Brett Singer & Associates, LLC
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
Urban Stages
(Frances Hill, Artistic Director, Sonia Kozlova, Managing
Director)
Announces Their 2007-2008 Season
July 28, 2007
Urban Stages is pleased to announce the schedule for their upcoming
season, which will include two world premieres and one U.S. premiere at their
space on 259 West 30th Street between 7th and 8th
Avenues.
The Company
Founded by Artistic Director Frances Hill in 1983, Urban Stages’ mission
is to discover and develop new plays by authors of diverse cultural
backgrounds. Their most recent
productions were the critically acclaimed Apostasy by Gino DiIorio, and Bulrusher
by Eisa Davis, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Urban Stages
has had two highly acclaimed commercial transfers, Minor Demons and Men
on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown, which won an Outer Critic’s Circle
Award. Urban Stages’ production of The Sweepers transferred to Capital
Rep in Albany where it broke box office records.
The Season
This season, their 24th, finds Urban Stages focusing on
literature and great historical figures who had a profound effect on their
times. With works featuring legends
such as Lawrence of Arabia, Gertrude Stein and even the proverbial "Blue
Bird of Happiness", the three plays run the gamut from seriocomic
historical drama (The Oxford
Roof Climber's Rebellion), to musical theater (27 rue de Fleurus), to entertainment for the entire family (The Blue Bird). For the first time in the company's history,
theater fans will be able to purchase a Patron's Pass for $120, which
will give them 2 tickets to each show, a 50% discount off the full price of
$40. Patron Pass members will also have
access to special events and priority seating.
The Oxford Roof Climber's
Rebellion
by Stephen Massicotte; Directed by Roger Danforth
October 12th –
November 18th
The Oxford Roof Climber’s Rebellion is a fictionalized tale of a true event – the
meeting of poet Robert Graves and T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of
Arabia, at Oxford University after the First World War. Lawrence has recently
been cast out of the Paris Peace talks of 1919, and Graves has barely survived
the trenches of the Somme. Now that these two great men have survived the war,
neither one of them can sleep, nor can they write or share their incredible
experiences with anyone. As an act of
rebellion against shell shock the two resolve to return to the frivolous days
of undergraduate rebellion before the events of the Great War, enacting playful
pranks in an attempt to express their feelings about what they have witnessed.
As their movement gains momentum, Lawrence’s nemesis, Lord Curzon, sees in
their humorous protests the seeds of deeper sedition and aims to undo the
Rebellion before it has possible tragic ramifications. "The Empire has a navy that needs oil
and the Arabs, it just so happens, have the oil." Although the events of this play take place
almost 100 years ago, many of the ideas are still extremely relevant today.
Stephen Massicotte's award winning plays
include A Farewell to Kings, Pervert, The Emperor of Atlantis and the
popular "Star Wars" inspired Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook. The
Oxford Roof Climber's Rebellion recently received the 2007 Canadian
Author's Association award for Best English-Language Play For Adults.
The Blue Bird, by Stanton Wood, adapted from the play by
Maurice Maeterlinck
December 11th
– January 13th
In The Blue
Bird, Stanton Wood (The Snow Queen, The Magical Forest of Baba
Yaga) adapts Maurice Maeterlinck's early 20th Century play for
Urban Stages. This multimedia musical spectacular is about a materialistic
Staten Island girl who goes on a fantastical journey with some magical
household companions to find the fabled "blue bird of happiness". Mr.
Wood is currently the Playwright-in-Residence at Offworld Theatre Company, and
has received developmental support from Manhattan Class Company, Primary
Stages, New York Theatre Workshop, City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and the Carnegie
Mellon Showcase of New Plays. This is the third year in a row that Stanton has
written Urban Stages' annual Holiday Show, which has become a New York City
tradition enjoyed by thousands of families. Colm Clark, who collaborated with
Mr. Wood on The Magical Forest of Baba Yaga, will compose original music
for the play. Urban Stages is the recipient of a special grant
from TCG to collaborate with international avant-garde designer Andrei Bartenev
on the sets and costumes for this production.
27 rue de Fleurus, Book and Lyrics by Ted Sod; Music and lyrics
by Lisa Koch; Directed by Frances Hill
February 28th
– April 6th
27 rue de Fleurus
is a new musical derived from the imagination of
Alice B. Toklas. Alice tries to set the
record straight about being Gertrude Stein's "wife" for nearly 40
years. Gertrude grows tired of Alice's
lack of panache for telling her perspective of their story and attempts to
hijack the play as only the author of such lines as "sugar is not a
vegetable" can. But Alice has
secrets to share with the audience that silence the famously verbose Gertrude. This celebrated couple confronts each other
about love, marriage, jealousy, genius and a few other delicious topics while
Pablo Picasso, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mabel Dodge, Sylvia Beach and even Jean
Harlow drop by for a visit. Ted Sod’s work has been primarily produced in
Seattle, including Stealing (O’Neill Theatre Center Music Theatre
Conference; Seattle Group Theatre), The Kiss, and Not Sunset
Boulevard (Alice B. Theatre). He has directed many plays and readings,
played villains on all three Law and Orders; is dramaturge for the education
department at The Roundabout Theatre Company and teaches directing at Brooklyn
College. Lisa Koch is an irreverent
singer, songwriter and performer whose work blends comedy, theater, and music
with dysfunctional characters. She produces, writes, and performs all over the
country and is based in Seattle.
Ticket information for Urban Stages' 2007-2008 season will be available
on the company’s web site at www.urbanstages.org.
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