A PLAY ON WORDS Opens At 59E59 5/17

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is proud to welcome Upstate New York’s Kitchen Theatre Center (Ithaca, NY) to the Americas Off Broadway festival with the NYC premiere of A Play on Words, written by Brian Dykstra and directed by Margarett Perry.  A Play on Words began previews on Wednesday, May 13 for a limited engagement through Saturday, May 30. 

Opening Night is tonight, Sunday, May 17 at 8:15 PM.  The performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:30 PM, Wednesday - Saturday at 8:30 PM and Sunday at 3:30 PM.  The regular ticket price is $18 ($12.60 for 59E59 Members).  A 5-StarCard (one ticket to each show in the festival) is available for $100 ($85 for 59E59 Members).  Tickets are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com.  For more information visit www.59E59.org. Single tickets for the shows in Americas Off Broadway go on sale on Wednesday, April 15. 5-Star Cards are available now by calling 212-753-5959 ext 102, Monday - Friday from Noon - 6 PM.

“Seinfeld” meets Waiting for Godot in this ferociously witty play on, about and exploding with language. Rusty and Max have been friends since grade school and they’ve been arguing almost the entire time. Today they're scheming up something big. Brian Dykstra’s signature style crackles in this uproarious romp through backyard suburbia where two (slightly above) Average Joes spar in a relentlessly fanatical pursuit of what is said, what is intended, and what is.

The Syracuse New Times said “Dykstra outdoes himself here. The rapidity and studied verbal miscues will remind old timers of classic Abbott and Costello routines, but the dissection of everyday expression sounds like vintage George Carlin.”

A Play on Words stars Brian Dykstra and Mark Boyette (Clean Alternatives at 59E59). The design team includes:  Kelly Syring(set), E.D. Intemann (lights), Hannah Kochman (costumes) and Nate Richardson (sound).

Brian Dykstra (Playwright / Max) last played 59E59 Theaters in 2006 with his play Clean Alternatives, which went on to win the coveted Fringe First Award at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe before a production at the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca, NY. A Play on Words started at The Kitchen and now it's at 59E59! His plays Strangerhorse, The Two Of You, and The Jesus Factor (all directed my Ms. Perry) premiered at the Kitchen Theatre. The Jesus Factor is out on DVD and received a 3-month Off-Broadway run at The Barrow Street Theatre. His first solo show, Cornered & Alone, received an extended Off-Broadway run and was hailed by critics, but landed him on several watch-lists including the NRA and Rush Limbaugh. Last Spring his play, Spill The Wine, was given its first production at GayFestNYC, directed by Ms. Perry. Brian's play Hiding Behind Comets (awarded the National Theatre Conference Playwright Award) saw its world premiere at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park during its 2004 Tony Award-winning season and then received an extended Off-Broadway run at 29th Street Rep. It has also seen productions in California (World Premiere Theatre), Alabama (Birmingham Theatre Festival) Boston (Zeitgeist Theatre) and is slated to happen again in New York this September with Nicu's Spoon producing. Other productions include: Forsaking All Others (Pentameters Theater/London, Powerhouse Theatre/Los Angeles, Access Theater/NY), Clean Alternatives (Yellow Taxi Productions/NH), That Damn Dykstra (Access Theater), Silence (Holy Cross College, Stella Adler/NY, At Hand Theatre/NY.) Brian most recently closed The Seagull at A.R.T. where he played Trigorin. He has appeared on HBO's "Def
Poetry" with his piece "Pushing Bush" and Chappelle's Show in the famous “Blind Supremacist.” He was a Playwright Fellow with the Lark Play Development Center and was awarded The Vault's It's the End of the World As We Know It Award for exceptional cutting edge artists who consistently take risks with their art.

Margarett Perry (Director) was last at 59E59 when she directed the world premiere of Brian Dykstra’s Clean Alternatives. The production went on to win the Fringe First Award at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe and then traveled upstate to the Kitchen Theatre in Ithaca. Since then
she has directed several productions at the Kitchen including 3 new Brian Dykstra plays, A Play on Words, The Two Of You and Strangerhorse. Other KTC credits include Rachel Lampert’s musical comedy Tony & The Soprano, A Marriage Minuet andOld Times. Recent NY credits include S.W.A.P. ‘08 (The Spoken Word Almanac Project) at the Nuyorican Poets Café, Welcome To Arroyo’s (Hip Hop Theater Fest) and Spill The Wine and Competing Narratives (GayFestNYC). Perry has worked
on many solo shows including the extended Off-Broadway runs of 2 Brian Dykstra shows, The Jesus Factor (Barrow Street Theatre) and Cornered & Alone(Triad). Other favorites include: Carlo D’Amore’s No Parole (San Francisco’s The Marsh Theatre and Sacramento Theatre Company), Rachel Lampert’s The Soup Comes Last (KTC), Darian Dauchan’s Media Madness (KTC) and Vickie Tanner’s Running Into Me (KTC). Perry won the 2007 DayTony Award for Best Overall Production for Tina Howe’s Painting Churches at the Human Race Theatre and her cast (including Mark Boyett) won the 2005 DayTony Award for Ensemble Acting for her production of The Retreat From Moscow (also at the Human Race). Her short film “Wet” won the Houston Film Festival Remi Award for Direction. Perry was the Producing Artistic Director of Access Theater for six years where she directed and produced numerous plays and world premieres. She is an Artistic Fellow at The Lark Play Development Center where she has worked with a variety of writers developing new plays and produced the Playwrights’ Workshop with Arthur Kopit. She received her MFA in Directing from SMU and is a Drama League Directing Fellow alumni and a member of the SSDC.