Quiara wrote the book for the musical IN THE HEIGHTS, which has been nominated for a Tony Award. Click here.

The Arts in Action event at the Guggenheim on April 28th.
Picture are Aubie Merrylees, Andy Hertz, Emily Young, Lance Rubin, Aja Nisenson, Steven Levenson, Clair Karpen, Farra Ungar, and Jed Resnick.

John Lloyd Young Will Be Marius in Hollywood Bowl Les Miz . Check out Playbill for more information.

Dear Friends and Esteemed Colleagues,

I'm writing to announce that my video performance group, Cloud Eye Control, is performing this week at the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival. It's our Bay Area debut and we're really excited about the show. We're featured in own evening-length concert of works, Thursday May 1st, so come on by if you're in town! Or pass this invite to anyone you think might be interested! Check out our website for info and links to buy tickets. More info below:

The 51st San Francisco International Film Festival Presents:
Cloud Eye Control
May 1st, 8:00 PM at Kanbar Hall

http://fest08.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=17 <http://fest08.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=17>

Cloud Eye Control is a Los Angeles–based multidisciplinary performance collective whose work fuses animation, experimental theater, pop music and puppetry. In other words, they are like nothing you have ever seen. The collective—comprised of Chi-wang Yang, Miwa Matreyek and Anna Oxygen—uses deceptively simple video techniques to produce interactive virtual theater sets, integrated with moving screens and Oxygen’s haunting voice. Their approach highlights the lo-fi, deliciously baring their illusory devices while maintaining a playful sense of wonder and trickery. This is not a bookish meditation on technology. Cloud Eye Control’s performances are smart and fun. The group will perform three live onstage narrative pieces. Final Space explores the impact of a dream-sucking machine gone haywire. Dream of Lucid Living showcases Miwa Matreyek’s work as she steps directly into animations illustrating her daily routine, creativity and relationship to the city of Los Angeles. Subterranean Heart allegorically posits Anna Oxygen’s body as a gem mine, as ingenious animations take us on a “fantastic journey” to her heart. Following the performances, Anna Oxygen, object of a cult following for her live shows, will lead the audience in an interactive aerobics workout.

James Rutherford '07
Featuring the efforts of Chris Bremner, Alex Clifford, Ross Cowan, Andrew Fox, Will Fulton, Charlotte Graham, Jonathan Harris, Todd Lipcon, Alexandra Lubensky, Aja Nisenson, Michelle Oing, Elliot Quick, and Anika Schwarzwald

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING E[A]RNEST HEMINGWAY by Oscar Wilde, adapted and directed by James Rutherford Presented by M-34; supported by chashama (www.chashama.org)

May 2, 3, & 4 at 8pm
May 4 at 3pm
For reservations call 212.243.5325 or email M34productions@gmail.com

chashama, 217 E. 42nd Street, New York, NY
1 1/2 blocks east of Grand Central Station, between 2nd & 3rd Avenues Take the 4,5,6,7 trains or the Times Square Shuttle to Grand Central Station

About the play:
"The Importance of Being Ernest Hemingway" is, of course, a truly dreadful pun. But, like so many of its kind, its idiocy belies its true merit. The premise: what would happen to Oscar Wilde's beloved comedy of manners if all of his dandies (mere shadows of the elaborate character Wilde constructed for his personal use) were replaced by archetypal Hemingway-males (again: imperfect recreations of a perfect mask)? The surprising result is a treatise on sexual repression and self-deception. Behind all of Wilde's wry jokes lie anguished screams just waiting to be released. It's been over a
century: let's let them out.

The Unicorn Theatre's 2008-2009 season includes Sarah Ruhl's THE CLEAN HOUSE and Stephen Karam's SPEECH AND DEBATE."

