Billy Porter Stars In Upcoming Reading Of DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE 5/27-28, 6/1

Broadway veteran Billy Porter (upcoming Angels in America revival) stars in a reading of Christopher Marlowe's sexy and provocative Dido, Queen of Carthage, newly adapted by Jason Williamson. This rarely-performed drama is being presented with an all-male cast as part of the "Anybody but Shakespeare Classics Festival," presented by (re:) Directions Theatre Company. The three showings are open to the public and will be held on Thursday, May 27th at 5pm, Friday May 28th at 5pm, and Tuesday June 1st at 8pm only at the 14th Street Y (344 East 14th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues).

Ed Sylvanus Iskandar directs a cast of 10 including Porter and featuring Dan Amboyer (Walnut Street Theatre's The Eclectic Society, "Law & Order"), Nic Cory (The Boys Upstairs), Rich Dreher (McCarter's She Stoops to Conquer), Nick Lehane ("Warrior"), Leslie Odom, Jr. (RENT, "Grey's Anatomy"), Jeffrey Omura (The Public's Romeo & Juliet, "Gossip Girl"), Larry Powell (Lincoln Center Theatre's Broke-ology), Liam Rhodes ("My Bloody Valentine 3D"), and David Winters ("Guiding Light").

Days after the massacre of Troy, the only survivors find themselves shipwrecked on the African shores of Carthage, where lonely Dido (Porter) reigns. The Queen offers the Trojan men sanctuary, until the jealousies of the gods fling her into a passionate affair with their ravaged leader, Aeneas (Amboyer). Soon, the love between a Queen and a soldier threatens to rip the kingdom at the seams.

The reading is produced by Exit, Pursued by a Bear (Iskandar, Artistic Director), and is part of the "Anybody But Shakespeare Classics Festival" presented by (re:) Directions Theatre Company (Tom Berger, Artistic Director and Erin Smiley, Producing Director). Greg VanHorn serves as Associate Producer and Dramaturg. Michael Finkle is Associate Director.

Playwright Jason Williamson's plays have been produced and developed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Public, Stanford Summer Theater, and the NYC Fringe. The Kennedy Center will stage his new play American Scrapbook next year. Jason was awarded fellowships with the Dramatists Guild and the Shubert Foundation. Jason received his MFA in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon.

Director Ed Sylvanus Iskandar is a 2010 Emerging Artist Fellow with the New York Theater Workshop, a Drama League Directing Fellow, an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, a two-time Resident Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the recipient of the Robert M. Golden Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Creative Arts, the Sherifa Omade Edoga Prize for Work Involving Social Issues, the Eugene Cremetti Scholarship in Letters, and the Max Meyer Scholarship in Music.

The Dido, Queen of Carthage showings are open to the public. Tickets are $10 and are available at www.smarttix.com.

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