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New York's OBIE Award-winning Epic Theatre Ensemble (Zak Berkman, Melissa Friedman, Ron Russell, Founding Executive Directors) today announced dates for the New York premiere of Passion Play by Sarah Ruhl (In The Next Room (or the vibrator play)) and directed by MarK Wing-Davey (The Singing Forest). The show began previews April 27 and will close May 30, 2010. Opening night was May 12, 2010. Passion Play will be performed in the site-specific environs of the Irondale Center, a converted Sunday School inside the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church (85 South Oxford Street) in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
"I'm thrilled to be doing Passion Play in New York with Epic Theatre Ensemble, a company devoted to making theatre that engages a diverse community," explained Sarah Ruhl. "It seems fitting for a play about medieval plays that we'll be staging it in a site specific way, in a beautiful raw church with a political history, and building a meaningful community around the event."
"This production is the culmination of an amazing six year conversation with Sarah." Zak Berkman added. "From the start we've wanted to present Sarah's wildly imaginative triptych in a manner that captures the spirit of the historic passion festivals: that brings a community closer together to explore what we believe in, what we're devoted to, and what transforms us."Hailed by The New Yorker's John Lahr as "extraordinary" and full of "verve and daring", Ruhl's three-play cycle will be the centerpiece of an unforgettable Passion Play Festival, a series of performances, panel discussions, workshops, and education programs highlighting the intersection of art, politics, sexuality, and religion. Inspired by the historic festivals where everyday citizens came together to elevate their communities by staging the life and death of Christ, Passion Play transports audiences first to 16th century England, where Queen Elizabeth threatens to shut down a small town's production; then to Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler's arrival at the famous Oberammergau Passion Play influences the lives of its cast and finally to Spearfish, South Dakota in 1984, as a local production becomes a campaign stop for a famous actor-turned-President running for re-election. MarK Wing-Davey will return as director following his highly acclaimed productions of Passion Play at the Goodman Theatre and Yale Repertory Theatre, but will be re-envisioning the play for this site-specific New York premiere.
Epic Theatre Ensemble is an OBIE, Lucille Lortel, and Coming Up Taller Award Winning artist-run company. Founded in 2001 to create theatrical events Off-Broadway and in the New York City Public Schools that inspire vital dialogue about social issues, Epic is best known for their premieres of No Child... by Nilaja Sun, Palace of the End by Judith Thompson, and Hannah and Martin by Kate Fodor, as well as their groundbreaking Shakespeare Remix after-school program that received a 2009 Coming Up Taller Award from First Lady Michelle Obama at a White Ceremony this past November.
