Aquila Theatre to Present Adaptation of Heller's 'Catch 22' Starting 11/14

AQUILA THEATRE (Peter Meineck, Artistic Director) is proud to announce that John Lavelle will star as Yossarian in the World Premiere of the stage adaptation of Joseph Heller’s Catch 22, adapted and directed by Peter Meineck.  Performances begin November 14th, with opening night scheduled for November 23rd. This limited engagement continues through December 20th. All performances will be at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street, between Bleecker & Hudson Streets). For tickets, visit TicketCentral.com or call 212/279-4200. For more information, visit www.aquilatheatre.com
 
John Lavelle starred on Broadway in The Graduate. Off Broadway credits include The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta (TFANA), Burleigh Grimes (New World Stages), Rope (Drama Department), and Spatter Pattern (Playwrights). Regional credits include On the Razzle (Williamstown), Bell Book and Candle (Old Globe), Much Ado About Nothing (La Jolla) and The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Company).  Film/TV: The Taking of Pelham 123, National Lampoon's Dirty Movie, Can Openers, Porcelain and Diamonds, Frozen Impact, The Sandpiper, August, “Black Donelley's”, “Law and Order,” “Guiding Light,” “All My Children,” and “Sixteen to Life.”

Peter Meineck explains, "Yossarian is one of the most iconic and elusive roles in American literature. Paul Newman spent a year studying the role, never to play it, Richard Dreyfus signed on for a pilot that was never made. Jack Lemmon, Eli Wallach, Anthony Quinn and Ben Gazzara all lobbied for the role that famously went to Alan Arkin for the 1972 Mike Nichols film. Brooklyn born John Lavelle inherently understands Heller's biting, absurdist satire (Heller hailed from Coney Island) and will bring a new intensity, verve and clarity to Yossarian.  As modern day Milo Minderbinder's play havoc with the stock market and contemporary Colonel Cathcart's place the lives of our troops at risk for political gain this is the right time for Catch-22 to be seen on stage. We are all greatly looking forward to seeing Yossarian live again."

Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is a modern American classic. The term itself has entered the language as a description of a ridiculously cyclical situation. The book by Joseph Heller was first published in 1961 and immediately caused a huge furor in the literary world. In 1971, Heller himself created a play based on his best-selling novel. Since then, Catch-22 the play has not received a professional production. Aquila feels this is a work by one of America’s great creative geniuses, and it deserves to be seen. Yossarian is a bombardier on a B-25, based on a small island off the coast of Italy in 1944. He starts to question the futile and ridiculous administration of his air base and seeks a way to preserve his life when the whole world around him seems to be going mad. Like a modern-day Achilles, Yossarian protests with powerful and often hilarious results. Catch-22 tackles huge things with rich metaphors, boldly drawn characters and near-impossible situations. It is a work of great theatricality with superb language and a sense of dark surrealism. Heller dares to examine the very philosophy of war and what it does to the humans that fight them. For a whole new generation of Americans, Yossarian Lives!

Peter Meineck has directed and/or produced over 40 productions in NY, London, Holland, Germany, Greece, Scotland, Canada, Bermuda, and the US in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, the ancient Stadium at Delphi, Lincoln Center, and the White House. Peter has published several volumes of translations of Greek plays including Aeschylus’ Oresteia, which won the Lewis Galantiere Award for Literary Translation from the American Translators Association, Sophocles’ Theban Plays (with Paul Woodruff) and Philoctetes and Ajax and Aristophanes’ Clouds, Wasps & Birds. He has also written several literary adaptations for the stage including The Man Who Would Be King, Canterbury Tales, The Invisible Man, in addition to Catch-22. He also acts as a mythological advisor, most recently to Will Smith on I Am Legend.

The Aquila Theatre Company was founded in London in 1991 by Peter Meineck and has been based in New York City since 1999. Aquila's mission is to bring the greatest theatrical works to the greatest number. Aquila presents a regular season of plays in New York, at international festivals, and tours to approximately seventy American towns and cities a year. Aquila also provides access to excellent theatre for people in under-served rural and inner city communities. The Aquila performance approach is a technique developed by Peter Meineck that combines text and physical action based in a theory of theatrical unity. The technique is aimed to create an aesthetic environment where the performer can create and recreate a role in a consistently changing theatrical atmosphere. Aquila Theatre broadens the classical cannon, collaborates across the performing arts, deepens a commitment to artistic excellence, teaches and exchanges idea and embraces new technology.

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