In addition to the Spring Awakening musical director work at Brown, I've included some current work I have been doing here in Manhattan. Thanks in advance for posting this information to the Brown site :-)

January 15th at the National Arts Club in NY, NY (Classical solo Program - links may be found on Youtube, here is one:
January 13th at Mannes Concert Hall in NY, NY (Classical program)
January 4th, February 1st at the Metropolitan Room in NYC (Variety jazz/cabaret program)
March 7th, April 4th, May 2nd at the Metropolitan Room
April 9th at the Harlem River Room Jazz Club
April 17 at the New York Friars Club

I am currently appearing in a fabulous off-off Broadway show, Robohamlet. In it I play the supreme ruler of an army of mutant crabs who are bent on destroying the entire human race. I would be very happy if you would come. There are performances this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening.
The theatre is on West 52nd Street between 10th and 11th avenues. The closest subway is the E train station at 50th street. From there it is about a fifteen minute walk, so be sure you give yourself enough time to get there. Here is all the information for the show.
Robahamlet
A play by Pat Harper
Directed by Yuji Takematsu
Sound by DJ Firehorse
Sets by Vargas-Suarez Universal
April 10-19, Thursday-Saturday at 8:00p.m

Venue: Medicine Show
549 West 52nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues
Reservations: 212 262 4216

Hi All,

I am participating in a dance showcase on April 5 & 6 with two wonderful, potent, creative women – Christal Brown and Ellis Wood. I am showing an excerpt from LIAISONS which stretches the boundaries of closeness between the audience and performers and invites the audience to intimately gaze at the unfolding movement.

Hope to see you in April.

Edisa

TRIBECA PAC - ARTIST IN RESIDENCE WORK & SHOW FESTIVAL
http://www.tribecapac.org/dance.htm

WHEN:
Saturday, April 5th @ 7pm
Sunday, April 6th @ 2 pm

TICKETS:
$10 / students, seniors $8
Call TPAC Box Office: (212) 220 – 1460

WHERE:
Tribeca Performing Arts Center (TPAC) is located in Lower Manhattan, on the campus of the Borough of Manhattan Community College at 199 Chambers Street (between Greenwich and the West Side highway).

DIRECTIONS:
Subway: 1, 2, 3, A, C, E , trains to Chambers St. or the N, R Trains to Brooklyn Bridge. Also the New Jersey Path Train to World Trade Center.

CHRISTAL BROWN performs:

Venus - Alexandra Houston examines the exploitation of women and ponders why in the aftermath of American slavery, women of African descent continually choose to use their femininity for ill-gotten gain.

After the Fall - Sharon Manuel looks at the role women play during and after wartime throughout history. While the narrative is derived from the play The Trojan Women, the story is timeless. Must women consistently pick up the pieces only to scrape by: repeating the cycle, or are we capable of transforming tragedy to prosperity?

ELLIS WOOD performs:

The Falcon Project - Queen Elizabeth I wore a badge of a falcon as a reminder that females of this species are larger than the males. In fascination with Elizabeth's "marriage" to her country and label, "The Virgin Queen," Wood uses female icons past and present as inspiration for her newest work, Falcon Project. Using a theatrical edge, a feminine circular theme, and movement and text created to express ideas on gender, the dancers become a metaphor for the "queen," whose main asset is the ability to unabashedly embrace her power to its fullest.

DELIRIOUS Dances
309 Halsey St.
Brooklyn, NY 11216
917 714-1293
www.myspace.com/liaisonsdance

Quiara wrote the book for the musical IN THE HEIGHTS, currently on Broadway. Off-Broadway, IN THE HEIGHTS received the Lucille Lortel Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best musical and was named Best Musical of 2007 by New York Magazine. Her play, ELLIOT, A SOLDIER'S FUGUE, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2007, and has been performed around the country and in Romania and Portugal. Her newest play, 26 MILES, will receive its world premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta in the 2008-09 season. She is currently writing a new musical called THE ADVENTURES OF BARRIO GRRRL! for The Kennedy Center. Her first play, YEMAYA'S BELLY, received the Clauder Prize, the Paula Vogel Award in Playwriting, and the Kennedy Center/ACTF Latina Playwriting Award. As an author, her children's book, BARRIO ABC's, will soon be published by Arthur Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc.

Dear friends,
Join us tonight , Thursday, at, at 7pm!
Bjor'k's new music video, Wanderlust, directed by Encyclopedia Pictura, will premiere with a screening in 3D! Chris choreographed the video while two of our dancers, Brynne and Coco, perform in it along with Bjork! For those that cannot make it on Thursday, you can catch a screening on Friday at 7pm at the Museum of Natural History. We're excited to officially announce the release date for Bjork's music video Wanderlust. Entrance to the screening is first-come, first-serve, so arrive early. The choreographic and artistic process on this project was very rewarding, and we're excited to be sharing this work with you. Once the video is released, you can check our flickr page for a behind the scenes look.

