Mac Wellman's MUAZZEZ Plays PS122's COIL, Now thru 1/17

As part of the ninth edition of the COIL festival, Performance Space 122 and The Chocolate Factory present the New York premiere of Mac Wellman's Muazzez. Written and directed by one of America's leading playwrights, Muazzez is an offbeat tale performed by longtime Wellman collaborator Steve Mellor.

Performances of Muazzez will take place today, January 7-17 (see schedule above) at The Chocolate Factory. Critics are welcome as of January 7 for an official opening on January 8. The running time is 45 minutes with no intermission. The Chocolate Factory is located at 5-49 49th Avenue in Long Island City, Queens. Tickets, which are $20 ($15 students/seniors), are available online at chocolatefactorytheater.org and by phone at 212.352.3101.

Muazzez is derived from A Chronicle Of The Madness Of Small Worlds, a collection of short stories by Wellman that take place on various asteroids or planetoids. Muazzez is one of a string of small worlds 'real places, but on no map' where things happen for their own mysterious reasons. Written in Wellman's signature playful, experimental style, Muazzez's deliberate, simple staging allows for an intimate and distilled theatrical encounter. Muazzez is a precious window into a decade long collaboration between one of our country's leading playwrights performed by one of our great actors.

Mac Wellman's recent work includes 3 2's; or AFAR at Dixon Place in October 2011, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field (with composer David Lang) at Montclair in the fall of 2006 (and elsewhere more recently), and 1965 UU for performer Paul Lazar, and directed by Stephen Mellor at the Chocolate Factory in the fall of 2008. Wellman has received numerous honors, including NEA, Guggenheim, and Foundation of Contemporary Arts fellowships. In 2003 he received his third OBIE, for lifetime Achievement. In 2006 his third novel, Q's Q, was published by Green Integer, and in 2008 a volume of stories, A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds, was published by Trip Street Press as well as a new collection of plays The Difficulty of Crossing a Field from Minnesota Press. His books of poetry include Miniature (2002), Strange Elegies (2006), Split the Stick (2012) from Roof Books, and Left Glove (2011), from Solid Objects Press. His novel Linda Perdido won the 2011 FC2 Catherine Doctorow Prize for Innovative Fiction. He is Distinguished Professor of Play Writing at Brooklyn College.

Two other small worlds from A Chronicle Of The Madness Of Small Worlds were recently presented in Boston by Sleeping Weazel: Horrocks (and Toutatis Too), performed by Erin Mallon; and Wu World Woo, performed by Timothy Siragusa; both directed by Elena Araoz.