
To learn more about The Flea, visit www.theflea.org.
KASPAR HAUSER: a foundling's opera is a true tale about a wild child found on the streets of Nuremburg in 1828. With a story much like a Dickens novel, the piece explores all the good and evil that happens when an innocent is introduced into society. Kaspar Hauser is a fairy tale, a fable, and a Brechtian gaze at our addiction to stars (and the tabloids) and the society that lifts them up only to slam them down.
Says Swados, "KASPAR HAUSER is a musical theater piece, you might call it an opera, somewhere between Beethoven and Queen, and it only could be done in its first version at the Flea, a theater that is both brave and strict about quality. And then there are the amazing Bats, a repertory company of highly energetic and talented actors who also sing with voices that range from Janis Joplin to Bjork to John Mayer. The Flea is an artistic home where anything can happen."
This World Premiere features 19 members of The Bats, The Flea's resident acting company: Adrienne Deekman, Jennifer Fouché, Beth Griffith, Nicolas Greco, Joseph Dale Harris, Arlo Hill, Michael Hopewell, Amy Jackson, Erica Livingston, Chad Lindsey, Vella Lovell, Preston Martin, Kelly McCormack, Colin Mew, Jason Najjoum, Eliza Poehlman, Hannah Shankman, Marshall York and Carly Zien. The creative team includes Kris Kukul (Musical Director), Mimi Quillin (Movement Director), John McDermott (Set Designer), Jeanette Yew (Lighting Designer), Normandy Sherwood (Costume Designer), and Sam Goldman (Sound Designer).
Directed by Flea Artistic Director Jim SimpsonA LIGHT LUNCH is a post-Bush cautionary tale about the price paid for legacy. When a young lawyer from Texas invites a literary agent for lunch in a New York City restaurant, more than a production is on the table.
Says Simpson, "This charming topical comedy about the O generation couldn't come at a better time. I am delighted to work again with a playwright as adept as Gurney and who cares so passionately about the state of current affairs. He is also a great fan of The Bats and wrote this piece specifically for the young actors in the company."
A LIGHT LUNCH star four members of The Bats: Havilah Brewster, Beth Hoyt, Tom Lipinski, and John Russo. The design team includes John McDermott (sets), Miranda Hardy (lights), Erin Murphy (costumes) and Jill BC DuBoff (sound).
The Flea Theater will present the U.S. premiere of DAWN by Thomas Bradshaw, beginning previews November 9th. The production will be directed by Flea Artistic Director, Jim Simpson and feature actors Gerry Bammon, (Obie Award winner and Drama Desk Award nominee for Nixon's Nixon), Laura Esterman (Drama Desk Award winner for Marvin's Room), Irene Walsh, Drew Hildebrand, Kate Benson, and Jenny Seastone Stern. The design team includes Claudia Brown (costumes), Jeanette Yew (lights) and Brandon Wolcott (sound). Opening night is slated for Saturday, November 15.
THE FOOTAGE exposes the dark underbelly of the YouTube generation and the insidious encroachment of online behavior in our everyday lives. This multi-media story roves between three groups of twenty-something friends whose lives intersect in the world of an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). The friends must race against the clock to decipher the on-line clues of a young woman's surreal abduction before the cameras stop rolling. THE FOOTAGE includes sexual content; not appropriate for children.
THE FOOTAGE features The Bats, the resident acting ensemble at The Flea: Elizabeth Alderfer, Celeste Arias, Blair Baker, Matthew Bretschneider, Jamie Effros, Nicolas Flower, Jessica Grant, Robert Grant, Michael Guagno, Laurel Holland, Caroline Hurley, Rachel McPhee, Dan McVey, Michael Micalizzi and Celina Reyes. The production features sets by Adrian W. Jones, lights by Ben Stanton, costumes by Erin Murphy, sound by Matt O'Hare, video design by Room404 Media, and machinima (real-time computer generated imagery) design by Brett Macaulay .
The constant shifting and re-definition of the American family is at the core of THE LIGHTNING FIELD's story. In a world where marriage and relationships no longer mean what they did a generation ago, the play explores the new American family. How did we get here? With the
looming possibility of a marriage proposal, a gay New York couple – Sam and Andy – make a pilgrimage to Walter De Maria's world famous art installation, The Lightning Field. When they realize that their relationship mirrors that of their divorced parents, the resulting storm is an explosion of startling and raw emotions.
Women in magic have traditionally been relegated to the role of the glamorous assistant. But when a woman becomes the MAGICIAN, tricks of the trade merge with centuries of instinctive mysticism in a truly hypnotic fashion.
MAGICIAN explores the potent power struggles that exist between women. Sparks will fly – literally. Award-winning British playwright Katherine Knowles (Loving Ophelia) makes her American debut with this seductive dark comedy of insecurity, intrigue and illusion.
MAGICIAN by Katherine Knowles is directed by Todd Lundquist with illusions designed by Nelson Lugo, produced by Susan Vargo in association with Caroline Cazes.
Boocock's House of Baseball examines contemporary American politics through the vehicle of baseball. Dismayed over today's government for the few at the expense of many, Boocock turns to baseball for guidance because it is the final frontier of democracy; the rules still apply equally to all participants. Boocock's House of Baseball tells the redemptive stories of Derek Jeter, Reggie Jackson, Pete Rose, Jason Giambi, Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden – not to mention the family-swapping Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich in a dynamic performance style that melds stand-up, movement based physical comedy, and monologues. It offers an optimistic alternative to the moral corruption that crowds today's headlines. Boocock's House of Baseball reminds us of inspiring American attributes worth fighting for.