Austin Pendleton Directed LUFT GANGSTER Returns

NYLON FUSION THEATRE COMPANY and CLOVERLEAF COLLECTIVE are pleased to present the return of Lowell Byers' LUFT GANGSTER, directed by Tony Award winning director Austin Pendleton (Broadway's The Little Foxes, The Runner Stumbles, Shelter, Spoils of War). LUFT GANGSTER will play a limited engagement at the Sheen Center (18 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012) as part of their "War Is Hell" Theatre Series (recently featured in New York Magazine's 'Things To Do in NY'). Performances begin Friday, March 31 and continue through Sunday, April 16. Opening Night is Saturday, April 1 (8 p.m.).

After bailing out of his crippled B-24 bomber under heavy fire from German forces, waist gunner Lou Fowler is captured by the Nazis. Incarcerated along with other Allied fliers in an inhumane Nazi prison camp, where POW's view new prisoners with suspicion as possible Nazi infiltrators, Lou has to heal his own battle injuries, as his captors treat him as just another 'Luft Gangster' - a term Joseph Goebbels created as propaganda to convince the German nation that all American flyers were actual criminals released from prison by the US government in order to fight in World War II.

As Lou endures the hellish and unsanitary conditions of prison camp life, subsisting on what could barely be described as food and enduring unspeakable cruelty, surviving to escape becomes his only goal. In a time and place where men on both sides of the war were stripped of all things civilized, the human cost of war is brought front and center.

The production stars Ralph Byers* (Broadway original production of Big River, and revival of The Music Man), Lowell Byers* (The Twenty-Seventh Man - Old Globe dir. by Barry Edelstein; The Mousetrap - ASF), Eric T. Miller* (MOPE - EST; Blacklist), Andy Truschinski* (Broadway revival of The Heidi Chronicles; National Tour of War Horse); Noel Joseph Allain* (Founding Member Bushwick Starr; Law and Order: SVU), Seth James (Hamlet - Teatro Delle Due, You Never Can Tell - TS Studios), Paul Bomba* (Gotham, The Deuce), Casandera M.J. Lollar* (The Runner Stumbles Off B-way; Queen - Summer Shorts), , Sean Hoagland* (MacBeth - Secret Theatre; The Elephant Man - El Centro Theatre), and Gabe Bettio* (Three Sisters - Classic Stage Co. dir. by Austin Pendleton, The Woodsman - dir. by Alex Dinelaris).

Featuring set design by Tijana Bjelajac* (Broadway's Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark; Othello - Actors Shakespeare Project), costume design by Debbi Hobson (Unmentionables - NY IT Awards Outstanding Costume Design recipient), lighting design by Wilburn Bonnell* (Orpheus in the Berkshires - Williamstown Theatre Festival; Half Moon Bay), and sound design by Jeanne Travis* (Cagney: The Musical - Off Broadway; Death for Five Voices - Prospect Theatre Company). Jenn Jacobs* (Boy - Keen Company) is the stage manager, and Lori Kee* (The Chaplin Plays; Tennessee) is the assistant director. Co-produced by Ivette Dumeng (The Chaplin Plays; Half Moon Bay).

*Actors appearing courtesy of Actors' Equtiy Association. Sound designer member of IATSE. Set designer and lighting designer are members of United Scenic Artists.

LUFT GANGSTER plays the following regular schedule through Sunday, April 16**:

Wednesdays at 7 p.m.

Thursdays at 8 p.m.

Fridays at 8 p.m.

Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sundays at 3 p.m.

**Schedule Exception: Sunday, April 16th (Easter Sunday) performance is at 5 p.m.

Tickets are $29-32 and are now available online at www.SheenCenter.org or by calling 866-811-4111. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater ½ hour prior to performance.

Running Time: 110 minutes

Website: http://sheencenter.org/shows/luftgangster

Watch - A Message from WWII Veteran and POW Louis Fowler:

Watch - Luft Gangster Trailer: