Clancy O’Connor Joins ALL ABOUT MARRIAGE At Dixon Place 7/26

Clancy O'Connor (TV - John Adams; Stage - The Listener, Edward II) will participate in the upcoming reading of the first evening-length act of RYAN TRACY's marriage epic, ALL ABOUT MARRIAGE during the HOT! Festival, Dixon Place's annual summer queer performance series. The reading will take place July 26, 2011 at 9:30pm. O'Connor replaces actor William Dixon Popp in two roles-"M" and "Broc"-in a stellar company that also features Mikéah Ernest Jennings (The Shipment; Bellona, Destroyer of Cities) and Michelle Mola (Rumble Ghost). The reading is $15. For more information, please visit www.dixonplace.org. 

ABOUT "ALL ABOUT MARRIAGE"

All About Marriage is an epic play on marriage that is part autobiographical wedding farce, part political essay. Playwright Ryan Tracy transcribes the tumultuous events of his sister's actual wedding as a catalyst for a rumination on how our lives, friendships and families are interconnect by our marriage practices, beliefs, and politics.

"I wanted to telescope the anxiety and drama of a straight wedding with the reality of marriage politics. Weddings are political because, in a very big way, they celebrate the institution of marriage, which is governed by politics. And so often gay friends and family members are involved in the planning and execution of straight weddings in states that either do not allow gay marriage or even ban the recognition of legal gay marriages," says Tracy of his play. "I wanted to capture that moment where we're fully invested in the love, joy, and craziness of a straight wedding, which maybe we can all identify with on some levels, and then interject the question of how discriminatory laws against gay people shape or change gay peoples' experience during this moment of total support for their straight friends and families."

Act I-evening-length on its own-opens with a "Prelude" where a young couple W (Michelle Mola) and M (Clancy O'Connor) ironically convince themselves to fast-forward from one-night stand to the wedding altar.

In Act I, Scene 1 - "Prenuptial," Abbie (Mola)-a liberal, suburban-to-urban transplant-has finally, if somewhat ironically, decided to marry Broc (O'Connor), her high school sweetheart. On the day of her wedding, she is aided by two Co-Maids of Honor, her best friends from college, gay-and-gay-married Bennie (Mikéah Ernest Jennings) and single-and-30 Regina (Daiva Dupree). Abbie's naïve view of marriage is challenged when her mother, Vicky, long divorced from Abbie's father, Donald (Lynn Berg), brings a stranger as her unannounced date to the wedding. When Abbie threatens not to go through with the wedding because of her mother's actions, everyone is left with the task of getting her to follow through with it, which, not without some hysterics, she does.

After the ceremony, Act I, Scene 2 - "Post-nuptial," Abbie is a wreck and fears the moment she must confront her mother, who only seems to know how to cause conflict. When she does just this, the entire ensemble plunges into chaos until the Reverend Zachary Ryan, a do-good Unitarian Universalist minister who presided over the wedding, emerges as a deus ex machina, preaching a message of "togetherness" that somehow convinces everyone to continue...to the reception.

Performers include Lynn Berg, Audrey Crabtree, Daiva Deupree, Mikéah Ernest Jennings, Michelle Mola, Clancy O'Connor, Alyssa Simon, and Bjorn Thorstad.

The reading of All About Marriage will be directed by Ryan Tracy.

(Photo credit: Queralt Jorba; by Michael Hart)

 

ABOUT RYAN TRACY

Ryan Tracy is a writer, performer and composer. As a theater artist, he has presented work at The Brick, Dixon Place and Abrons Arts Center. His theater works include Ian & Ethan: A Love Play (in progress), Mad Adam: A Fidelity Play, All About Marriage, and OTHER WORLDS: A play in two parts, inspired by Sarah Schulman's "Ties That Bind: Familial Homophobia and Its Consequences. His music and opera (Collective Opera Company) have been performed at venues throughout New York, including The Kitchen, Park Avenue Armory, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, La MaMa, Danspace, and Cornell University. Ryan has written music criticism for the Orange County Register. He is a contributor to The New York Press, and has been published by the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review. In 2007, Ryan founded countercritic.com, an alternative forum for contemporary arts criticism. In 2009, he was one of eight writing fellows to participate in the Performa 09 biennial. Ryan has fulfilled residencies at Yaddo and the Edward Albee Foundation.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