Soprano, Arianna Zukerman, mezzo-soprano, Heather Johnson, tenor, Jeffrey Picon and baritone, Matthew Burns. join the American Classical Orchestra for an evening of famous arias by Mozart and Rossini. The performance, by this period instrument orchestra at the Central Park Boathouse will be a truly compelling, uniquely Ne w York City evening.

April 9, 2008, 6:30 P.M.
Central Park Boathouse

For tickets
Go to http://www.amerclassorch.org/
or phone (212) 717-3181

For more information on all things Arianna go to:
www.ariannazukerman.com

Saludos Familia!

Happy 2008! I've been hibernating in the cold of NYC after a very busy fall. November was chock full of travel and performances from Canada to Cali!!! At the Salvador Allende Festival for Peace in Toronto the sacred spirit of resistance was in the air for a beautiful weekend of words, music, arte, y rebeldia. La Pena's Hecho en Califas Festival in Berkeley, CA was a chance to reconnect with my folks in the bay and nurture youthful rebellion voice.

After returning to NYC, I was able to rest and reflect again and gear up for a new and exciting phase of life and performance. I'm proud to be working on many new projects and hope that you walk this new journey with me. 2008 is the year of the Ocean Child, the year of professional and personal EVOLUTION. I'm taking it to the next level.

In 2008, I'm happy to unveil monthly performances, all of which will show a different side of me: the activist, the actress, the monologist, the comedian. Please come out and experience the evolution.

Paz, Julia

THIS Saturday, March 8th
Come Celebrate International Women's Day
with CODEPINK, NOUR, and myself (excerpt from He(R)evolution)
Riverside Church, Hall 9T @ 7:30PM
$10

  <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001ZD42_GGeXE9dlWP5BHZ7bylIlKOJpkEL-qkvYpnBl1K3pihtrcaty2ByMPIt-DfxDJTfdEOWAajdRsZ8So33EC1Uj1G6-47_aHckTThya6Xda3_yF4icow==>

March 17th
24 Hour Plays: High Schools Benefit
w/Old Vic New Voices NYC Club <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001ZD42_GGeXE-msLP1Z_sssr5g80wwuHZKBniHllFuVtDntqthLzz3IiHYoraEc6WlQyjXumpPVClpRAcIwWSznNvNql2hCK64uXX-UiSVhroQjryhdzihMA==>
8pm @ The Atlantic Theater, NYC

I'm privileged to be a member of the Old Vic New Voices NYC Club, composed of emerging actors, writers, directors, and producers 25 and under. This month, come see us take on eight 10 minute plays in 24 hours with guest "celebs." Together, we will raise the funds needed to introduce the 24 Hour Plays to my students at Working Playground, Inc.

A limited amount of tickets are on sale at http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=24H9 <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001ZD42_GGeXE-k35mfKaw3c7ZzDhi-WlIA4Q3K7CmneWVbSfqR_0nz0565xUvXviC5qXcVOgWqdTe13QmSumjlj66GDdaqegzewbF-kCrcyBMZAIcYIY2bOKyjTn4OmSkOCXxzjHK2ssIRKtuftaJYCg==>
This summer tix sold out in 1 day, so buy quickly. They go on sale today and will be sold out by Friday!

Upcoming Performances

DON'T MISS LAURA LINNEY AND BEN DANIELS STARRING ON BROADWAY IN THE ULTIMATE BATTLE OF THE SEXES.

Tony Award® and Academy Award® nominee Laura Linney returns to Broadway alongside Ben Daniels in Christopher Hampton's seductive and decadent classic Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Rufus Norris, for a strictly limited engagement beginning April 11th.

In this Tony Award-nominated play, the cunning and confident Le Marquise de Mertuil (Linney) challenges her friend and rival Vicomte de Valmont
(Daniels) to a grand game of seduction. After several false moves and unexpected turns, their cruel competition escalates into a vicious battle to the last lover standing. Laced with passion, betrayal and spectacular revenge, Les Liaisons Dangereuses is a thrilling dark comedy and a revealing portrait of pre-war French aristocracy at its most disillusioned and indulgent.

