Photo Preview: 'Conjur Woman' at La MaMa

In honor of Black History Month, La MaMa e.t.c. is proud to present Beatrice Manley's Conjur Woman, a dramatic folk opera chillingly sung by Obie-Winner Sheila Dabney and directed by George Ferencz, a resident director at La MaMa. Original music for Conjur Woman is composed by La MaMa Founder & Artistic Director Ellen Stewart along with Sheila Dabney, Harry Mann, Jasper McGruder and Yukio Tsuji, and is played on a cornucopia of instruments including a harmonica, washboard, jug, acoustic guitar, bass and percussion…think 1800s music of the slave. Performances take place January 31 to February 10, 2008 in a limited engagement at La MaMa's Annex Theater in NYC.

La MaMa e.t.c. is located at 74A East 4th Street between 2nd Avenue & Bowery in NYC. Performances run Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 3pm and 7:30pm. Tickets are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and students and can be purchased by calling 212-475-7710 or visiting www.lamama.org.

"In Conjur Woman, Beatrice Manley's deeply haunting and poetic one-woman folk opera, a conjur woman uses spells and potions to turn her lover into a tree so that he cannot be sold into slavery. Tragically, even the conjur woman's powers cannot stop the tree from being chopped down and made into logs. Conjur Woman is a compelling piece that moves in and out of memory, panic, agony and clarity, leaving us profoundly moved. The title Conjur Woman is an homage to Billie Holiday," explain a press release.

Author Beatrice Manley's sixty-year career in the theater started on Broadway and ended in the Los Angeles avant-garde scene. She was a co-founder and leading actress in the famed San Francisco Actor's Workshop, where she originated the lead role in the U.S. Premiere of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage.

Sheila Dabney won an Obie Award for Best Actress in Maria Irene Fornes' Sarita, was nominated by the NY Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Actress in The Emperor Jones and won a LA Dramalogue Award for A Midsummer Night's Dream. She was in Michael Koukiyannis' Broadway production of The Bacchae with Irene Pappas.

Director George Ferencz has been a resident director of La MaMa for over 25 years and curator of the Experiments Play Reading Series for 10 years. The design team includes Obie-Winner/La MaMa resident set designer Jun Maeda, who has created a unique bass instrument for the show, and light designer Jeff Tapper.

Photo by: Brian Dilig