La Mama Presents US Premiere of PITECUS

LaMaMa is proud to present the US premiere of Pitecus by RezzaMastrella (Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza), resident artists of Italy's renowned experimental theatre Teatro Vascello for a limited engagement from October 13 - October 16, 2016. La MaMa has had a long-standing relationship with Teatro Vascello since the 1970's, and this production is the first time the company has been back since 2000.

In Pitecus, Rezza-Mastrella analyze the relationship between man and his perversions in demented portrayals of many different people coming to grips with the Absurd.

Teatro Vascello, founded by Giancarlo Nanni and Manuela Kustermann,is Rome's best-known venue for underground and independent groups and has presented works by Peter Brook, Robert Wilson, Robert Lepage, and Tadeusz Kantor among many others. Its method, called "scritura scenic" (scenic writing), goes beyond the written text to discover other meanings through movement lighting and sound together with actor's voice and rhythm.

Rezza-Mastrella (Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella), resident artists at Teatro Vascello, are legendary and award-winning artists in Italy who have been creating theater, film, and installations combining visual arts and performance together since 1987. Mastrella is the one who creates the physical environment in which Rezza, the actor, lets loose his cantankerous spirits with a cockeyed humanity and relentless physicality.

"Rezza, the creative crackpot tears the world to shreds!...In his twenty years of theatre our Antonio has been a great success, creating, together with the precious care of Flavia Mastrella, a series of characters closely linked to some maniacal form on various topics - expressive forms, remote or invented tongues - from Io to Fotofinish, from Pitecus to Bahamuth." - La Repubblica

Rezza-Mastrella have been the 2007 Francesca Alinovi Award dedicated to the convergence of art forms, and the 2013 Ubu Prize for The Shiny Path Of Excavation In The Unbridled Cruelty Obtained Through The Genius Of An Actor And Intuition Of A Visual Artist Original Plastic. RezzaMastrella's work can be defined as 'unclassifiable'. Their act has been welcomed by experimental stages, museums, art galleries and of course theatres in Italy and throughout Europe, as well as in Russia.

Tickets are $20 for adults; $15 for students and seniors. Ten tickets priced at $10 each are available for each performance, in advance only as part of La MaMa 10@$10 ticketing initiative.

Performances of Pitecus are on Thursday October 13 - Saturday October 15, 2016 at 7:30pm and Sunday October 16, 2016 at 2pm. There will be a talkback with Rezza-Mastrella, moderated by Frank Hentschker, Executive Director and Director of Programs at Martin E. Segal Theatre Center as well as a Professor of Theatre at the Ph.D. Program in Theatre, The Graduate School and University Center, The City University of New York, following the Thursday, October 13th performance.

The production features lighting design by Mattia Vigo. Stage management by Stefania Saltarelli. US management and promotion by Valeria Orani (Umanism NY).

The First Floor Theatre at LaMaMa is located at 74a East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003 (btw Bowery & 2nd Ave).

For more information visit: http://lamama.org/pitecus/

ABOUT LA MAMA

An integral part of New York City's cultural landscape, La MaMa has a worldwide reputation for producing daring work in theatre, dance, performance art, and music that defies form and transcends boundaries of language, race, and culture. Founded in 1961 by theatre pioneer and legend Ellen Stewart, La MaMa is a global organization with creative partners and dedicated audiences around the world. La MaMa presents an average of 60-70 productions annually, most of which are world premieres. To date, over 3,500 productions have been presented at La MaMa with artists from more than 70 nations.

www.lamama.org

ABOUT UMANISM

Umanism is a company founded by the Artistic Director Valeria Orani, dedicated to the promotion and support of contemporary Italian culture and its professionals in New York. An open platform connecting Italy to the USA recognizing and expanding the creative potential of projects by Italian artists, supporting them in each step of the production and communication in the larger and more challenging context of New York.

www.umanism.com

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