For ticket information click here.

CREATIVE TEAM
Katrina Lindsay - Costume Design
Rufus Norris - Direction
Donald Holder - Lighting Design
Scott Pask - Set Design

HOUSE OF GOLD
By Gregory S Moss
Directed by Kerry Whigham
March 8 2008 at 3 pm
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
224 Waverly Place New York, NY 10014
www.rattlestick.org <http://www.rattlestick.org>

Please join me on March 8 at 3 pm for my play House of Gold, which is being presented as part of the Rattlestick DirtyWorks Reading Series 2008.

Rattlestick Playwrights Theater presents The DirtyWorks Reading Series 2008. Join us as we continue to highlight and provide a home for some of the most exciting and controversial voices of our time. Show your support for these emerging artists, sip some wine, and enjoy great new work.
To reserve your seat, email reservations@rattlestick.org with the title of the show, date, and number of tickets. For more than one show you can use the same email. See you there!

Here’s the full schedule of all the readings….

Wed 3/5 at 8pm: Basilica by Mando Alvarado
Directed by Michael Ray Escamilla

Fri 3/7 at 8pm: Night Surf by Dan LeFranc
Directed by Heath Cullens

Sat 3/8 at 3pm: House of Gold by Gregory Moss
Directed by Kerry Whigham

Sun 3/9 at 7pm: A Meth Play by Erin Browne
Directed by Erick Herrscher

Tues 3/11 at 8pm: Velocity by Daniel Macdonald
Directed by Sturgis Warner

Thurs 3/13 at 8pm: Octopus by Steve Yockey
Directed by Bill Fennelly

Sat 3/15 at 8pm: The Rest of Your Life by Megan Mostyn-Brown

Sun 3/16 at 7pm: Who is PT Butterhouse? by Liz Meriwether
Directed by Sam Gold

Mon 3/17 at 7pm: The Hillside,
or whatever side he comes on by Eric Sanders
Directed by Daniel Kutner

Have been living in NYC since graduation, playing piano, singing, and hosting/emceeing live musical performances. Recently (2008) I had a classical concert at the National Arts Club, and perform classical piano throughout Manhattan.

I also play piano and sing in jazz and cabaret clubs, and host/emcee a monthly variety show at the Metropolitan Room in Manhattan. I have upcoming shows at the New York Friars Club, the Harlem River Room, and other locations.

I've had a busy past year as the associate scenic designer for five Broadway shows: Coram Boy, Grease, Rock 'n' Roll, The Country Girl, and Boeing Boeing. And have also made time to design regional productions of Tartuffe, Aida, Glimpses of the Moon, 42nd Street, All Shook Up and Will Rogers Follies.

I am currently starring as Lil' Tease ( a female gangster rapper) in a production of The Actor's Rap a new play written by NYU MFA grad J. Kyle Manzay at the Engleman Recital Hall, Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave & 25th St.

"The Actor's Rap is a hilarious must see..."
-Malik Yoba

"The Actor's Rap is one of the greatest ways to tell the story. It's a must see."
-Common

Nina Daniels and Vanessa Simmons will be co-creating the role of Lil' Tease ( a female freaky gangster rapper). Nina's performance dates will be: 1/31, 2/1, 2/7, 2/9 (3p and 8p shows), 2/21, 2/29 and 3/1 (3p and 8p shows).

For tickets: you can call 212-352-3101 or The Actor's Rap Ticket Info . Please use this discount code ARCAST9 for a $10 discount. Please visit our website www.theactorsrap.com. There are also student tickets available!

Note from Lowry: Gina Gionfriddo's U.S. Drag begins previews tonight for it's New York premier. (And Logan's in the cast.) Read more.

Check out the beautiful retrospective slide show the New York Times did about Kate.

Hi All,

We have three more performances in living rooms in Park Slope, Brooklyn
I look forward to sharing a dance with you. : )

Besos,

Edisa

LIAISONS - small dances in small spaces for big people!

LIAISONS features four dancers who stretch the boundaries of closeness between strangers and invite the audience to intimately gaze at the unfolding movement. The work asks questions of how intimacy is perceived in unexpected environments and how public performance is understood within private spaces.

