Accidental Repertory Theater Opens Season with BRECHT ON BRECHT, 10/29

John Strasberg, founder and Artistic Director of the Accidental Repertory Theater, has announced that the company will present as its first public production, the international classic "BRECHT ON BRECHT," adapted and translated by George Tabori, and directed by Mr. Strasberg. Ross Patterson will serve as Musical Director for the production. Performances of "BRECHT ON BRECHT" will begin on Thursday, October 29, and the official opening night will be Sunday, November 1 at 7:30 p.m. at the Accidental Repertory Theater. The run will continue for four weeks through Saturday, November 21.

"BRECHT ON BRECHT," is a stage compilation of Bertolt Brecht's (1898-1956) work and letters (including musical interludes) by Hungarian playwright and director George Tabori. Written in the early 1960's, it's a comprehensive introduction to the great German playwright, poet, theater director, and his writings. Brecht, known for his refinement of the epic form of drama (his "epic theater"), explored theater as an outlet for political ideas. He defined it as "the epic drama, with its materialistic standpoint" and as "knowing no objective but only a finishing point." Among the selection of his plays included in "BRECHT ON BRECHT" are excerpts from Happy End, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Mother, Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.

The seven-member cast for "BRECHT ON BRECHT" will be: Virginia Armitage, Judy Krause, Audrey Lavine, Jerry Marsini, Anne Pasquale, Robert Rowe, and Louis Vuolo.

John Strasberg's International career as actor, director, producer, designer, and writer exemplifies, and continues, the artistic tradition of the Strasberg family. His revolutionary insights and discoveries in teaching, the Organic Creative Process, has gone beyond the systems and methods of the great teachers preceding him. He returned to New York after directing and teaching in Europe for twelve years, opening the John Strasberg Studios, an International Center for Creative Development and Theater Arts Research in 1996, in conjunction with the publication of his first book Accidentally On Purpose: Reflections on Life, Acting and the Nine Natural Laws of Creativity. He has conceived, designed, and directed major, award-winning productions of Pirandello, Ibsen, O'Neill, Lope De Vega, and Beckett, among others.

Working in Europe since 1983, Strasberg has directed productions of Shakespeare's Richard III, and Aristophanes' The Assemblywomen in Spain, the latter as a musical play for the Festival de Merida. In New York, in the mid-1980's he co-founded the Mirror Repertory Company where he directed among other productions: Clifford Odet's Paradise Lost, Susan Glaspell's Inheritors, Rain, Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat Regina, and Ibsen's Ghosts, working with artists like Geraldine Page, whom he first met at the Actors' Studio, where he worked alongside her, Paul Newman and JoAnne Woodward, Al Pacino, Marilyn Monroe, Dustin Hoffman, Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, Elia Kazan, and many others. He also co-directed Alice in Wonderland on Broadway with Eva LeGallienne.

He had his own schools in New York and Paris, in the 1980's. Aside from the John Strasberg Studios, and an ongoing workshop in Montreal, he teaches, directs, and lectures in many countries, at the National Theater in London; the Centro Dramatico in Madrid, Spain; the National Theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina; the National Film Board in Canada; and also in Italy, Germany, Norway, England, Peru, and in the United States at several universities including Yale, NYU, and The New School.

Accidental Repertory Theater (www.accidentalrep.org) evolves from the artistic roots of The Moscow Art Theater, The Group Theater, and The Actors Studio. The company was founded by a small core group of theater professionals who have all worked with Artistic Director John Strasberg for a number of years. Each of these core members then invited colleagues who were invited to participate in the company's ongoing professional workshop. The company plans to develop, create productions and creations of new, classical, and contemporary plays for theater, film, and television. The developmental process will include programs for teachers and young audiences. Founded in 2005, this production of "BRECHT ON BRECHT" will mark the company's first public production. (Some "open rehearsals" of earlier work had been open to the public.)

The complete schedule for "BRECHT ON BRECHT" will be: October 29 through November 21, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. There will be one additional performance on Sunday, November 1, the Opening Night performance at 7:30 p.m. All tickets will be $15.00. The box office and reservation number will be 646-435-7867 or at www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=BRE8.