Talking Band To Present NY Premiere of Maddow's 'Flip Side'

The Talking Band will present the New York Premiere of FLIP SIDE, written by Ellen Maddow and directed by Paul Zimet, Friday, September 26 - October 19, 2008 at The Connelly Theatre (220 East 4th Street). Previews begin Friday, September 26, 2008. The production officially opens on Tuesday, September 30, 2008.

The cast of FLIP SIDE features Will Badgett, David Brooks, John Hellweg, Sue Jean Kim, Heidi Schreck, and Tina Shepard. Set design is by Anna Kiraly, music is by "Blue" Gene Tyranny and puppet design is by Ralph Lee.

FLIP SIDE is a comedy of longing, misperceptions, and mismatches.  Two sets of characters - played by the same six actors -occupy two different worlds. The inhabitants of Drizzle Plaza -- a bleak and empty place, like a city where everyone has gone on vacation -- are drowning in the seductive power of infatuation, yearning, and regret.  Meanwhile, on the flip side, is the Waterfall family in a world of constant motion and relentless cheerfulness with a dose of claustrophobia. And then the worlds begin to mingle.

FLIP SIDE is the product of an unconventional collaboration between OBIE award-winning playwright Ellen Maddow and the Hungarian-born designer Anna Kiraly. The Talking Band inverted the traditional creative process by asking Anna to first design a set, and then having Ellen create a play inspired by the visual/physical environment. The play is filled with visual illusion and impossible perspectives but the characters' lives are rooted in the concrete: A woman tosses and turns in bed as her husband- consumed by an internet relationship with a woman he hasn't seen in thirty years - types feverishly on a laptop:   two elderly ladies carrying small dogs in their handbags order a meal as the restaurant gradually fills with water.  "Blue" Gene Tyranny's musical score adds another essential element to this richly textured work.  The design team also includes Kiki Smith (Costumes) and Nan Zhang (Lights.)

FLIP SIDE is a production of The Talking Band, the OBIE and BESSIE award winning New York based theater company that has been producing innovative interdisciplinary work for thirty-four years.  FLIP SIDE opened as a workshop production at Smith College in October of 2007, and received its international premiere at the Csokonai Szinhaz in Debrecen, Hungary in May of 2008.

Ellen Maddow is a founding member of the Talking Band, and has composed for and performed in most of its works.  Works that she has written include, Delicious Rivers, Painted Snake In A Painted Chair- for which she received a 2003 OBIE Award- Tilt, Brown Dog is Dead, and Fern and Rose.  Ellen has also written the text and music for five pieces about the avant-garde housewife, Betty Suffer.  She has written the scores for Imminence, Belize, The Parrot, Star Messengers, Black Milk, The Plumber's Helper, New Cities  (all produced by The Talking Band), and 1969 Terminal 1996  (directed by Joseph Chaikin) She was a member of the Open Theater.  Ellen received the Frederick Loewe Award in Musical Theater, a   McKnight National Playwriting Fellowship, and a   NYFA fellowship in playwriting/screenwriting. She is a member of New Dramatists.

Paul Zimet is the Artistic Director of the Talking Band.  Music-theater works that he has written and directed include: Imminence, Belize, The Parrot, Star Messengers, Bitterroot, Party Time, Black Milk Quartet, These works have premiered in New York City at La MaMa, E.T.C., The Flea Theater, and PS 122, and have toured in the United States, Italy, Canada, Chile, and Moscow.  Paul received a 2003 Village Voice OBIE Award for his direction of The Talking Band production of Painted Snake in a Painted Chair, and also three OBIE Awards for his work with the Open Theater and the Winter Project, both directed by Joseph Chaikin.

Anna Kiraly's recent projects include production design The Necklace (Talking Band), The Separation at the Walker Art Center with Bobby Previte, costumes for Darkling (AOP), Kafka Fragments with Peter Sellars at Zankel Hall, production design for Isabella, Chekhov Lizardbrain and Pay Up with the Pig Iron Company. She received the Arts Link Grant (Soros Foundation), and the NEA/TCG Program for Designers. Her design work was included in this year's Prague Quadrennial / US team. Her visual work has been featured among other venues by LMCC and The Drawing Center. She created her own visual puppet piece Slow Ascent and UFO in K at St. Ann's Warehouse (Dan Hurlin's Puppet Lab) both of which won the Henson Foundation's support.

"Blue" Gene Tyranny's theater and dance collaborations include works with the Talking Band, Otrabanda Company, Pat Oleszko , dancers Timothy Buckley, Rocky Bornstein, the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company,the Creach/Koester Company's, Stefa Zawerucha, Steve Paxton, and Trisha Brown. He received a Composer Award at the Bessies (NY Dance and Performance Awards) in 1988, and a Composer Fellowship from the NY Foundation for the Arts in 1989. He has performed on many albums of contemporary music for Robert Ashley, Peter Gordon, Laurie Anderson, and John Cage.

Performances of FLIP SIDE are Tue-Sat at 8pm and Sun at 3pm at The Connolly Theater.  (No performance on Tuesday, Oct 7).

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at 212.868.4444  or www.SmartTix.com . Special offer Sept 26-30  - Two tickets for the price of one.

On Wednesday, Oct 1 at 7:30 pm, special Gala Benefit Performance of Flip Side. Tickets for the benefit performance and party are $50.  Call 212.925.0371 for more information.

The production runs until October 19.

This production is made possible with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; the National Endowment for the Arts; and the JP MorganChase Regrant Fund, a project of A.R.T./NY.  This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Ellen Maddow and Talking Band are participants in the Theater Residency Program for Playwrights, a project of the National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group. Anna Kiraly and Talking Band are participants in the New Generations Program funded by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Theatre Communications Group.  The Talking Band is a participant in the TCG/ITI Travel Grants Program, a project funded by The Trust for Mutual Understanding and administered the Theatre Communications Group. Sue Jean Kim is a 2007-2008 Princess Grace Honorarium Recipient.