Black Moon Theatre Company Opens CHARLES PONZI - A DOLLAR AND A SCHEME, Today

Black Moon Theatre Company will present the World Premiere of CHARLES PONZI - A DOLLAR AND A SCHEME. This multimedia biographical drama is written and performed by Alessio Bordoni and directed by René Migliaccio with mixed media collages by India Evans. Previews begin May 28 at New York Theatre Workshop's 4th Street Theater. Opening is slated for May 30.

CHARLES PONZI - A DOLLAR AND A SCHEME is based on the life and crimes of Italian-born swindler Charles Ponzi. In 1920, Ponzi found a way to exploit the rules of American capitalism and rapidly emerged as one of the wealthiest capitalists in the US -- at the expense of fifty thousand people. The play is an advocacy against the evils of unchecked capitalism as it exposes the mindset of one man whose primary goal was the pursuit of profit.

Alessio Bordoni is an Italian born American actor who performed in numerous productions throughout Europe and in the U.S. Among his favorite roles are Marquis des Arcis in Jacques the Fatalist by Diderot, Schlome in If This Is a Man by Primo Levi, Nikolaj Stavrogin in The Demons by Dostoevsky, Dante in Dante's Divina Commedia - Inferno, and King Herod Antipas in Oscar Wilde's Salome. Charles Ponzi - A Dollar and a Scheme is Alessio's debut as a playwright.

New York's Black Moon Theatre Company was founded in 2001 by Drama-Logue award winning director Rene Migliaccio. Black Moon's productions include Dante's Divina Commedia - Inferno (FringeNYC, Fringe Festival Praha), Kafka's The Metamorphosis (FringeNYC, Philly Fringe, La MaMa, Fringe Festival Praha, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), The Servants of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni (Lincoln Center's Meet the Artists Series), The Bakkhai by Euripides (HERE Arts Center), Oscar Wilde's Salome (The Flea Theater), The Maids by Jean Genet (in collaboration with Kompany Krapp, Norway) and Fear and Misery of the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht (in collaboration with Compagnie Theatre Artefact, Montreal, Canada).

Rene Migliaccio received a Best Director Award from Los Angeles' Dramalogue in 1987 for Armaggedon Outta Here. His production of Clifford Odets' Awake and Sing was named Best Theatre of 1989 by The Los Angeles Times. His directing credits include numerous productions with L.A.'s Open Fist Theatre Company; an adaptation of Nosferatu at the Prithvi InterNational Theatre Festival in India; Medea with the Telluride Repertory Theatre Company, Deathwatch by Jean Genet at The Powerhouse in Santa Monica, The Cenci by Antonin Artaud at UCLA, among many others. In 2012, he founded Compagnie de la Lettre5 in Montreal where he has directed The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere and The Lower Depths by Gorki, as well as the upcoming Lulu by Franz Wedekind.

CHARLES PONZI - A DOLLAR AND A SCHEME runs May 28 - June 9, Tuesday - Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm. The 4th Street Theatre is located at 83 East 4th Street (between 2nd Avenue and Bowery, accessible from the F train at 2nd Ave.) Running time is 70 minutes. Tickets are $20, available at www.eventbrite.com. For info call 347-268-3276.