Play Company Begins Season with 'Bad Jazz' Nov.4-25

The Play Company kicks off its 2007-2008 season with the American premiere of Bad Jazz by Robert Farquhar.  Directed by Trip Cullman, Bad Jazz will play a limited Off-Broadway run from Sunday, November 4 – Sunday, November 25 at the Ohio Theatre (66 Wooster Street).  Official opening is set for Sunday, November 11 at 7PM.

"Bad Jazz chronicles the lives of young artists in pursuit of a shared dream, as an actress takes a role that puts her sanity at risk, an actor struggles to remain true to his artistic ideals and a director drives his company past the point of reason.  When the lines between reality and performance begin to blur, relationships are tested and this group of desperate souls is forced to ask themselves how far they're prepared to go for art's sake," explain press notes.  Trip Cullman directs Robert Farquhar's gleefully raunchy satire illustrating what can happen when art imitates life and life imitates art.

Robert Farquhar's plays have been performed all over the UK and internationally, including Italy, Brazil and The National Theatre of Malta. Bad Jazz was recently performed in the UK in a co-production with ATC Theater and The Drum, Plymouth. He scripted and directed the 2006 Edinburgh hit play Insomnobabble for Big Wow, which transferred to BAC, London in November 2006. He was the winner of the Edinburgh Spirit of the Fringe Award in 2000 for his plays Gods Official and Almost Forever But. He is presently working on the play Last Man Breathing for the Liverpool Everyman, and a comedy drama series Laurence of Suburbia for Lime Pictures.  Big Wow is also developing a comedy series with Freeform TV.

Director Trip Cullman's recent credits include Some Men (Second Stage), Dark Matters (Rattlestick Theater), Dog Sees God (Century Center), The Wooden Breeks (MCC), Manic Flight Reaction (Playwrights Horizons), Swimming in the Shallows (Second Stage Uptown), Roulette (John Houseman Theater), The Last Sunday in June (Century Center & Rattlestick Theater), Of a White Christmas (Clubbed Thumb), Sweetness and Sam and Lucy (Summer Play Festival '04), and The Wau Wau Sisters (Ars Nova).  Previously for The Play Company, Cullman directed Roland Schimmelpfennig's Arabian Night (2006) and Brooke Berman's Smashing (2003). 

Bad Jazz stars Rob Campbell (B'way: Translations; Off-B'way: Small Tragedy - Playwrights Horizons), Colby Chambers (Off-B'way: Dog Sees God, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore – The Storm Theatre), Darren Goldstein (Off-B'way: Gutenberg! The Musical!, Abigail's Party – The New Group, Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Featured Actor), Marin Ireland (Off-B'way: Far Away – New York Theatre Workshop, The Ruby Sunrise – Public Theater),Ryan O'Nan (Much Ado About Nothing – Globe Theatre, London, Animals – NY Fringe festival) and Susie Pourfar (Off-B'way: Swimming in the Shallows - Second Stage, Iron – Manhattan Theatre Club).  The production includes Set and Costume Designs by Dane Laffrey (The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other - Watermill Center, The Color of Panic -Sydney Opera House), Lighting Design by Ben Stanton (Off-B'way: American Sligo –Rattlestick Theater, A Feminine Ending – Playwrights Horizons) and Sound Design by Bart Fasbender (Boozy, Heddatron, Women on Fire ; Trust, Sakharam Binder, Terrorism, Arabian Night, Romania. KISS ME!, The Attic -The Play Company). 

The Play Company, a New York City not-for-profit theater, is an international theater for new writing that develops and produces adventurous new plays from the U.S. and all over the world.  Its work links American theater with world theater, American artists with the global community of artists and American audiences with a whole world of plays.  Recent productions include numerous American and New York premieres: The English-language premiere of Yoji Sakate's The Attic directed by Ari Edelson; Romania. KISS ME!, six short plays from Romania's new wave; Roland Schimmelpfennig's Arabian Night directed by Trip Cullman; Leslie Ayvazian's Lovely Day directed by Blair Brown; the Presnyakov Brothers' Terrorism directed by Will Frears (a co-production with The New Group); Vijay Tendulkar's Sakharam Binder directed by Maria Mileaf; Gary Mitchell's Trust directed by Erica Schmidt; Brooke Berman's Smashing directed by Trip Cullman; and Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt's Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran directed by Maria Mileaf.  The company was launched in 1999 by Kate Loewald, Jack Temchin and Mike Ockrent.   

Bad Jazz will play Tuesday – Sunday at 8PM, Saturday at 4PM, at the Ohio Theatre (66 Wooster Street).  Please note: No evening performances on Thursday, November 22 or Sunday, November 25.  There will be an additional performance at 4:00 PM (matinee) on Sunday, November 18 and Sunday, November 25. 

Tickets are $25.  Tickets can be purchased through SmartTix at (212) 868-4444, www.smarttix.com, or in person at the Ohio Theatre Box Office (cash only at the door).  Student rush tickets are $5 and available at the Ohio Theatre Box Office prior to each performance.

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