Performed by: Benjamin Asriel, Melissa Guerrero, Solomon Bafana Matea, Maxx Passion
Choreography by: Edisa Weeks

Friday, Saturday February 8 + 9, 2008
Debra's living room
14 Prospect Place between 5th and 6th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Directions: 2 or 3 Train to Bergen St. Walk on 5th Ave to Prospect Pl. Turn Left onto Prospect Pl.

Saturday February 16, 2008
Andrea's living room
340 8th St. #4, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Directions: F train to 7th Ave. or R train to 4th Ave.

Tickets: $20 general, $10 students + seniors, cash only at the door
Arrive at 8pm for an 8:30 performance
Seating is limited to 20 people a performance.
To purchase tickets in advance contact: SMARTTIX 212 868 4444, www.smarttix.com
www.myspace.com/liaisonsdance

DELIRIOUS Dances
309 Halsey St.
Brooklyn, NY 11216
917 714-1293

Dear Friends,
Here’s a brief reminder about my reading, just in case you’re free this Friday. We have an excellent cast, and I’m excited to hear this play read by them. Details are below.

Best,

Andy

Please join Page 73 on Friday, February 8 at 3:00 PM for a reading of Andy Bragen’s new play
Mother Earth
directed by Jackson Gay at Manhattan Theater Club at 311 West 43rd Street, 8th floor (Studio 1), New York, NY
CAST: Michael Chernus, Zabryna Guevara, Dick Latessa, Marsha Mason, Paul O’Brien and Brenda Wehle
A twenty-something living in New York City’s Lower Eastside, Leo takes on global warming by trying to mobilize his neighbors into giving up their electric appliances. But Leo’s idealism and go-getter enterprise mask an inability to cope with his ailing mother. An absorbing tale about unfulfilled promises and lost hope, Andy Bragen’s Mother Earth tackles a family’s inconvenient truths with unflinching honesty and heartbreaking resolve.
Andy Bragen (Playwright) is a member of Page 73’s writing group Interstate 73. A graduate of Brown University’s MFA Program in Literary Arts, Andy is the winner of the 2008 Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission. Other honors include a Jerome Fellowship, a New Voices Fellowship from Ensemble Studio Theatre, a Dramatists Guild Fellowship, and residencies at Millay Colony and Blue Mountain Center. In Spite of The Devil (formerly Spuyten Duyvil), which Andy developed at the 2004 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, will be produced by Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep. in July 2008. Greater Messapia was produced at Queens Theatre in the Park in March 2004. Also a translator, Andy works directly from French and Spanish, and with a co-translator from the Japanese. His co-translations from the Japanese have been workshopped at the last two Playlabs Conferences at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. Other plays and translations have been presented in various forms at numerous theatres in New York and elsewhere, including The Guthrie Theatre, Ars Nova, Rattlestick, LAByrinth, EST, Repertorio Español, Soho Think Tank, NYU’s hotINK Festival, The Illusion Theatre, The Aurora Theatre, and the Lark Theatre. More information is available at www.andybragen.com <http://www.andybragen.com/> .
Jackson Gay (Director). Recent: Workshop presentation of David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette for the inaugural Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Residence at the Public Theater, as well as for Portland Center Stage’s JAW/West Festival. Lucy Thurber’s Scarcity; Kia Corthron’s Master Disaster; Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Atlantic Theater Company); Lucy Thurber’s Stay (Rattlestick Theater); Nicoleta Esinencu’s Fuck You, Eu.ro.Pa! (Play Company); Best Production Connecticut Critic’s Award The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Yale Rep). Upcoming: A collaboration with Jennifer Tipton at the Guggenheim Museum as part of the Works & Process series (opening April 6th, 2008); Len, Asleep in Vinyl, by Carly Mensch (Juilliard); Made In Poland, by Przemys Taw Wojcieszek (Play Company); The End, by Sheri Wilner (Guthrie). Co-founder of the film production company YARN, whose upcoming projects include Sugar Land, by Lucy Thurber. Resident Production Dramaturg for NYC’s Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet Company. MFA Directing Yale School of Drama.
Please RSVP by emailing info@p73.org or calling 718-398-2099

Barbara and her partners at Pook Diemont & Ohl are celebrating their company's 25th anniversary. Click here to see more.

