Beverley, Potts Lead Karin Coonrod's Strangers and Other Angels In Streets Of NYC
By: Gabrielle Sierra
The medieval mystery play will get a 21st century update on December 4th when the Christmas story is brought to life on the streets of New York City through a raucous mix of music, dance, song, and drink.
In STRANGERS AND OTHER ANGELS, Manhattan's Morningside Heights will become the backdrop for a wild, joyful re-imagination of the centuries-old Second Shepherd's Play. A free theatrical event for audiences of all ages, the production will wind inside and outside venues throughout the neighborhood, from Sakura Park near Riverside Church to the Union Theological Seminary. Gathering crowds along the way, the performance will culminate with a celebratory dance involving the entire cast and audience and food and drink for all to share."Strangers and Other Angels" is a production of Compagnia de' Colombari and is directed by its founder Karin Coonrod (New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre and Theatre for a New Audience). Its May 2010 production of MORE OR LESS I AM, a musical play based on Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, was hailed as "a joyous jamboree" by The New Yorker.
In the tradition of medieval mystery plays, STRANGERS AND OTHER ANGELS engages the talents of a wildly diverse mix of artists and artisans, including opera singers, actors, step-dancing and tap-dancing angels with spectacular wings, steel drummers, accordionists, trombonists, and guitarists.
The production features original music by Tony Geballe and Paul Vasile spanning genres from gospel and jazz to opera and classical, and its book freely incorporates text from a wide breadth of writers, including the gospels, Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, and WH Auden.
Its title is inspired by the Bible verse, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have entertained angels without knowing it."
"STRANGERS AND OTHER ANGLES removes the barrier between performers and the audience, creating a community out of strangers, and inspiring a celebration of our city's spectacular abundance," said Coonrod. "We hope to create a new holiday tradition that reminds us all to embrace our neighbors and our diversity" Cast members include: Tony Award-winner Trazana Beverley ("For Colored Girls Only"), Obie Award-winners Michael Potts, David PatRick Kelly, and Julian Francis Kelly; Jorge Rubio, Michael Rogers, Elliot Villar, Kenny Rampton, Edward Babb, Pheeroan akLaff, Janille Hill, Khalid Hill, Sarah Heltzel, JD Webster, Ayeje Feamster, Dietrice Bolden, Giovanni Pucci, and Christina Gill. The designers include Garland Farwell, Obie Award-winner Peter Ksander, and John ConklinAbout Compagnia de' Colombari
Compagnia de' Colombari is an international collaborative of performing artists born in Orvieto, Italy, and based in New York City. Colombari is dedicated to new and old works from diverse traditions and cultures, creating spectacles for the public free of charge. The Company is named after the colombari-dovecotes-etched high into the cliff on which Orvieto is poised. The dovecotes, networked one to another against the brutal elements, demonstrate a synergy between the individual and the collective. Colombari plays at the intersection and clash of cultures celebrating the intrinsic kinship of humankind alongside its extraordinary diversity. Generating theater for a new century, Colombari believes that every place is a space for the sacred architecture of theater experience, which ignites performer and audience. For more information, visit http://www.colombari.org/.
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