Single tickets go on sale today, September 13, for Theatre for a New Audience's inaugural production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, directed by multiple Tony Award-winner Julie Taymor with original music composed by Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning Elliot Goldenthal, at the Theatre's newly-named building, Polonsky Shakespeare Center, 262 Ashland Place between Lafayette Avenue and Fulton Street, Brooklyn.
A Midsummer Night's Dream by
William Shakespeare features a cast of 36 led by
Tina Benko as Titania,
Max Casella as Bottom,
David Harewood as Oberon and
Kathryn Hunter as Puck. Previews begin October 19; show opens November 2.
Founding Artistic Director
Jeffrey Horowitz explained, "Julie and Elliot are innovative, adventurous artists. We first worked together in 1984 on a 60-minute version of A Midsummer Night's Dream for Theatre for a New Audience presented at
The Public Theater. Twenty-nine years later, it's thrilling they are directing and composing our first full production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the inaugural presentation in our first permanent home."
Theatre for a New Audience just named its building Polonsky Shakespeare Center in recognition of a $10 million gift from the Polonsky Foundation.
Julie Taymor is internationally recognized for her bold and original creations. For this inaugural production, she stages Shakespeare's joyous comedy about love and its complications in the mortal and spirit worlds incorporating a fantasia of light and shadow.
A Midsummer Night's Dream is the fifth production Ms. Taymor has directed for Theatre for a New Audience. Previously with the company, she staged Shakespeare's The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, and
Titus Andronicus, and Carol Gozzi's The Green Bird.
A Midsummer Night's Dream will feature original music by
Elliot Goldenthal, who creates works for orchestra, theatre, opera, ballet and film.
Mr. Goldenthal was named one of the two finalists for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in music for his original two-act opera Grendel, which was directed by Ms. Taymor.
After 34 years of being itinerant, Theatre for a New Audience's Polonsky Shakespeare Center is also its first permanent home. Built by The City of New York in partnership with Theatre for a New Audience, located in the Downtown Brooklyn cultural district; and designed by
Hugh Hardy and H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture with theatre consultants
Theatre Projects,
Jean-Guy Lecat and Akustiks, it includes the Samuel H. Scripps Mainstage (299 seats) -- the first stage built for Shakespeare and classical drama in New York City since the Vivian Beaumont in 1965 -- and the
Theodore C. Rogers Studio (50 seats).
Sets for A Midsummer Night's Dream are by
Es Devlin, costumes are by
Constance Hoffman, lights by
Don Holder and sound by
Matt Tierney.
Brian Brooks is choreographing the dances and
Sven Ortel is designing the projections.
Jonathan Mastro is the music director.
In addition to
Tina Benko as Titania,
Max Casella as Bottom,
David Harewood as Oberon and
Kathryn Hunter as Puck, the cast of 36 includes
Zach Appelman,
Brendan Averett,
Roger Clark,
Lilly Englert,
Joe Grifasi,
Jake Horowitz,
Zachary Infante,
Robert Langdon Lloyd,
Mandi Masden,
Jacob Ming-Trent,
Okwui Okpokwasili, and
William Youmans.
The fairies are interpreted as elemental forces of nature -- Rude Elementals:
Olivia Bak,
Marcus Bellamy,
Ciaran Bowling,
Jarrett Austin Brown,
Jon Viktor Corpuz, Christina Dimanche, Jake L. Faragalli,
Jaryd Farcon,
Reimi Kaneko, Sophie Lillis, Johnny Marx,
Isaiah Register, Briana Robinson,
Willa Scolari, Sophie Shapiro,
Alex Shimizu, Emmet Smith,
Madison Smith, Azalea Twining, and
Cassidy vanVonno.
Theatre for a New Audience's season continues with King Lear by
William Shakespeare, directed by
Arin Arbus and featuring
Michael Pennington. King Learbegins previews March 14 for a run through May 4. The third show of the season is The Killer by Eugène Ionesco, directed by
Darko Tresnjak with a new translation by
Michael Feingold and featuring
Michael Shannon. The Killer begins previews May 17 for a run through June 2.9
Subscriptions for Theatre for a New Audience's inaugural season are $147 for a 3-play inaugural season package and $294 for a 6-play, two-season package, and are available by calling (212) 229-2819, ext. 10. Flex Passes are also available for $208 and include four tickets to be used in any combination over the inaugural season. For more information or to subscribe online, please visit
www.tfana.org.