Lynn Berg (Donald) was recently seen in "Batz" at the Brick Theater's Comic Book Theater Festival. He's had film roles as a homicidal moth collector in "The Collector," a tormenting sprite in "A Day's Mess" and a giant robot in "Roboto Supremo." Other theatre credits include writing and acting in the NYIT Award winning "Bouffon Glass Menajoree," the Brick Theater's "Every Play Ever Written," as William Jennings Bryan in "Penny Dreadful," and the national tour and Off-Broadway productions of Tony N' Tina's Wedding. Lynn is an artistic director of Ten Directions, creator of Bouffon Glass Menajoree, Saint Arlecchino, and films "un Pote Nain (Midget Buddy)" and "Dirty Twin." www.lynnberg.com

Daiva Deupree (Regina) is an actor and a writer. She most recently appeared in the independent films, "A Lack of Gravity" and "The Bits in Between" and is a founding member of Naked Angels' new radio program, "Naked Radio." She originated the role of Marge in "Pageant Play"(written by Matthew Wilkas and Mark Setlock) at the Berkshire Theater Festival, and is the co-creator/co-star of the critically acclaimed two-woman comedy-burlesque show, "Two Girls For Five Bucks and the Ten Dollar Heartbreakers", which had a produced run at Ars Nova in New York City. Daiva studied mime in Paris at Marcel Marceau's International School of Mime; and studied improv/sketch comedy at the Upright Citizens Brigade in NYC and the Improv Asylum in Boston where she was also a main-stage cast member. Oh, and she is a proud member of the Varsity Interpretive Dance Squad.

Michael Hart (Production Manager, Photographer) was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1981 and raised in Ft. Worth, Texas until 2000. He currently resides in NYC and Barcelona. Michael's photography has been published, in print, by Artforum, Boston Globe, Dance Magazine, El País, Issues In Science & Technology, Juilliard Journal, Modern Luxury, Movement Research Performance Journal, New York Press, Ocean Drive Magazine, Paper: The New Museum, Time Out NY, and the Village Voice.

Mikéah Ernest Jennings (Bennie) Theater: BELLONA, Destroyer of Cities (EXIT Festival Paris, The Kitchen, ICA Boston) dir: Jay Scheib; Green Eyes (Hudson Hotel) dir: Travis Chamberlain; PULLMAN, WA (Chelsea Ttre, London), The Shipment (Sydney Opera House, The Kitchen, w/ Int'l Tour), dir: Young Jean Lee; S.O.S. (The Kitchen, REDCAT, w/ Int'l Tour), The House of No More (DTW, w/ Int'l Tour), dir: Caden Manson; APOSTASY (Dixon Place) dir: Peter Petralia; A Dream Play (St. Ann's Warehouse). Film: Failing Better Now, Things That Go Bump In The Night, The Record Deal. Drop by and see what i'm up to at www.MikeahJennings.com.

Michelle Mola (W, Abbie) Michelle Mola is a multidisciplinary performer, choreographer and teacher. She is a faculty member with Peridance Center's Pre Professional Certificate Program and guest artist of The Playground, a workshop series for professional dancers. Upcoming performances include Code Flight, a collaboration with Rachel Mason at the Asia Song Society in July 2011 and Me: Michelle, a collaboration with Jack Ferver, scheduled to premiere at the Museum of Art and Design in November 2011. Following this she will co direct a new work produced by ICElab in collaboration with choreographer Zack Winokur and composer Lisa Coons at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2012.

