REC Continues Summer Festival With HE WHO GETS SLAPPED On 8/4

The Readers' Ensemble Company (Justin Flagg & Dana Iannuzzi, producers) continues its downtown Manhattan festival of staged readings of rarely performed works. Each piece depicts part of the Recession Cycle: Greed, Collapse, Revolution, and Rebirth. The company's goal is to reintegrate these forgotten masterpieces into the active dialogue on pop-culture and current events. A Q & A follows each performance.

Now just past the halfway point, the third entry is HE WHO GETS SLAPPED by Leonid Andreyev and directed by Erik Gratton. HE WHO GETS SLAPPED will be presented Tuesday, August 4 at 7:00 p.m.

Paris, 1920. The lure of fame and the bitter aftertaste of celebrity are seen in this Russian revolutionary drama about a great scientist wronged by a larcenous financier. Eventually the scientist becomes nothing more than a circus attraction in which humiliation is his gimmick. This play was made into a classic silent film with the master of make-up, Lon Chaney, as the title character. The cast features Erica Camarano, Michael Durkin, Mike Timoney, Michael Hardart, Dana Iannuzzi, Tom Macy, Michael Andrew Baker, Rich Fromm, Chris Catalano. The festival is stage managed by Lorna Ruxton.

The festival concludes with INTIMATE APPAREL by Lynn Notage, on Monday, August 10.

At the University of the Streets on 130 East 7th Street in New York City. The cost is $8 All Seats (check the website for discounts). Visit www.readersensemblecompany.org for reservations or further information.