Theatre for New Audience Presents CYMBELINE

Theatre for a New Audience (Artistic director, Jeffrey Horowitz) has produced some of the most promising artists early in their careers including Arin Arbus, Juliet Rylance, Mark Rylance, Bartlett Sher and Juliet Taymor.

Theatre for a New Audience is proud to present the Off Broadway debut of Fiasco Theater a fresh, young ensemble of six actors performing William Shakespeare's Romance, Cymbeline; the production is co-directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld, who conceived it along with Jessie Austrian.

Cymbeline plays at The New Victory Theater, 209 West 42nd Street. Previews begin Thursday, January 13, at 8:00pm for an opening Sunday, January 16, at 7:00pm and a very short run through January 30. Cymbeline is not conceived for young audiences and is not a presentation of The New Victory Theater.

Last season, Mr. Horowitz saw Fiasco Theater's Cymbeline in a fourth floor walk-up 70-seat loft. Mr. Horowitz says "We last produced Cymbeline in 2001 directed by Bartlett Sher. In the Fiasco production, I could see New York through a gritty window while on a bare stage with no production budget and sheer talent and commitment, the company brought the audience into the imaginary world of Shakespeare through the language. I immediately felt a kinship and invited the ensemble to engage with artists we know such as Cicely Berry, Director of Voice for the Royal Shakespeare Company and Jean-Guy Lecat, a designer who worked with Peter Brook. I proposed that Theatre for a New Audience collaborate with Fiasco to take the essence of what they created in Cymbeline and develop a new production with new sets and costumes for a larger audience."

Fiasco Theater is an ensemble based in New York City, founded in 2007 by Jessie Austrian, Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld. It consists of six multi-talented graduates of the Brown University/Trinity Repertory MFA Acting Program. In addition to Austrian, Brody and Steinfeld, the ensemble is Paul L. Coffey, Andy Grotelueschen and Emily Young. And if some of these names are familiar, they should be: both Ben Steinfeld and Emily Young are in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson on Broadway and The New Yorker called them both "standouts."

The ensemble is classically trained and has a common vision: to use great language, dynamic physical and musical events and the audience's imagination to create compelling theater. Fiasco believes six talented minds are better than one. Productions are developed in rehearsal. One member's musical strength is matched by another's gift with language and another's skill with fight choreography. All these talents interact to create something that is more than the sum of its parts.

"If Romeo and Juliet is a comedy gone wrong, perhaps Cymbeline is a tragedy gone right," say Brody and Steinfeld. As dizzyingly eventful a drama as Shakespeare ever conceived, Cymbeline is Shakespeare's tale of a beautiful princess separated from her beloved, the cruel step-mother who tries to kill her, a credulous husband duped by an adversary, an exiled nobleman who kidnaps a king's sons and a Roman invasion of Britain. In this lightening-paced production, the six-member ensemble plays fourteen roles. A plain white cloth becomes a sail, a bed sheet, and a toga and a trunk becomes a bed, a throne, and a cave. The transformations are magical and playful and true to the play, deepening its themes of illusion, deception and belief.

Cymbeline contains some of Shakespeare's most haunting lyrics. Fiasco sets Shakespeare's words to original compositions and traditional sources which range from madrigal to folk to bluegrass performed live by the company.

Last year, The New York Times's Neil Genzlinger hailed the Fiasco Theater production of Cymbeline as "lovable... spunky ...dazzling."

Founded in 1979 by Jeffrey Horowitz, Theatre for a New Audience's mission is to help develop and vitalize the performance and study of Shakespeare and classical drama. The Theatre vigorously engages with Shakespeare and plays from the world repertoire. It has played on Broadway, toured nationally and internationally.

In 2001, Theatre for a New Audience became the first American theatre invited to bring a production of Shakespeare to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Stratford-upon-Avon. Cymbeline directed by Bartlett Sher, premiered at the RSC and in 2007, Theatre for a New Audience was invited to return with The Merchant of Venice starring F. Murray Abraham and directed by Darko Tresnjak. The Merchant of Venice will return to New York this winter and play at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, 3 Spruce Street. It previews February 27, opens March 5, and runs through March 13.

The Theatre's productions have been honored with Tony, OBIE, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Lortel and Audelco awards and nominations and reach an audience diverse in age, economics and cultural backgrounds. It created and runs the largest program in the New York City Public Schools for introducing students to Shakespeare which has served over 120,000 students. In conjunction with Columbia University, it runs a summer institute for NYC Public School teachers on the teaching of Shakespeare. It offers a free summer, drama program for high school students. The Theatre's distinctive Talk Back series for general audiences is free in conjunction with performances and its economically accessible ticket program includes the lowest reserved ticket price for youths in the city.

Fiasco Theater is a performance and training company founded in 2007 by graduates of the Brown University/Trinity Rep MFA acting program. The mission of Fiasco Theater is to create dynamic, joyful, actor-driven productions of classic and new plays, and to offer conservatory-level theatrical training through classes and workshops. Past shows include Off-Off Broadway productions of Cymbeline and Twelfth Night, as well as a workshop production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. In 2008, they began offering the Free Training Initiative-- a three-week, conservatory-level classical acting intensive for professional actors, completely free of charge to students.

Tickets for Cymbeline are $75 and may be purchased by phone at 646-223-3010 or the web at www.smartTix.com.

For ages 25 and under or full time students, $10.00 New Deal tickets may be purchased in advance for any performance. New Deal tickets are sold on a first come, first serve basis along with all other tickets. There are no restrictions on the number of New Deal tickets available for each performance, but there is a limit of two that can be purchased via the phone or online. Valid ID listing proof of age or full time student status must be shown for each New Deal ticket purchased; failure to show proof of age/student ID will result in a surcharge for a full-price ticket.

Performances are evenings Tuesday through Saturday at 8:00pm and Sunday, January 16 (opening night) at 7:00pm. Matinees are at 2:00pm Sunday, January 16; Wednesday January 19; Saturday, January 22; and Saturday, January 29. Matinees at 3:00pm are Saturday, January 15; Sunday, January 23; and Sunday, January 30.