59E59 Theaters presents the second show in the inaugural 5A Season with the New York premiere of BAUER, written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by Bill English. Produced by the San Francisco Playhouse, BAUER begins performances on Tuesday, September 2 for a limited engagement through Sunday, October 12. Opening Night is tonight, September 9 at 7 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Thursday at 7 PM; Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 2 PM & 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM & 7 PM. Single tickets are $70 ($49 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.
Art. Betrayal. Defiance. BAUER is an imagined confrontation between famed modernist painter Rudolf Bauer, his wife Louise, and Hilla Rebay, Bauer's longtime lover. The play delves into the near-forgotten feud between Bauer, his benefactor Solomon Guggenheim, and Rebay, who introduced the two art world giants. With his life's work procured by the Guggenheim Foundation, Bauer believed that Guggenheim was building the museum in New York to house his creations. However, the Guggenheim Museum opened without a single Bauer on display. All of his paintings were banished to the basement. Was it this betrayal that caused Bauer to set down his brushes and never paint again?
Celebrated playwright
Lauren Gunderson, winner of this year's Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award and a
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist, tackles this scandalous story of the controversial artist whom the Nazis once jailed for "degenerate art."
BAUER made its world premiere in at the San Francisco Playhouse, where it was commissioned by Artistic Director
Bill English. Called "always compelling and sometimes quite thrilling" by the San Jose Mercury News, BAUER broke box office records for the Bay Area theater.
In addition to the NYC premiere of
Lauren Gunderson's play, a PBS documentary on the artist will air on WNET-THIRTEEN in August, and two gallery exhibits of Rudolf Bauer's work will be on display in NYC in September.
The cast features
Sherman Howard as Rudolf Bauer (multiple Broadway credits including
Gore Vidal's The Best Man and A Bengal Tiger In The Baghdad Zoo); Susi Damilano as Louise Bauer (five-time recipient of the Bay Area Theatre Critic Circle Award); and
Stacy Ross as Hilla Rebay (In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play at Berkeley Rep).
The design team includes
Bill English (set design);
ML Geiger (lighting design); Abra Berman (costume design); Theodore J.H. Hulsker (sound design); and Micah J. Stieglitz (projection design). The original score is by Savannah Jo Lack. The Production Stage Manager is Tatjana Genser.
Lauren Gunderson (playwright) had 5 world-premieres during the 2013/14 season including I And You (Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award 2014,
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist, and NNPN Rolling World Premiere at Marin Theatre, Olney Theatre,
Geva Theatre and
Phoenix Theatre), Silent Sky at TheatreWorks, By And By at Shotgun Players, The Taming at Crowded Fire, Bauer at San Francisco Playhouse, and Fire Work at TheatreFirst. Emilie: La Marquise Du Chatelet Defends Her Life Tonight is published by Sam French, and Exit, Pursued By A Bear and Toil And Trouble are published by Playscripts. Her work has also been produced and developed at companies across the U.S. including Berkeley Rep, the Kennedy Center, South Coast Rep, the O'Neill Playwrights Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland Center Stage, Actors Express, Impact Theatre,
Second Stage Theatre and Lark Play Development Center. She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, and a proud Dramatist Guild Member.
Bill English (director) an accomplished singer, pianist and composer, has spent his life producing works of art. He co-founded San Francisco Playhouse, and in ten years, has overseen its growth from a storefront to a major regional theater company, with a 6-play main stage series, a 2-play World Premiere series, an education program and a New Works program that has commissioned 10 playwrights. Bill's vision propels San Francisco Playhouse to stand out among its peers for making bold choices and taking artistic risks. Bill's work in the theater has been recognized with numerous awards for acting, directing, sound and set design. Under Bill's leadership The San Francisco Playhouse, has earned multiple nominations and awards.
