Brett Singer & Associates, LLC
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
New
Bridge Productions To Present
October 5, 2004
New Bridge Productions, a new
theater company, will present the New York Premiere of Dusty Hughes’ adaptation
of Maxim Gorky’s play PHILISTINES. The
adaptation was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and was extremely
well received in the U.K. Kevin Gay
will direct a cast of thirteen actors.
Performances will be at the Shetler Theater, 244 West 54th
Street; performances will begin on Thursday, October 28th.
Gorky's first stage play (called Meschanye
in Russian) was originally presented at the Moscow Art Theatre in 1902. The
story centers around a prosperous house painter and his two sons, and because
of its 'progressive' tone the play was cut by the official censors and granted
a license for 'members only' performances. Gorky draws a gallery of rich
characters who brilliantly expose the political and personal turmoil of
pre-revolutionary Russia. The play has
been performed in several versions in America (as Scenes in the House of
Bessemenov and Smug Citizens) but this new adaptation, Philistines,
by Dusty Hughes, commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, was the first
major professional production to be staged in Britain. It was first performed
at The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon.
The adaptation received excellent notices: Suzie Mackenzie of Time Out
London praised Hughes’ “accessible, humorous and lucid translation” of “a
poignantly funny play”. In the Sunday
Telegraph, Francis King wrote that “Gorky’s first play Philistines has
all the richness and amplitude of a Victorian novel.” And Martin Hoyle of the Financial Times said that Hughes wrote
“marvellously natural dialogue”. New
Bridge Productions is pleased to present the American premiere of Hughes’ work.
The cast for PHILISTINES will
be Chris Oden, Brooke Delaney, Anne Hammond, Richard Thieriot, Aya Cash, Albert
Aeed, Diane Mashburn, Tom Corbosiero, Maureen Mooney, Cash Tilton, Oscar
Scally, Kelly Scanlon, and Jordan Reinwald.
The schedule will be Wednesdays
through Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm.
Tickets will be $20.00 and may be purchased
by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444, or online at www.smarttix.com. Photos will be available for download at www.brettsinger.com/clients/philistines.html.
PHILISTINES
A play by
Maxim Gorky, Adapted by Dusty Hughes
At The Shetler
Theater, 244 West 54th Street
October 28th
through November 21st
SCHEDULE:
Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 3pm
* * Critics
are invited anytime from October 29th on
TICKETS: $20;
call Smarttix at 212-868-4444, or visit www.smarttix.com
# # #
311 W. 43rd Street phone: (212) 307-7181
New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212)
307-7178