Clancy O'Connor (M, Broc) previously appeared in a workshop of Ryan Tracy's OTHER WORLDS last year. O'Connor's work in New York also includes Shakespeare in the Park, the world premiere of Craig Lucas' musical THE LISTENER, and the title role in Sam Gold's EDWARD II at Juilliard. Regional credits include LEGACY OF LIGHT (Cleveland Playhouse), JUST SO STORIES and ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Berkshire Theatre Festival). Other favorite roles at Juilliard include Billy Bibbit in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, Malvolio in TWELFTH NIGHT, and John Rosmer in ROSMERSHOLM. TV: LAW AND ORDER CRIMINAL INTENT and the role of Edward Rutledge in John Adams (HBO; Tom Hooper, director; Golden Globe: Best Ensemble). Upcoming: writing, producing and starring in THE IN-BETWEENS, an original web comedy about carving out a life in the toughest city in the world, New York City.

Alyssa Simon's (Brie) most recent performance was a reading of Sweet, Sweet Spirit written by Carol Carpenter and directed by Cristina Alicea for the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Coming up is the two-woman play Gone, written and directed by Ian W. Hill and co-starring Ivanna Cullinan at the Brick Theater in August. Alyssa has performed in many NYC theaters and with many companies, most notably The Brick Theater, where she is a proud Mason Member, GeminiCollisionWorks and Untitled Theatre Co.#61. She has also performed the cabaret show, "An Evening With Molly Hadafew" at The Duplex, Joe's Pub and Barbes. www.alyssasimon.com

ABOUT DIXON PLACE

Dixon Place is a non-profit organization founded in 1986 to provide a space for literary and performing artists to create and develop new works in front of a live audience. While other venues of its kind have since died off, or now only present established artists, Dixon Place remains at the heart of the New York experimental performance scene. Taking risks is crucial to the life of Dixon Place, its artists and audiences.

Dixon Place's primary commitments are to bring artists and audiences together through live performance in order to expand the understanding of the creative process and its final product, and to provide a supportive environment for emerging artists to present new work. Over the years, Dixon Place has successfully maintained its intimate atmosphere and unique environment while increasing its programming to fulfill the need for performance opportunities for the New York community of performing and literary artists.

For these artists, the only way to experiment and test ideas, is to perform them before an audience: to feel the reaction of a live group of people, without the pressures of production costs and premature press exposure. Dixon Place has grown out of a direct need for more support of the artistic process. In spite of the growing visibility of performance art, it is still difficult for emerging artists to find venues in which to test new ideas and performance techniques. The financial and professional risks for producers or presenters are too high. Dixon Place, therefore, provides an organization that facilitates these artistic experiments.

Dixon Place provides free rehearsal space, bulk mailing of our calendars to artists mailing lists, technical assistance, and video documentation.

In 1989, Ellie Covan, founding director, was a recipient of a Bessie, a New York Dance and Performance Award, for her servIce To the community; and Dixon Place received a Village Voice Obie Grant Award in 1990 and 1999. Additionally, in 1999, Dixon Place was awarded an Edwin Booth Award for Excellence in Theater. Open Channels NY, Inc. was founded in New York in 1982 by playwright Michael Slattery, director/composer Jim Fritzler, and performer/ director Ellie Covan, as an organization dedicated to fostering the development of visual, literary, and performing artists. From 1982 to 1985 Open Channels developed and produced a number of experimental theater projects. Through its sponsorship of Dixon Place, Open Channels provides a supportive venue for emerging and established artists to develop new work and seeks to build new audiences for this work. Dixon Place has at the heart of its mission the strong commitment to nurture artists during the process involved in the development of new work.

Phone:
212.219.0736

Location:
Dixon Place is located at 161A Chrystie Street, between Rivington and Delancey.

Directions:
Nearby Subway Stops:

* the F train to 2ND AVE

* the J/M trains to BOWERY

* the 6 train to SPRING

* the M train to ESSEX

* the B/D trains to GRAND ST.