St. Ann’s Warehouse's EARLY PLAYS Closes

St. Ann's Warehouse's  Early Plays, a collaboration between The Wooster Group and New York City Plays, will run through March 11, 2012. 

 

For Early Plays, Elizabeth LeCompte and The Wooster Group have invited Richard Maxwell of New York City Players to direct Eugene O'Neill's early "Glencairn" plays-Bound East for Cardiff (1914), The Long Voyage Home (1917), and The Moon of the Caribbees (1918). Featuring performers and technical artists from The Wooster Group and New York City Players, the production, Early Plays, takes O'Neill's tales of sailors on and off the ocean as a point of departure to explore themes of longing and eternity. St. Ann's Warehouse presents the world premiere of the work February 15-March 11, 2012. In the 2012-2013 season, Early Plays will tour to Paris, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. 

 

Tickets, which start at $22, are available online at www.stannswarehouse.org and by phone at 718.254.8779 (Tuesday-Saturday, 1:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M.) or 866.811.4111 (extended hours Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M.-9:00 P.M.; Saturday and Sunday, 10:00 A.M.-6:00 P.M.). They can also be purchased at the St. Ann's Warehouse Box Office at 38 Water Street (Tuesday-Saturday, 1:00 P.M.-7:00 P.M.). 

 

In these pre-World War I plays, O'Neill draws on his own experience as a merchant seaman and captures the vernacular of sailors from disparate nations, all shipmates on the British tramp steamer Glencairn. Maxwell and the cast are exploring this language from the viewpoint of both its starkness and potential for musicality. 

 

The production reveals O'Neill's beautifully romantic text in a sparse, modern, yet still mythic place. Dark episodes showing the underside of turn-of-the-century maritime life-brawls, dances and carousing-are staged with a quotidian grace allowing these simple stories to resonate emotionally. These episodes are threaded together with original songs composed by Maxwell and sung live by the cast.

 

The Early Plays company includes Wooster Group members and associates Enver Chakartash, Ari Fliakos, Teresa Hartmann, Bozkurt Karasu, Bobby McElver, Kaneza Schaal, Andrew Schneider and Kate Valk and New York City Players Lakpa Bhutia, Keith Connolly, Alex Delinois, Nicholas Elliott, Jim Fletcher, Kevin Hurley and Brian Mendes.

 

Behind-the-scenes videos of Early Plays can be seen on The Wooster Group's video blog. 

 

The production marks a return of The Wooster Group and New York City Players to St. Ann's Warehouse, which has previously presented The Wooster Group Productions of La Didone (2008), Hamlet (2007), The Emperor Jones (2006), House/Lights(2005), Brace Up! (2003) and To You, The Birdie! (Phèdre) (2002), as well as Richard Maxwell's Good Samaritans (2004).

 

In tandem with the world premiere of Early Plays, Anthology Film Archives is paying tribute to The Wooster Group with The Wooster Group on Film and Video. The series features the official video versions of some of the company's productions, archival documentation of many other works, and a special event featuring Jim Fletcher and Young Jean Lee reading from unproduced screenplays the Group has created over the years. More information is available by phone at212.505.5181 and online at anthologyfilmarchives.org. All Early Plays ticket holders will receive a discount to these screenings with the presentation of an Early Plays ticket stub at time of purchase.