'A New Television Arrives, Finally' to Run Sept. 6-30

Live From Planet Earth Productions will present a limited engagement of A New Television Arrives, Finally, an absurdist black comedy written by Kevin Mandel and directed by Kevin Kittle. Performances will run from September 6 - 30, 2007 at Theatre 54 (244 West 54 St.) in NYC. Previews begin September 6th for a September 10th opening.

"A New Television Arrives, Finally centers around an American couple visited by a charismatic man presenting himself as a television set. Is the handsome stranger a charlatan or a guru? And why is he awakening them from their spiritual slumber? A New Television Arrives, Finally is a hilarious and harrowing theatrical journey through the perils of entertainment-based reality, and the starving souls not yet sated by its sponsors," state press notes.

Director Kevin Kittle has worked as Joe Chaikin's assistant director and with Arthur Miller and Sam Shepard for the Signature Theater Company. With Stiff Upper Lip in NY he directed Philip Ridley's The Pitchfork Disney and Jamie Linley's Dirty Works (Edinburgh Fringe critical acclaim). He has also directed at The Public Theater, EST, HERE and The Zipper.

Playwright Kevin Mandel sits on Red Bull Theater's Development Committee and is a member of the Dramatists Guild. A New Television Arrives, Finally received staged readings at HERE and Brooklyn College. His play Managers ran at NY's Kraine Theater and received a reading at Juilliard.

As a creative choice, the playwright and director have cast actors from different sides of the Atlantic in the dynamic role of 'Television',
offering audiences two distinct interpretations of the role. Performing on alternating nights will be American actor Tom Pelphrey (2006 Emmy Award Winner/Guiding Light) and British actor Victor Villlar-Hauser (The Pitchfork Disney & Dirty Works/Stiff Upper Lip, Sarah Kane's Cleansed/The Ohio). Also in the cast are Bryan Fenkart (EST Marathon 2007, subUrbia/Second Stage) and Kate Russell.

Director Kevin Kittle on the play: "Television recalls for me the revolutionary theater artists like Artaud and Ionesco, as well as contemporary 'shaker uppers' like Philip Ridley. It immediately places us in a particular and peculiar world and holds us there until it's ready to spit us out, changed. It's pointed in its views on our current culture of need.  24 hour TV news programs, the Internet, iPods, text messages, Dr. Phil---we don't know what to do with ourselves if we're not constantly being told what to do, who to be and how to conduct our life."

The production/design team consists of Peter Gordon (Producer), Ari Vigoda (Production Manager), Louisa Proske (Assistant Director), Chad Brinkman (Set and Sound Design), Rebecca Lustig (Costume Design), Robin Paterson (Lighting Design) and Sara Grady (Stage Manager).

Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by calling 1-800-838-3006 or visiting www.brownpapertickets.com. The direct ticket link is www.brownpapertickets.com/event/17628. For more info on the show, visit www.ANewTelevisionArrivesFinally.com.

Photo courtesy of DARR Publicity - Kate Russell, Tom Pelphrey and Bryan Fenkart