Single tickets start at $75. Tickets may be purchased online at
www.tfana.org or by phone at 866-811-4111.
A Midsummer Night's Dream runs October 19 through January 12 and performs Tuesday through Sunday evenings at 7:30pm with regular matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:00pm. Additional matinee performances are Tuesday, December 24 at 2:00pm; Wednesdays November 27 and January 1 at 2:00pm. Additional Evening Performances are Monday, December 23 at 7:30pm. There are no 7:30pm evening performances Sundays October 20 and 27, December 8, 15 and 22 and January 5. There are also no performances Thursday, November 28; Tuesdays, December 17 and 24; and Wednesdays, December 18 and 25.
New Deal tickets for ages 30 and under or full-time students of any age are priced at $20 each and can be purchased when single tickets go on sale by using code "NEWDEAL." Valid ID showing proof of age or student status must be presented for each ticket bought.
This production is sponsored by
American Express, with additional support provided by WorldStage Inc. It is part of Shakespeare for a New Generation, a national program of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Arts Midwest.
Theatre for a New Audience programs are supported, in part, by public funding provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Julie Taymor is an Academy Award-nominated and Tony Award-winning director whose productions range from musicals and Shakespeare plays to classical operas and films. Ms. Taymor has been hailed as one of the most imaginative and provocative directors and designers working in the arts today.
Ms. Taymor's stage productions of Shakespeare's plays for Theatre for a New Audience include The Tempest (1986 Off-Broadway and 1987 at American Shakespeare Theatre; 1994: excerpts broadcast on PBS' Behind the Scenes); The Taming of the Shrew, (1988 Off-Broadway and North Shore Music Theatre) andTitus Andronicus (1994, Off Broadway). In 2000, Ms. Taymor direct
Ed Carlo Gozzi's The Green Bird on Broadway which was first produced in 1996 by Theatre for a New Audience at The New Victory Theater and subsequently toured to the
La Jolla Playhouse.
In 1998, Ms. Taymor became the first woman to win the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, and also won a Tony for Best Costumes, for her landmark production of The Lion King. Celebrating its 16th anniversary this November, The Lion King is the highest-grossing show and fifth longest-running musical in Broadway history. Translated into seven different languages the show has been performed in 15 different countries on five continents.
For her latest Broadway production, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Ms. Taymor served as director, co-book writer and mask-designer for the rock musical, which has consistently been one of Broadway's top-grossing shows since beginning performances in 2010. Her additional theatre work includes her Broadway debut in 1996 with Juan Darién: A Carnival Mass, nominated for five Tony Awards, as well as The Transposed Heads, based on the novella by
Thomas Mann, co-produced by the American Musical Theater Festival and Lincoln Center; and Liberty's Taken, an original musical co-created with
David Suehsdorf and
Elliot Goldenthal.
Ms. Taymor's feature film directorial debut, Titus, starred
Anthony Hopkins,
Jessica Lange and
Alan Cumming. In 2002, her biographical film Frida, starring
Salma Hayek and
Alfred Molina, earned six Academy Award nominations, winning two. The music of the Beatles and the turbulent 1960s served as the backdrop for her next film, Across the Universe, which earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Ms. Taymor's most recent film, The Tempest, adapted the
William Shakespeare play and featured an all-star cast including
Helen Mirren,
Ben Whishaw,
Djimon Hounsou and
Alfred Molina.
Beyond the theatre and screen, Ms. Taymor has directed five operas internationally including Oedipus Rex with
Jessye Norman, for which she earned the International Classical Music Award for Best Opera Production. A subsequent film version premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won her an Emmy award. Ms. Taymor also directed Salome´, The Flying Dutchman, Die Zauberflöte (which has been in repertory at The Met for seven years), The Magic Flute (the abridg
Ed English version of Die Zauberflöte, which inaugurated a new PBS series entitled "Great Performances at The Met," and will return to the Metropolitan Opera stage this December) and
Elliot Goldenthal's Grendel, which was performed at the
Los Angeles Opera and the
Lincoln Center Festival, and earned a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Ms. Taymor is a recipient of the 1991 MacArthur ("genius") Fellowship.
