Mondays in February: Feb. 6, 13, 20 Location
Pearl Studios
500 Eighth Avenue
(between 35th and 36th Streets)
Studio 1212
Monday, February 6 at 7PM ¡CENOTE!
by Isabella Russell-Ides
directed by Lorca Peress
A mystical tale of a Mayan slave girl born at a time when the Mayan civilization is skidding off the map. A time of forests despoiled, vanishing bees, the rich getting richer, and brutal bloody sacrifice. ¡CENOTE! is a love story that slips between the portals of the past and the present, and takes us on a timeless and exciting journey.
Monday, February 13 at 7PM LITTLE VOICES
by Chris Longo
directed by Tea Alagić
Through a concert of dreams, creative fantasies and poetic visions, this fusion play charts the brief life of early 20th Century feminist short story writer Katherine Mansfield who grapples to bring to life one final perfect story. This interior voyage travels from New Zealand and the Maori to England ... and the unknown.
Monday, February 20 at 7PM REMEMBRANCE
by Jeffrey Harper
directed by Robert Kalfin
This imaginative and expressionistic meditation on memory and enduring love tells the political saga of three friends who desperately attempt to survive Stalin's war, and the struggles of the Russian Jewish mnemonist Solomon Shereshevsky whose infinite memory bears the weight of the Soviet Union and history itself.
JFFREY HARPER: In the Valley of the Shadow, a true-crime drama with gospel music (winner Playwrights First Award, readings in NYC and Los Angeles w/Tim Daly and Andrew McCarthy); My Mariners, co-written with Damon Dimarco (2004 Sundog Theatre); If You Could See: The Alice Austen Story, book and lyrics by Harper, Louis Tucci composer (NYC 2011); Eden, about Rwandan genocide (readings at Jermyn Street Theatre in London, NYC w/ Tony nominee Jayne Atkinson and David Margulies); Borderlines, a political thriller (readings in NYC and Los Angeles w/Bruce Davison and Richard Portnow; optioned by Zuckerman Entertainment Film). Harper is a past playwright-in-residence at New River Dramatists in Healing Springs, NC, was awarded a Canada Council playwriting grant for A Cross for Vimy Ridge, a drama about WWI veterans; and is a graduate of Harvard where he was awarded the Eliot Director’s Bowl. Theater representation: Marta Praeger at Robert Freedman Dramatic Agency; Film/TV: Jeffrey Thal of Ensemble Entertainment.
CHRIS LONGO was born and raised in the United States but has lived in Italy and Latin America, and has been a permanent resident of Argentina for twenty years, where he teaches, writes, and occasionally works in theatre and film. His plays have been produced in NYC, Hawaii, Los Angeles and Argentina, the include: The Assassin’s Notebook; Abracadabra; The Yankee Doodles Blues; The Street of Dark Shops; Machu Picchu; A Tango for Two Women; Piccola Memoria; Saturday Night at the Thundering Hooves Motel; Take Off Those Wings, Faye Seraphim; I Hear Ya Knockin’ But Ya Can´t Come In; White Tennis Shoes. Memberships: Theatre West, The Group Theatre, First Stage, Actors Studio West, and the Ensemble Studio Theatre, Writers Guild Of America, West and Actors Equity. AWARDS: Nantucket Short Play Contest Winner (2nd) 2005, 2009; MultiStages New Works Playwriting Contest (Finalist); The National Repertory Foundation Award; Office Of Advanced Drama Research Selection (Three Times); The Peter Pauper Press Prize; The John Golden Award For Creative Writing.
ISABELLA RUSSELL-IDES, winner of Echo Theatre’s Big Shout Out 2010 (The Early Education of Conrad Eppler), Nora’s Playhouse, NYC Outstanding New Play 2009 (Leonard’s Car), DFW Critics Forum Best New Play 2008 (Coco & Gigi). Lawson Taitte: “A tour de force…ingenius, proof that once is not enough.” Mark Lowry: “More significant than any new work by a local a playwright…in my nine years of attending festivals.” Alexandra Bonafield: “Brilliant…the charmed audience holds its collective breath.” In 2009 the playwright’s inter-racial romance The Big Bend opened simultaneously in NYC (Estrogenius) and L.A. (TowneStreet). In 2010, The International Center For Women Playwrights selected Seventeen Tiaras and Pagan Babe for "Babes And Beginnings (Mother/Daughter monologues)" Volume I. Isabella is also a published poet and essayist. This post-historical Queen of Spain is still looking for the new world and she sees signs everywhere.
December 8-23, 2011
(Tues. – Sat. at 8PM, Sunday at 3PM)
The West End Theatre
263 West 86th St.
Reserve Tickets: www.smarttix.com or call 212-868-4444
This multilingual (English, Spanish, Taíno) musical drama tells the story of Amada and Guario, two young lovers in a forbidden union during the cultural wars between the Spaniards and the nearly-extinct Taínos of Puerto Rico. Composers Landon and Paris are Platinum Award-winning songwriters; Anita Velez-Mitchell is a multi-award winning Puerto Rican poet and author. This multicultural Artistic Company represent Puerto Rico, Spain, Portugal, South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, Canada, and the US. This world premiere production includes contemporary, traditional music and dance, masks and puppetry.
TEMPLE OF THE SOULS
A Musical Drama
Book and Libretto by Anita Velez-Mitchell
Music Composed by Dean Landon and Anika Paris
Orchestrations and Arrangements by Dean Landon
Music Director: Bruce Baumer
Choreographer Milteri Tucker
Costume Design: Mark Richard Caswell
Scenic Design Yanko Bakulic Lighting Design: Alex Moore
Production Stage Manager: Jessica Urtecho*
Director’s Assistant: Liz Wexler Postcard Artwork by Puerto Rican Artist, Emilí Vando
Press Representative: Maya PR
Directed and Developed by Lorca Peress for MultiStages
Featuring Jen Anaya*, Kenneth Kyle Martinez, Robmariel Olea, Ricardo Puente*, Joshua Torrez*; with Theresa Burns, Victor Cervantes, Raquel Faria, Giselle Gastell, Randall Marquez, Laura Riveros, Laura Lebron-Rojas, Alexis Sweeney, Patrick Valley.
* Members of AEA
Anita Celez-Mitchell, Libretto..............Dean Landon, Composer.......................Anika Paris, Composer....................... Jen Anaya, "Amada"....
GENERAL ADMISSION: $18.00
STUDENTS: $10.00
SPECIAL BENEFIT NIGHT: Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 7PM
$75 includes Pre-Show Reception, Performance, and Meet the Artists
$50 includes Performance and Meet the Artists
Free Talks-Backs on Taíno and Puerto Rican Culture will be announced at www.smarttix.com.
Temple of the Souls has been in the MultiStages Script Development Series since 2008, and is the first musical theatre work written by a Puerto Rican about the colonization of Puerto Rico. The world premiere production will be a fusion of contemporary, traditional, tribal music and dance, with masks and projections. MultiStages has received support from the N.W. Dible Foundation, Jewish Communal Fund, Fractured Atlas, private donations, and is seeking additional grants.
