Conrad Prebys Theatre at Dea Hurston New Village Arts Presents THE FERRYMAN Next Month

Performances run January 27-March 5, 2023.

By: Dec. 02, 2022
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Conrad Prebys Theatre at Dea Hurston New Village Arts Presents THE FERRYMAN Next Month

New Village Arts (NVA), North County's cultural hub, will present playwright Jez Butterworth's masterful international Tony Award winning Best Play (2019) "The Ferryman" January 27-March 5, 2023 - in the first United States production after Broadway - and the first in the newly renovated and renamed Conrad Prebys Theatre at the Dea Hurston New Village Arts Center.

The renaming comes as the arts center has its auditorium modernized and public spaces redesigned to be a cultural gathering space and arts education center for the community. The project is being underwritten by The Next Stage, a $2.5-million fundraising campaign supported by the Conrad Prebys Foundation and the Sahm Family Foundation.

There are two Dea Hurston New Village Arts Center opening events: Dedication and Ribbon Cutting on January 27 at 10:30am and Grand Re-Opening Community Celebration January 28 from 12-4pm. More information is to follow.

Kristianne Kurner, Founder and Executive Artistic Director, "I cannot imagine a more exciting time for New Village Arts since we first moved into this building in 2007 . We have renovated the space so that it can present a much wider variety of performing and visual arts, and at the same time we are mounting the most ambitious season in our history."

"From the moment I finished reading Jez Butterworth's "The Ferryman" I knew it would be the highlight of my 20+ year career to be able to direct the show. I was immediately drawn in by the way it addresses the effect of violence in society through the lens of an epic family story. There is so much joy, laughter, romance and play amidst the stark realities of the North of Ireland in 1981."

"I've spent my career focused on the work of the actor and I can't imagine a better play and a better cast to bring that work to fruition. I'm also proud that we are bringing a diverse group of actors and designers together to tell this universal story. All of us at New Village Arts are honored to bring this incredible show to our community."

"The Ferryman" takes place in Armagh, 1981 during the heart of The Troubles. The Carney farmhouse in Northern Ireland is a hive of activity with preparations for the annual harvest. A day of hard work on the land and a traditional night of feasting and celebrations lie ahead. But this year they will be interrupted by a visitor. It is the winner of the 2019 Tony Award and universally acknowledged as one of the greatest plays of the modern era. The play won the Evening Standard Theatre Award and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Play during its West End run and the New York Drama Critics' Circle, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk Awards for Best Play for its Broadway run.

Ben Brantley said in The New York Times, "An endlessly vibrant work, the real sustenance provided here comes from the sheer abundance within a work that picked up most of the awards on offer during its London run last year. This is theater as charged and cluttered and expansive as life itself. And the three and a quarter hours and 21 speaking parts required to tell its story - which is at once a shivery suspenser, a hearthside family portrait, a political tragedy and a journey across mythic seas - barely seem long enough to contain all it has to give us."'

"It revels in the addictive power of artfully unfolded narratives. And I mean all kinds of narratives: classical epics and homey fairy tales, barroom ballads and chronicles of hopeless love, multigenerational family sagas and ghost stories with a body count. Yet, like a James Joyce short story in which the everyday and the eternal live Cheek by Jowl, "The Ferryman" seems to sprawl over an entire, divided country ... the story embraces a multitude of exuberantly full individual scenes, of a number and richness rarely seen outside of Shakespeare. By the end of this magnificent drama, Mr. Butterworth has connected the contradictions with a skill that takes the breath away."




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