Chris was name an ideablob.com monthly contest winner for his idea to establish an interactive web site for perfomring artists.

Peter Nachtrieb, whose "Hunter Gatherers" won him instant national recognition, previews his latest work, "T.I.C.," at a staged reading produced by Marin Theatre Company
on Feb. 24 and 25.
Call 388-5208.

Andy will be working with us this summer in the Playwrights Rep.
His play, In Spite of the Devil will be the first production in our 2008 season.

Fringe(R) of Toronto Theatre Festival Producer *Bridget MacIntosh *along with The Board of Directors are thrilled to announce the appointment of

Arthurs has been the Artistic Producer of Groundwater Productions whose shows have included the critically acclaimed hits: *The Unfortunate Adventures of Masha Galinski* and *Ubu Roi (Massacred)* at the Toronto Fringe, *A Thought in Three Parts* at SummerWorks and *Goblin Market* at Equity Showcase Theatre. He has also been Company Manager for Soulpepper Theatre, Development Assistant on the $40 million Building for Business Campaign for Ryerson University and has been a member of the Board of Directors for Pleiades Theatre and The Paprika Festival.

"I am delighted to be working with the Fringe Festival, one of Toronto's great cultural institutions," says Arthurs. "I am particularly honoured to come aboard for the 20th Anniversary Festival, and excited to join an organization that has been growing and expanding so successfully in recent years. The Fringe Festival has always been a home for me as an artist and producer, and I hope to serve it as well as it has served me in the past."

Says MacIntosh, "I am ecstatic to welcome Gideon to the team during such an exciting time in the Fringe's development and look forward to working with him on what is sure to be an incredible 20th anniversary event." Says Fringe Board President *Derrick Chua*, "I am thrilled with Gideon's appointment from a strong field of candidates and very much look forward to the continued success of the Fringe in our 20th Anniversary Season and for the years to come." Arthurs joins a tremendous and dedicated Fringe staff and will work alongside MacIntosh and Development & Marketing Coordinator Cindy Rozeboom during this transition process.

*The Fringe is also pleased to announce that the Fringe Lottery Party will take place at the Tranzac Club (292 Brunswick Ave.) on Monday, January 28.
Doors open at 7pm, draw begins at 8pm.* Admission is free, all are welcome and new Executive Director Arthurs will be present to meet with Fringe artists and patrons.

*The 2008 20th Anniversary Toronto Fringe will take place from July 2 to 13,
2008.*

The Fringe is Toronto's largest theatre festival and has firmly established itself as a leader in the development of new Canadian plays and artists.
Last year's festival smashed attendance records, welcoming 57,000+ people to the event and returning just under $400,000 to participating artists.

If you have a show or know someone who has a show that oughta be in the 2008 Festival, all the information about submitting is available on the NYMF website, here <http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001zVbvD47cmDx7zcosf9I3854-BvyHroKYmc4IspC-lfTkheJSsp5JPQ3n2IXj2snpPNJmhi6mV-TprMCsDEsojHXbooenmXOkzIbAdi9R42Z1VmIu_Iz6jUyDhakNs5cv> .

Other Events on the Horizon

We've got a whole bunch of events coming up, about which I'll write more very soon. In March, NYMF will be producing the Richard Rodgers Award reading presentations of Dave Hudson and Paul Libman's musical Main Traveled Roads, an adaptation of Hamlin Garland's 1891 book chronicling the hardships of life on America's northern plains. May 16-18, we'll be having our annual Next Link Project launch weekend, culminating with our second "Battle of the Broadway Bands." So stay tuned...
All in all, it looks like NYMF, and I, have an exciting year ahead - and like I'll have my hands as full as ever. I hope we get to cross paths in person before too long.

Peer Gynt

(Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis, Minn.;1,100 seats; $69 top) A Guthrie Theater presentation of a play in two acts by Henrik Ibsen, translated and adapted by Robert Bly. Directed by Tim Carroll.

