TNC's 2016 Dream Up Festival to Present THE HOUSE OF SETTING SUN

Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival Presents
"The House of Setting Sun"
A Gothic Murder-Mystery Brews in Jazz-Age Savannah

"The House of Setting Sun" is a musical thriller set in jazz-age Savannah modeled after the European "drama musical." The story is set in a dilapidated, Gothic plantation with an affluent southern family and a mysterious fortune teller from a traveling carnival, the musical is calibrated to ramp up the tension early and keep the audience on The Edge of their seat with dramatic music, dialogue and atmosphere. Book and lyrics are by Thomas Blakeley. Music is by Julie Joohee Jeon, Jane Lee, Pedro Curvello, Sean Yauk, and Cesar Manjarrez. Director is Took Edalow.

The narrative follows the character Victor, a young gentleman who consults a traveling mystic, Eudora, on the matter of his parent's unsolved murder. The lone heir to a southern fortune, Victor is due to be engaged to Daisy and proceed with a new path in life, and is desperately seeking closure for events in his past. However, Eudora's intrusion into the sacred family house causes old vendettas to emerge with renewed vigor. Victor discovers that those he trusts most may have the cruelest intentions.

The production blends jazz age music and southern Gothic literature, fusing themes in a manner that is atypical of mainstream culture. The supernatural is used throughout the play, as Eudora allegedly communes with spirits during seances. The inclusion of the supernatural eventually leads to all forms of grotesqueness and death, symbolizing the troubles and poverty of the Postbellum south often portrayed in Southern Gothic Literature. The music recalls the piano and instrumental music typical of the 1920s, with its folk, jazz and classical Broadway origins. Set designer is Anthony Cava.

The cast will consist of Emily Senkowksy, Sheila Barksdale, Chris Prince, Sam Krivda, Lindsey Gradwohl, Barbara Bayes, Lou Crespo, and Emily Nan Phillips.

WHERE AND WHEN:
August 28 at 8:00 PM, August 29 at 6:30 PM, August 31 at 9:00 PM, September 4 at 2:00 PM, September 7 at 9:00 PM.
Johnson Theater, Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. (at East 10th Street)
Presented by Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) as part of the Dream Up Festival 2016.
Ticket Price: $12.00
Box office: (212) 254-1109, www.dreamupfestival.org
Runs for 2:00. Reviewers are invited to all performances.

Thomas Blakeley is a librettist, playwright, screenwriter, journalist and freelance copywriter based out of New York City. He is an undergraduate at the New School University and has works published in a number of print and online magazines and newspapers, including The Antithesis, WNSR, and Superinterns.com. He was written screenplays and theater plays for organizations at his university.

Took Edalow is a performance artist, comedian, body painter, and writer. She regularly performs at Under St. Mark's Theatre and at "Circus of Dreams," a monthly avant-garde show at Bizarre Bushwick in Brooklyn. Edalow draws influence from the interactions she had while traveling the county with the Occupy Movement. She runs a weekly Radio Free Brooklyn Show "What Would Save the World?" that discusses her political opinions and personal anecdotes, often with a comical tone. She is currently directing "Sir Century," and "The Starling Darling."

The diverse cast of composers' hail from different regions and nations. Julie Joohee Jeon is a Korean-Canadian pianist and composer studying and working out of New York City. Having studied classical voice and music at a several universities, she is currently pursuing a Master Degree in Scoring for Film and Multimedia at NYU. Jane Lee is a film and multimedia composer and keyboardist with a background in jazz, classical and gospel music. She had composed the score for many films, television shows, and musicals, and is currently scoring Blakeley's next musical "In Life and Death." Pedro Curvello is a musician and composer with a talent for working in many musical genres. Originally a guitarist and keyboardist from Brazil, after a successful career in composing music for advertisements in South America he moved to New York to pursue a Masters Degree at NYU. Sean Yauk is a composer who works in the classical and pop-rock genres. He has composed the scores of plays and musical for many small theater companies. Cesar Manjarrez is an experienced saxophonist and composer, playing with saxophone and wind ensembles. Manjarrez seeks a professional career in music composition and is auditioning for the Royal Conservatory in Belgium for a degree in Saxophone Performance.

The seventh annual Dream Up Festival is dedicated to new works. Presented by Theater for the New City, the Festival will run from August 28 to September 18, 2016 and will feature a variety of original dramas, comedies, musicals, adaptations and experimental plays. The Festival celebrates the arts in a time when cultural and arts funding is in sharp decline due to a number of social and market forces. Now an East Village tradition, it challenges the audience to reflect on the innovative and imaginative ways that they interact with the theater.