B. Stanley to Star in Leonard Nimoy's VINCENT March 4-29 at DC Arts Center

One of the most beloved artists of the past century, it is largely forgotten that van Gogh's legacy was not always that of an artistic genius. In the one-man play "Vincent", Theo van Gogh revisits the turbulent life of his brother, offering insight into the world of the tormented artist. Set in Paris 1890, only a week after his brother's dramatic death, Theo appeals to an audience of van Gogh's contemporaries who have written the painter off as an insane fool. The result is a moving effort to rescue his brother's legacy, transforming him from a madman into a beloved brother and misunderstood talent.

Based on the play "Van Gogh" by Phillip Stevens, Leonard Nimoy wrote "Vincent" using the hundreds of letters Theo and Vincent exchanged during their lives. B. Stanley, as Theo, recreates the world of the misunderstood genius in a poignant and intimate meditation on The Life of the gifted painter. The show offers an evening of laughter, tears and insight into van Gogh's passion and suffering, while considering the meaning of art and artistry in a world where success is judged in terms of sales, by which measure van Gogh fell short during his lifetime.

Actor/director/pedagogue/puppeteer B. Stanley is Executive/Artistic Director of DCAC, and founder and director of Theatre du Jour, an experimental group with an actor-based approach to creating works. In 1983, Stanley opened the Java Rama, a performance coffee house next door to Theatre du Jour. From 1989-1993, he trained under Ingemar Lindh at the Instituto di Arte Scenica (Institute for Scenic Art) in Pontremoli, Italy. In addition to Theatre du Jour, Stanley has performed with The Living Theatre, The Puppet Company, and Guillermo Gomez Pena. His acting credits include: Kenneth, What Is The Frequency?, Bluebeard, The Shadow, Pygmalion, Dangerous Border Games, Purlie Victorious, and Ubu Cuckolded. His directing credits include: There is No More FIrmament, Last Minute, Ritual Play, Poor Oedipus, World War Zero, I'm Scared of Myself, The Return of Uncle Silvana, and The Shadow. As director of DCAC, Stanley encourages the development of cutting edge work by new and emerging theater groups in Washington, DC. He conducts workshops on acting, directing and theater production and regularly participates in conferences and seminars abroad. In 2000, he was awarded the Tony Taylor Award by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington for his years of work encouraging and nurturing artists in Washington, DC.

American actor, film director, poet, photographer and musician Leonard Nimoy wrote and originally performed the one-man play Vincent. Though his incredibly diverse career has been largely eclipsed by his three-year role as Spock on the television series Star Trek, he has won much acclaim for his theater performances. He has acted in such plays as Fiddler on the Roof, The Man in the Glass Booth, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Twelfth Night. In addition to acting, Nimoy has authored two autobiographies, several volumes of poetry and the photography book Shekhina, in which he explores the feminine counterpart of God as described in Kabbalah scripture. He is also a musician, and has released five albums of vocal recordings, which include coveres of popular songs.

Born in 1853 in Zundert, The Netherlands, Vincent van Gogh worked as an art dealer, a preacher and missionary before he decided to pursue his career as an artist at the age of 27. He was largely encouraged by his brother, Theo, an art dealer who successfully pushed the popularity of Impressionist artists Degas and Monet. Although Theo never sold any of van Gogh's works, he provided emotional and financial support and remained throughout the troubled artist's life one of the few who understood him. The hundreds of surviving letters of their frequent correspondence have been published into books and provide much insight into the turbulent life of Vincent van Gogh and the close relationship between the two brothers.

Despite his aversion to formal training, Vincent studied in Brussels at the Royal Academy of Art and in Antwerp at the Academy of Fine Arts. Soon after, he moved to Paris, where he encountered Impressionist works, met fellow students Émile Bernard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and befriended Paul Gauguin, who lived with him for a period in Arles.
In 1888, Van Gogh moved to Arles, where he took up landscape painting and painted outdoors with Gauguin until their excessive quarreling and van Gogh's infamous severing of his own ear lobe drove Gauguin away. In 1889, van Gogh committed himself to a mental asylum in Saint-Remy, where the clinic and its surrounding landscape of cypresses, vineyards and olive trees provided subject matter for his painting. He also developed his famous swirling brushstrokes, which gave form to one of his most popular works to date, The Starry Night.During this time, he began to receive acclaim for his work. The French critic Albert Aurier praised his work and Monet declared his work best in show at the Artistes Indépendants group exhibit in Paris.

Van Gogh went to Auvers-sur-Oise to be closer to his brother Theo and to seek help from the physician Paul Gachet, whom van Gogh depicted in two portrait paintings. He spent the final months of his life in Auvers and was incredibly prolific, painting 70 canvases in 70 days. At age 37, van Gogh walked into a field of wheat and shot himself in the chest. He returned home where he died two days later in the arms of his brother. His dying words were "La tristesse durera toujours": "The sadness will last forever." Ailing from syphilis and unable to overcome the grief of his brother's death, Theo died six months later.

about DCAC
The District of Columbia Arts Center, founded in 1989, is a nonprofit arts space dedicated to promoting the freshest, most under-recognized artists in the Washington metropolitan area. We encourage an ongoing dialogue between new artists and the greater art community, and assist artists in the business of production. Comprised of a theater, gallery, and administrative offices, DCAC is located in the heart of Adams Morgan. Since its inception in 1989, DCAC has received local, national and international reviews for visual and performing arts. Over 100 visual arts exhibitions and 500 performance events have illustrated the need for DCAC. Poets, painters, actors, storytellers, sculptors, performance artists have been drawn to the Center from as close as around the corner and as far as from around the world.

March 4-29
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, & Sundays 7:30pm
Matinee performance Sunday, March 8 3:00 pm (no 7:30 show)
Pay what you can preview Wednesday, March 4 7:30pm
$20, $15 for DCAC members
For Reservations call DCAC at (202) 462-7833