The Milk Can Theatre Company Presents MALFI, INC. Previews 11/10

The Milk Can Theatre Company (Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Artistic Director) will kick off its 2010-11 season with the world-premiere of Bethany Larsen's MALFI, INC. - a modern day adaptation of John Webster's classic THE DUCHESS OF MALFI -- with previews set to begin November 10 prior to an official press opening of November 12 at Theatre 54 (244 West 54th Street) in Manhattan. Julie Fei-Fan Balzer directs.

MALFI, INC. opens Milk Can's eighth season and the company's theme for the year, "Adaptation." Later in the season the company will present an adaptation of JULIUS CAESAR, set in a maximum security prison.

Bethany Larsen's new play - MALFI, INC. is a "Gossip Girl"-meets-Jacobean- tragedy modern take on John Webster's bloody 1613 play, THE DUCHESS OF MALFI. Set in New York City's wealthiest zip code, this action-packed piece follows socialite Giovanna Malfi as she battles her power-hungry brothers for control of the family's war-mongering industrial empire while harboring secrets that could destroy them all. Full of forbidden love, political intrigue, incest, murder, relentless ambition and the hope for redemption, MALFI, INC. has all the raw emotion of the original, with a Park Avenue twist.

Directed by Milk Can Artistic Director Julie Fei-Fan Blazer, the cast of MALFI, INC. features Sofia Barclay, Michael Cicetti, Anthony Gaskins, Peter Gray, Olivia Gilliatt, Miranda Jonte, Jed Q. Peterson and Hannah Tamminen.

Design team for MALFI, INC. includes Kacie Hultgren (set design), Wilburn Bonnell (lighting design), Sarah Gosnell (costume design) and Chris Larsen (sound design).

Bethany Larsen's full-length play THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE was produced by Milk Can in 2006, and was heralded by Theatermania as a "very smart comedy that tackles big topics in a moving and funny manner." She has written seven ten-minute plays with the Milk Can Theatre Company, and was twice nominated (2008 & 2010) for an Innovative Theatre Award for Best Original Short Script. She was a winner of the New Jersey Young Playwright's Award and studied at Fordham University.

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer has directed many productions including: her own adaptation of Aristophanes' PEACE (New York Innovative Theatre Award "Best Musical" nominee), MACBETH, TWELTH NIGHT, Eugene Ionesco's MAN WITH BAGS, Michele Aldin's 31 BOND, MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION, Molly Castelloe's CHASTITY, Ibsen's GHOSTS, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD, LIFE AMONG THE NATIVES, GALILEO by Oscar Micheaux, THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE, MUSHROOM IN HER HANDS, ASHES, and more. Julie is a graduate oF Brown University.

Later this season, Milk Can will present their popular, New York Innovative Theatre Award nominated annual ten-minute play festival - this year entitled THE ADAPTATION PLAYS, featuring seven world-premiere plays adapted from another work - a book, a play, a song, a painting...even a nursery rhyme.
Also this season, Milk Can will present a re-telling of Shakespeare's classic tragedy JULIUS CAESAR - set in a maximum security prison.

Founded in the summer of 2003, the Milk Can Theatre Company is a collective of playwrights and directors. The Milk Can's work combines four of the basic building blocks of theatre (language, emotion, story, and audience) with a highly theatrical sensibility and the clean, clear results of an extensive developmental process. They produce new plays and classics through our workshops, mainstage productions and annual ten-minute play festivals. Their plays find humor in the unexpected, excite the audience's imagination and explore the complexity of the human experience, transforming everyday moments into theatrical journeys. They provide a home for artists to take risks, collaborate, write, direct, produce, design, and explore their potential.

Scheduled November 10 through November 21, performances of MALFI, INC. run Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:00pm, and Sunday matinees at 2:00pm. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased by calling Theatermania at 212 352 3101 or online at www.theatermania.com.

For more information about MALFI, INC. or Milk Can Theatre Company visit www.milkcantheatre.com