'SPELLING BEE' & More on Tap for APAC's 15th Season

The Astoria Performing Arts Center (APAC), recipient of the 2012 Caffé Cino Fellowship Award from the Innovative Theatre Foundation, is pleased to announce their 15th season which will include a world premiere play by Cheryl L. Davis (2014 AUDELCO Playwriting Award winner for Maid's Door), CAREFULLY TAUGHT, directed by Pat Golden (Assistant Director on Emily Mann's Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams), and the award-winning musical THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE, directed by APAC Artistic Director Dev Bondarin (APAC's IT Award Nominated In The Bones and Merrily We Roll Along). Additionally, Bondarin is introducing a new program of works based on the Astoria community, called ASTORIA STORIES. APAC's performance venue is located at the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church, 30-44 Crescent St (@30th Rd), in Astoria, Queens.

"We have an exciting program lined up for APAC's 15th Anniversary season: the world premiere of Cheryl L. Davis's Carefully Taught, William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and our new ASTORIA STORIES festival-which will celebrate our home and strengthen ties with our community through story and song while allowing APAC to work with a variety of artists," says Bondarin. "With Carefully Taught, Davis parses issues of race and perception while telling a timely story about friendship, and the underdog is alive and well in Spelling Bee, as a quirky collection of youngsters put themselves on the line to win it all and find themselves. Both shows deal with themes of identity and self-worth; I was energized by the response Carefully Taught received when we gave it a reading in February and am thrilled we are able to give it a fuller life, and I have loved Spelling Bee since seeing the original production and am excited to bring it back to New York."

In September APAC will be celebrating with the New York Innovative Theatre awards with six nominationsfor last season's premiere of IN THE BONES: Outstanding Actress (Emily Koch), Outstanding Actor (Sean Hankinson), Outstanding Featured Actress (Mel House), Outstanding Featured Actor (Zac Hoogendyk), Outstanding Innovative Design (Jaime Vallés), and Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play. The spring musical, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, also garnered two nods for Outstanding Featured Actress (Rachel Rhodes-Devey) and Outstanding Production of a Musical.

The season commences on November 5th with the world premiere of Davis' Carefully Taught, a modern day drama that centers on the friendship of two schoolteachers--one black and one white. Their bond is shaken when one loses her job, and questions of loyalty and unspoken prejudice rise to the surface. This provocative tale challenges us to examine our perceptions of race in contemporary culture.

Carefully Taught has been developed and had readings at Stamford Center for the Arts, Premiere Stages, New Professional Theatre, the Six Figures "Artists of Tomorrow" festival, and The Lark. In light of recent current events, Davis was prompted to look at the play with fresh eyes. Astoria Performing Arts Center presented a reading of the play at the Queens Council on the Arts as part of our Midwinter Reading Series during last season. It will now receive its world premiere at APAC in the fall of 2015.

To celebrate APAC 15th season and their neighborhood, in February APAC will introduce ASTORIASTORIES, a festival of short plays and musicals. This multi-artist event will feature the writing of Queens-based and company alumni writers who are paired with Astoria cultural sites and businesses to create new theater pieces. Presented and performed by an ensemble of actors, ASTORIA STORIES will pay homage to and teach audiences about the area of New York City that APAC calls home.

In May APAC will present William Finn and Rachel Sheinkin's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, conceived by Rebecca Feldman with additional material by Jay Reiss, the production will be directed by Bondarin. Based on Rebecca Feldman's improvisational play C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee was adapted by William Finn (music and lyrics) and Rachel Sheinkin (book), and workshopped at Barrington Stage Company in 2004. Directed by James Lapine and choreographed by Dan Knetchges, the original New York production opened in 2005 at Second Stage. The production transferred to Broadway where it ran at the Circle in the Square for almost three years winning two Tony Awards--Best Book and Best Featured Actor. Since then the show has been performed across the country and all over the world.