Aporia Theater Presents World Premiere of WOYZECK, 5/17

Aporia Theater has announced the limited engagement of WOYZECK, a new adaptation by Artistic Director Sarah Elizabeth Wansley with original music by David Marenberg. Preview is May 17; Opening is May 18.

Germany,1836. At the age of 23, Georg Buchner begins a haunting new play based on a real murder in the German countryside, but dies before he can finish the script. Aporia Theater rediscovers the first modern drama, Woyzeck – a man’s struggle between love and betrayal, reality and dream.

Says Wansley, “With this new translation, I created a Woyzeck that is accessible to a contemporary American audience, yet remains grounded in the circumstances of its original time and place. To this end, we are using an English text with songs in both English and German. David’s score juxtaposes an electronic atonal soundscape with live violin and folk melodies. I want the audience to experience the strangeness of the original German text.” The cast features Lydia Blaisdell, Ugo Chukwu, Alexander Cook, Greg Engbrecht, Eloïse Eonnet, Graham Halstead, Grant Harrison, Rosa Gilmore, Miles Jacoby and Joseph Rende. The design and production team includes Liz Blessing (sets), Carl Wiemann (lights), Bridget Gavlin (costumes), Benjamin Kamine (sound), Tommy Crawford (music direction), Catherine Fowles (Production Stage Manager), Michael Brick (dramaturgy) and Eric Emch (graphics).

Aporia Theater, founded in 2007 by a group of Columbia University alumni, is a dynamic company devoted to cultivating a rising generation of theater artists through the development and production of compelling original work. Past work includes Follow Me Down at The Flea Theater, Rick Hardon: Private Dick at the T.O.N.Y. Lounge, Bare Naked Drama at The Cherry Pit and Jimmy’s No. 43, Passion in the Park in Central Park, The Disappearance of Jonah in the 2008 NY International and Capital (DC) Fringe Festivals, Existential Acts at The Cherry Lane Studio, and Moonlight, The Real Inspector Hound and The Real Thing at Columbia University.

WOYZECK will run May 17 through 27, Thursdays through Sundays at 8pm and Saturdays at 8pm and 10pm. Access Theater is located at 380 Broadway at White St. three blocks south of Canal, close to the A/C/E, N/R/Q, 6, J/M/Z and 1 subway lines. Tickets are $15.