Dave Malloy's GHOST QUARTET Plays The Bushwick Starr, 10/8-11/1

Award-winning composer Dave Malloy presents a new song cycle about love, death, and whiskey in GHOST QUARTET, running at The Bushwick Starr, October 8 through November 1, 2014.

A camera breaks and four friends drink in four interwoven narratives spanning seven centuries: a warped fairy tale about two sisters, a treehouse astronomer and a lazy evil bear; a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"; a purgatorial intermezzo about Scheherazade and the ghost of Thelonious Monk; and a contemporary fable about a subway murder. Throughout these four stories two women (Brittain Ashford and Gelsey Bell) cross paths, sometimes as strangers, sometimes as sisters, sometimes as lovers, sometimes as mother and daughter.

Ghost Quartet is a theatrical presentation of an album, "Ghost Quartet," by a new chamber music ensemble, Ghost Quartet. Blurring the line between theater and contemporary music performance, the show is staged in the round, with the musicians seated amongst the audience. The piece is scored for four voices, cello, guitars, dulcimer, autoharp, piano, keyboards and percussion, and is inspired by murder ballads, doo-wop, angular bebop, Chinese folk, Islamic adhan, and the music of Bernard Herrmann and George Crumb.

Ghost Quartet is written and composed by Dave Malloy, and developed and arranged with the ensemble: Malloy, Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 stars Brittain Ashford and Gelsey Bell, and cellist Brent Arnold. The show is directed by Annie Tippe and dramaturged by James Monaco, and designed by the ensemble.

The album will be released on October 25th, with a special release party following the show that night. It all takes place at The Bushwick Starr theater: 207 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY [between Irving and Wykcoff]. Directions: Via Subway take the L Train to Jefferson Street, exit at Starr Street, walk against traffic on Starr, and the theater is 3/4 of a block on the right. For detailed driving directions, visit www.thebushwickstarr.org/DIRECTIONS. Tickets are $18.00 at www.thebushwickstarr.org.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Dave Malloy is a composer/writer/performer/sound designer. He is the winner of 2 Obie Awards, the Richard Rodgers Award, and a Jonathan Larson Grant, and is the composer for Banana Bag & Bodice. His shows include Black Wizard / Blue Wizard; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; All Hands; Three Pianos; Beardo; Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage; The Sewers; Sandwich; Clown Bible; and (The 99-cent) Miss Saigon. He lives in Brooklyn. davemalloy.com

Brittain Ashford is a Brooklyn based performer/musician. She has toured the country extensively with her band, Prairie Empire, taking pictures of cats along the way. She recently appeared as Sonya in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812. prairieempire.org

Gelsey Bell is a singer, songwriter, and scholar. She is a core member of thingNY and Varispeed, and has worked with numerous artists in the creation of new work, including Robert Ashley, Jonathan Bepler, Matthew Barney, Yasuko Yokoshi, Kimberly Bartosik, Rachel Chavkin, Kate Soper, Rick Burkhardt, and John King, among others. Gelsey is also an ABD doctoral candidate in Performance Studies at NYU and the Critical Acts co-editor for TDR/The Drama Review. gelseybell.com.

Brent Arnold is a cellist and composer with a wildly unorthodox approach to his instrument, using amplification, guitar-like fingerpicking, electronics, and elements of Arabic, Persian, and African music. He composed the cello music for Louis C.K.'s tv show Louie, and has worked with Reggie Watts, Kristin Hersh, DJ/Rupture, Eyvind Kang, Modest Mouse, Jherek Bischoff, Wayne Horvitz, Simone White, Sleater-Kinney, and Filastine, among many others. Brent studied the cello with Walter Gray of the Kronos Quartet and legendary jazz violinist Michael White. audiofriction.com

Annie Tippe is a NY-based director and performer. She was the Associate Director for the TEAM's production of Mission Drift, Australia/Hong Kong Tour (dir. Rachel Chavkin). Directing credits include Aaron/Marie (w/ Rachel Chavkin; Ars Nova's ANT Fest, Under The Radar Festival's Incoming! series, Prelude Festival), I Heard Sex Noises (ANT Fest), DEBUTANTE (Bernie Wohl Center; ANT Fest), A Quiet Sip of Coffee (Wildside Festival, Montreal), The Fall of Hotel Mudafier (SWIFT), Dinosaur Play (HERE Arts), The Collected Rules of Gifted Camp (The Brick), First Ladies Project (E. 4th Street Theater). Williamstown Theater Directing Intern 2012. Director for HERE Arts' Smith & Tinker Writers Group 2013.

James Harrison Monaco is a storyteller, writer, performer, and musician. His current story and music project with composer Jerome Ellis, titled Aaron/Marie (co-directed by Rachel Chavkin and Annie Tippe), has played at Ars Nova's ANT Fest, Under The Radar Festival's Incoming! series, and Prelude Festival. He frequently collaborates with director Rachel Chavkin, who previously directed his storytelling show Reception (at HERE Arts, and The New Ohio Theatre as part of soloNOVA) and his play Up The Great And Shining Sky (at NYU). With Jerome Ellis he scored and performed in Love Machine (dir. Andrew Scoville) at Incubator Arts. jamesharrisonmonaco.blogspot.com

About The Bushwick Starr: The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award winning non profit theater that presents an annual Season of new work in theater, dance, and puppetry. We are an organization defined by both our artists and our community, and since 2007, we have grown into a thriving theatrical venue, a vital neighborhood arts center, and a destination for exciting and engaging performance. The Bushwick Starr's mission is to help ambitious artists and ambitious audiences find each other. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established performance companies come to experiment and innovate. Our past seasons have included new work from cutting edge companies such as The Debate Society, the TEAM, Elevator Repair Service, Half Straddle, and Witness Relocation.