Peer Gynt - Mark Rylance
Asa - Isabell Monk O'Connor
Troll Princess - Tracey Maloney
Solveig - Miriam Silverman

By QUINTON SKINNER

A commanding sequence in the second act of the Guthrie's emotionally sprawling production of Ibsen's "Peer Gynt" has Mark Rylance alone onstage as the titular wanderer. His character aged and stamped by experience, the actor peels away at an onion with a paring knife, holding forth on the layers of the human character while lamenting his inability to find a unified core. He speaks haltingly, then confidently, looking into the audience and making eye contact with his observers with a loose, improvisational feel.

It's the kind of moment that has to be earned, and Rylance amply pays his dues along the way in Robert Bly's new adaptation. Originally composed as more a long-form poem than conventional drama, Ibsen's scenario sees Peer the fabulist move from his native Norway to a mythic land of trolls, to the deserts of the Middle East, to a madhouse, and to a ship tossed on raging seas before returning home.

A conventional staging of this mix of myth and folklore would threaten to run aground, though in this imagining director Tim Carroll opts for a strategy of understatement, placing the action on a wood-heavy barn-like set with minimal props.

Before Ibsen's action starts, the cast appears in the house while the audience files in, informing theatergoers that they have convened for a surprise 50th birthday party for Peter Gynt, a sad-sack functionary at a Midwestern corporation (who, after receiving his surprise, promptly collapses and imagines all that comes after).

What could have been a clunky device here intensifies a sense of intimacy and looseness, not to mention considerable humor. Bly leans hard on Ibsen's rhythmic rhyming couplets in his translation, and Rylance combines total facility with his poetic recitation and a sense of transformation as the night goes along, moving from an early blank youthfulness to weary approximation of wisdom as Peer recounts his years as a slave trader, scholar, and, briefly, New Age guru to a gaggle of comely desert women.

Isabell Monk O'Connor anchors the first act as Peer's mother Asa, her death scene offering up warmth as Peer tells her a final tall tale. Tracey Maloney also functions as a fine foil as the Troll Princess whom Peer seduces, listening to his ribald boasting with primal eagerness.

In this extremely masculine show, the wedding of the sensual with the humorous reaches its peak with Peer seducing his desert cohorts, telling them, "Don't be alarmed, that's just the Kundalini energy rising."

None of which is to suggest this production offers conventional emotional payoff; by the end, Peer is wandering around his old haunts, trying to gather testimony of his misdeeds to earn a ticket to Hell rather than have his soul melted down and anonymously recycled. But as a sheer ride, the combination of Bly's translation with Rylance's assurance and questing approach to his character make this three hours pass with intellectual charge and a pleasing emotional ambiguity.

While this staging strips down its material trappings, a three-piece ensemble provides apt musical shades to replace original "Gynt" composer Edvard Grieg's more sweeping accents, and the plain set becomes more elaborate when its floorboards warp and shift under Rylance's feet during the desert sequence.

By the end, when Peer collapses into the arms of his neglected, beloved Solveig (Miriam Silverman), we get a real sense of the fury beating in the heart of his frozen northern soul. We come away drawing no neat conclusions, but with the sense that this idiosyncratic take on a prickly work might well verge on the definitive. With: Phyllis Wright, Tyson Forbes, Matthew Amendt, Mark Rosenwinkel, Jonas Goslow, Richard Ooms, Bill McCallum, Michelle O'Neill, Catherine Johnson Justice, Maha Chehlaoui, Jim Lichtscheidl, Alexis Gaither, Marisa Jacobus, Mac Rasmus, Jake Speikers.

Sets and costumes, Laura Hopkins; lighting, Stan Pressner; original music, Claire van Kampen; sound, Scott W. Edwards; dialect coach, Lucinda Holshue; production stage manager, Chris A. Code. Opened, reviewed Jan. 18, 2008. Running time: 3 HOURS.

Last August Jeffrey, Jenni, Kate, Ben and I performed LIAISONS in living rooms in Berlin, Germany as part of the Haus Der Kulturen der Welt's 50th Anniversary Celebration. To find homes I approached people on the streets of Berlin and asked if we could dance in their living room. I spoke with about 180 people and three said YES!

Wolfgang Busch videotaped the entire experience and we created a short (7 min) film. You can check it out at www.myspace.com/liaisonsdance
In February there are several performances of LIAISONS in living rooms around NYCity. (see below)
Hope you can join us for one of them.

LIAISONS - small dances in small spaces for big people!

Performed by: Benjamin Asriel, Melissa Guerrero, Solomon Bafana Matea, Maxx Passion
Choreography by: Edisa Weeks

Friday February 1, 2008
Marina's living room
790 Riverside Drive apt 1N Upper West Side, Manhattan
Directions: 1 train to 157th street walk west one block on 157th from Broadway to Riverside

Saturday February 2, 2008
Theo's living room at Historic Rodewald House
103 St. Mark's Pl., St. George, Staten Island
Directions: Take the ferry to Staten Island. Walk up hill to St. Mark's Pl. Turn right onto St. Mark's.

Friday, Saturday February 8 + 9, 2008
Debra's living room
14 Prospect Place between 5th and 6th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn
Directions: 2 or 3 Train to Bergen St. Walk on 5th Ave to Prospect Pl. Turn Left onto Prospect Pl.

Saturday February 16, 2008
Andrea's living room
340 8th St. #4, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Directions: F train to 7th Ave. or R train to 4th Ave.

Tickets: $20 general, $10 students + seniors, cash only at the door
Arrive at 8pm for an 8:30 performance
Seating is limited to 20 people a performance.
To purchase tickets in advance contact: SMARTTIX 212 868 4444, www.smarttix.com

DELIRIOUS Dances
309 Halsey St.
Brooklyn, NY 11216
917 714-1293

Tue-Sat at 8, Sat & Sun at 2, Sun at 7;
Starting March 5, select Wed matinees at 2 (please inquire) Performances begin February 14
Opening Night: March 9 GET READY TO EXPERIENCE an exhilarating journey into one of Manhattan’s most vibrant communities, named “BEST MUSICAL OF THE YEAR” by New York Magazine and “BEST OF 2007” by The New York Times. With an amazing cast, incredible dancing and a gripping story of hope and self-discovery, IN THE HEIGHTS is your ticket into a world where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. Find out what it takes to make a living, what it costs to have a dream, and what it means to be home...IN THE HEIGHTS. “IN THE HEIGHTS has an INFECTIOUS SCORE, JOYOUS CHOREOGRAPHY and the inspiriting flavor of a morning pick-me-up on a warm summer day. YOU CAN’T TAKE YOUR EYES OFF THE PERFORMERS, AND YOU WON’T WANT TO.”

Brown! Brown! Brown! at the Roundabout! Jennie Dundas begins performances very soon as Lennie in CRIMES OF THE HEART and Laura Linney leads the cast of LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES, both at the Roundabout this spring. And Stephen Karam's SPEECH & DEBATE continues this month and next.

GLAAD Media Award Nominees Announced

Los Angeles Theater
Act A Lady, by Jordan Harrison
Anything, by Tim McNeil
Avenue Q, book by Jeff Whitty, music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx
Havana Bourgeois, by Carlos Lacamara
The Long Christmas Ride Home, by Paula Vogel

New York Theater – Broadway & Off–Broadway
100 Saints You Should Know by Kate Fodor
All That I Will Ever Be by Alan Ball
The Beebo Brinker Chronicles by Kate Moira Ryan and Linda S. Chapman
Some Men by Terrence McNally
Speech & Debate by Stephen Karam

Jed is on tour with RENT, which recently performed in Providence. See more here.

Hello, Friends!

The Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence has hired me to create a theatre program for at-risk youth! Our first production is of 16 year old Tim Mendonca's "Under the Influence", a play about the dangers of drinking and driving.

I'm hosting a fundraiser in The 903's Great Room on Sunday, February 24th at 7pm. There will be live acoustic jazz, wine,hors d'ouvres , cookies, and coffee, with special surprise guests. (see www.the903.com)

The PLAN:

Jan. 22 - Feb. 24: sell tickets
Feb. 24: Fundraiser at The 903
Feb. 24 - Mar. 1: Auditions
Mar. 1 - April 1: rehearsals
April 1 - May 1: performances (Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm)

The GOAL:

To raise $4,000 for the production, and we're doing the play!

Please send this IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT to EVERYONE YOU KNOW, and CALL ME on the number below to BUY YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

Special Thanks,

T.J. Paolino
401.626.6888