Off-Broadway's The Play Company presents the concert-theater hybrid piece SKY-PONY: RAPTURED, created by Obie Award-winning writer and musician Kyle Jarrow (ARMLESS, A VERY MERRY UNAUTHORIZED CHILDREN'S SCIENTOLOGY PAGEANT) and singer/actress Lauren Worsham (DOG DAYS, WHERE'S CHARLEY, Jerry Springer THE OPERA), starring their Brooklyn-based indie band Sky-Pony, October 25-28, at the Ukrainian National Home (140 Second Avenue). Peter James Cook (NEVER SLEEP ALONE) directs.
SKY-PONY:RAPTURED is being presented as a studio production and is not open for review.
In SKY-PONY: RAPTURED, set in an isolated paradise, a young girl is raised to believe she's the messiah. But when she discovers her sensuality through the power of music, her spiritual certainty turns to doubt. Brooklyn band Sky-Pony leads you through her story with their lush, cheeky indie-pop sound.
Sky-Pony is a collaboration between Jarrow and Worsham, featuring the talents of guitarist Kevin Wunderlich, drummer Perry Silver, bassist
Eric Day, cellist David Blasher, and backup singers Jessi Suzuki and
Megan Stern. For more information about Sky-Pony, visit:
www.sky-pony.com.
SKY-PONY: RAPTURED is performed by Sky-Pony and also features Cassie Foote, Shauna Goodgold, Betsy Lippitt, Lindsay Matteson,
Joanna Simmons, and Chloe Zeitounian.
The production features set design by
Andrew Boyce; lighting design by Brian Tovar; and sound design by
Dave Sanderson.
"Both of us have spent our careers moving between theater and concert settings, and we're fascinated by the different ways they involve the audience. We're creating a hybrid piece that fuses the two experiences—and also having fun with the audience-performer relationship," explain creators
Lauren Worsham and
Kyle Jarrow. "This is a show that'll feel like stepping into a rock album that comes to life."
Writer and musician
Kyle Jarrow's plays include A VERY MERRY UNAUTHORIZED CHILDREN'S SCIENTOLOGY PAGEANT, WHISPER HOUSE (with
Duncan Sheik), and HOSTAGE SONG (with
Clay McLeod Chapman), and ARMLESS for which he also wrote the screenplay. His former band ENTOURAGE appeared in the Whitney Biennial.
Lauren Worsham recently appeared as Lisa in DOG DAYS at Peak Performances, Montclair State University. Other credits include Amy in the
City Center Encores! Production of WHERE'S CHARLEY, Cunegonde in CANDIDE at New York City Opera, and
Jerry Springer THE OPERA at
Carnegie Hall.
Director Peter
James Cook's credits include Off-Broadway's SAILOR MAN, NEVER SLEEP ALONE at Joe's Pub, THE MYSTERY OF
IRMA VEP, CRABQUISTADOR: SCAVENGER OF GOD, and ROCKBERRY: THE LAST ONE-MAN SHOW.
An Off-Broadway company dedicated to advancing an international view of contemporary playwriting,
The Play Company most recently presented the OBIE Award-winning U.S. premiere of
Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s play INVASION!, and the New York premiere of Marius von Mayenburg’s THE UGLY ONE. Other recent productions include the American premiere of
Toshiki Okada’s play ENJOY and the world premiere of
Eliza Clark’s EDGEWISE. The 2012-13 season is made possible, in part, through the generosity of The
American Theatre Wing, which recently awarded the company a 2012
National Theatre Company Grant.
Linking NYC artists and audiences to a whole world of plays, and placing American work in a global context,
The Play Company produces unusual, ambitious work that reflects and responds to the issues and events that shape our time. Past productions include the NY premiere of
Lloyd Suh’s AMERICAN HWANGAP, the NY premiere of Roland Schimmelpfennig's ARABIAN NIGHT (Germany); the U.S. premieres of Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's MADE IN POLAND (Poland); Robert Farquhar's BAD JAZZ (England), Simon Farquhar’s RAINBOW KISS (Scotland), Vijay Tendulkar's SAKHARAM BINDER (India); Yoji Sakate's THE ATTIC (Japan); and The
Presnyakov Brothers' TERRORISM (Russia); as well as world premieres of the American plays SMASHING by
Brooke Berman and HIGH DIVE by
Leslie Ayvazian. PlayCo received a 2007 Obie Award for its “unique contribution to the theatre community.”
The Play Company is under the guidance of
Kate Loewald, Founding Producer, and
Lauren Weigel, Executive Producer.
SKY-PONY: RAPTURED runs Thursday-Sunday, October 25- 28 at 8:00pm at the Ukrainian National Home (140 Second Avenue, between 8th and 9th Streets). Tickets are $25 general admission; $5 student rush with valid ID. Buy online at
www.playco.org or call 212-352-3101. For additional information about
The Play Company, visit
www.playco.org.
Photo Credit: Esty Stein
