TERESA’S ECSTASY Plays Cherry Lane Theatre Beginning 3/4

Avila Productions, LLC, by special arrangement with Cherry Lane Theatre in association with Jack Sharkey, today announced the world premiere of TERESA'S ECSTASY, written by Begonya Plaza and directed by Will Pomerantz.

Featuring original music by celebrated Catalan composer Albert Carbonell, performances begin on Sunday, March 4 for a limited engagement through Sunday, April 1 at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, just west of 7th Avenue, in Greenwich Village).  Press Opening is Wednesday, March 14 at 8 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Saturday at 8 PM; Sunday at 7 PM. For tickets, which are $60, call OvationTix at 212-352-3101 or online at www.cherrylanetheatre.org.

Please note the following schedule adjustments: There is an added performance on Monday, March 12 at 8 PM. There is no performance on Thursday, March 15. The Sunday, March 25 and Sunday, April 1 performances are at 2 PM.

Carlotta's return to Barcelona has two purposes. It's a stopover on the way to Avila, where she is researching an article on St. Teresa, a 16th Century nun. It's also to serve her husband Andres with divorce papers. Over a sumptuous lunch of wine and gazpacho, Andres fights to rekindle their relationship. But Carlotta is on a quest for the divine, and in the process of discovering the mystical Teresa's Ecstasy, she discovers herself. TERESA'S ECSTASY is a sexually charged look at politics, religion and ultimately love.

The cast features Shawn Elliott (Broadway's City of Angels, Marie Christine, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living In Paris) as Andres; Linda Larkin as Carlotta's publisher Becky (Jasmine in Walt Disney's Aladdin); and Begonya Plaza as Carlotta (LAByrinth Theatre Company's In Arabia We'd All Be Kings).

The design team includes set design by Adrian W. Jones (Looped on Broadway); lighting design by Scott Clyve (The Gathering on Broadway); costume design by SuzAnne Chesney (White People at Ensemble Studio Theater); and sound design by Jane Shaw (Lortel nominee for The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd at the Mint Theater). Celebrated Catalan composer Albert Carbonell provides an original score. The Production Stage Manager is Michael Alifanz.

Will Pomerantz (director) has directed and developed new plays and musicals with such theatres as The Guthrie Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, 2nd Stage, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theatre, Hartford Stage, New York Theater Workshop, The Signature Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theater, Soho Rep, Culture Project, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Studio Theatre, Epic Theatre Ensemble and The Mark Taper Forum.  He has directed world and New York premieres by such playwrights as John Guare, David Auburn, Neil LaBute, Craig Lucas, Kia Corthron, David Lindsay-Abaire, Stephen Belber, Noah Haidle, Linda Cho, Julia Jordan, Kira Obolensky, Russell Davis and Carey Perloff  In addition to his work on new plays, Will has also directed texts by Chekhov, Ibsen, Strindberg, Shakespeare, Shaw and Sophocles.

His production of THE BLUE FLOWER, swept all the major awards in the Boston Area, winning both the Elliot Norton and  the Independent Reviewers of New England (I.R.N.E.) Awards for Outstanding Production, Outstanding Design, Best Musical of the Year, as well as multiple Best Performance Awards.   The New York production, produced by 2nd Stage was listed as one of the 10 Best Productions of the Year by Bloomberg, who called it, "the best musical since Spring Awakening."

His production of The Shape of Things was voted Outstanding Production of the year in Washington, DC and received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Performance, as well as being cited as among the year's 10 best by The Washington Post and The Washington Times. 

His production of Dai received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance and was won a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Performance.

Will was Director-In-Residence for Culture Project for 6 seasons.  Past productions for the company include Tatjana in Color by Julia Jordan, Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind, Prater Violet (based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood), The 5:48 (based on the short story by John Cheever), A Tale of Two Cities (based on the novel by Charles Dickens), and Social Note: An Evening with Dorothy Parker (staged in The Algonquin Hotel).  Will was Associate Director for Culture Project's U.S. premiere production of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.

He is currently Associate Director of Artistic Development for Epic Theatre Ensemble for whom he directed the New York premiere of A Hard Heart by Howard Barker (starring Kathleen Chalfant) and the world premiere of Mahida's Extra Key to Heaven by Russell Davis. Upcoming projects include the New York premiere of the Cole Porter musical, NYMPH ERRANT.

Begonya Plaza (playwright) studied writing at NYU, AFI and UCLA extension courses while working professionally as an actress. She wrote THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY, a screenplay about one year in the life of Salvador Dalí and his muse, Gala seen from the eyes of a young lover. Glenn Close is attached to portray Gala and ACA Films is producing. She wrote, directed and edited, SOUVENIR VIEWS, a 24-minute documentary shot in New York and Barcelona with English/Spanish subtitles, about a young man's rite-of-passage journey through New York's 9/11 tragedy. The film premiered at the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival, went on to the Festival International del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, and aired nationally on the Independent Film Channel. Begonya wrote, directed and acted in, AMERICAN HERO, a 15-minute short film contemplating on the ravages of war as an Iraqi Veteran returns home and tries to survive with the help of his sister. For the stage, Begonya wrote TALK SHOW, a play where the historical characters Evita Perón, Simón Bolivar, Dolores Ibarruri, Antonio Machín are interviewed in a live talk-show setting by God. GERNIKA LIVES is a personal documentary where Begonya explores her Basque heritage and the tragic events her father experienced as a young boy during the bombing of Gernika and the Spanish Civil War, narrated by John Randolph.