Second Generation Productions (2g), a major incubator and producer of Asian American theater, announced today that Julian Cihi (Romeo and Juliet, Classic Stage Company) and Diane Phelan (Bernarda Alba, Lincoln Center) lead the cast of 2g's commissioned musical, Galois, by Sung Rno and Aaron Jones, directed by Victor Maog and produced by Jane Jung. The creative team also includes Music Director J. Oconer Navarro (The Adding Machine), Choreographer Camille A. Brown (tick, tick...BOOM!) and Fight Director Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum (Peter and the Starcatcher).
Galois is part of New Ohio Theatre's 2014 ICE FACTORY Festival, located at 154 Christopher Street between Greenwich and Washington Streets in New York City. Performances are Wednesday through Saturday, July 23 to 26, 2014, at 7pm. The Ice Factory is an OBIE Award-winning summer festival of new work that has been called "the summer festival with the hippest downtown cred." (TimeOut NY) Tickets are $18 and $15 for students and seniors, and can be purchased online at www.NewOhioTheatre.org or by calling the Vendini ticket line at 1-888-596-1027.
Galois is a rock-mathematical-musical expression of the chaotic, brilliant, and all too brief life of Evariste Galois, who discovered a branch of mathematics as a precocious teenager, yet died in 1830's revolutionary Paris at 21 in a duel over a woman's love.
Jonathan-David (A Civil War Christmas, NYTW),
Shelley Thomas (Brooklyn, Zanna Don't),
Andrew Guilarte (Invasion, Play Company) and
Robbie Tann (The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer, New Victory Theater) complete the cast. Designers include
Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams (sets),
Yael Lubetzky (lights),
Sidney Shannon (costumes) and
Josh Liebert (sound). Shae Candeleria is production stage manager and
Nikki Chalas is Associate Producer.
Bookwriter-Lyricist Sung Rno, an NEA/TCG Playwriting Fellow,
New Dramatists alumni, and founder of Ma-Yi Writer's Lab, studied physics at Harvard and poetry at Brown. Composer-Lyricist Aaron Jones, a graduate of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, recently created Hamelin with legendary director-choreographer Otis A. Sallid (Smokey Joe's Cafe) and played The Late Show with
David Letterman with the band Luscious Jackson. Maog introduced the writing team to each other in May 2013.
"We believe that a "math musical", written by a Korean American playwright, about a French revolutionary will subvert the expectations of 2g's culturally specific work and expand what constitutes an Asian American theater work," said Producer
Jane Jung.
"Sung Rno and Aaron Jones were strangers to one another a year ago. They're some of the most brilliant artists I know and having a stellar team gather around their work is a testament to the chemistry of this unlikely pairing. We're honored to be part of a festival that has produced some of the industry's best talent," said Galois Director
Victor Maog.
Visit
www.2g.org for more information.
BIOS
Sung Rno's plays include Galois, Happy, wAve, Yi Sang Counts to Thirteen, Behind the Masq, Weather, Cleveland Raining, Gravity Falls From Trees, Drizzle and Other Stories, New World, and The Trajectory of a Heart, Fractured. His work has been produced and developed by Pan Asian Repertory, East West Players, Thick Description, Asian American Theater Company, Northwest Asian American Theatre, San Diego Asian American Repertory Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Immigrants' Theatre Project, Seoul International Theatre Festival, New York International Fringe Festival, Sanctuary Playwrights Theatre, Second Generation, Changgo Theater (Seoul), Yellow Earth Theatre (London), Silk Road Theatre Project, Public Theater,
Mark Taper Forum,
Arena Stage,
Foundry Theatre,
Mabou Mines/Suite, and
Ma-Yi Theater Company. As an NEA/TCG Resident Playwright with
Ma-Yi Theater Company, Sung founded the Ma-Yi Writers' Lab which has grown to support the next generation of boundary-pushing voices. Other honors include the
New Dramatists Whitfield Cook Prize, a New York Fringe Festival Best Overall Production Award, two Van Lier Fellowships (with
New Dramatists and New York Theatre Workshop) and first prize in the Seattle Multicultural Playwrights' Festival.
His work is anthologized in Savage Stage; Seven Contemporary Plays from the Korean Diaspora in the Americas; Version 3.0; But Still, Like Air, I'll Rise; Premonitions; Echoes Upon Echoes and The Nuyorasian Anthology. His screenplay for Crumple (directed by
C.S. Lee, featuring
Paul H. Juhn) won the first annual 64-hour AAFF Film Shootout. He has a BA in physics, Harvard College, an MFA in creative writing from Brown University and is a
New Dramatists Alumnus.
Aaron Jones is a composer/performer based out of Brooklyn. Recently commissioned by Waterwell, Jones is working with legendary director-choreographer
Otis Sallid (Smokey Joe's Cafe) on a new musical called Hamelin. He performs experimental theatre art-rock performances with his band, SWAMS. With his wife/writing partner, Anna, he also has a band, called Banana Baron , that performs music for kids. In addition to playing with the alternative rock group Luscious Jackson, he is the author of numerous operas, musicals, and plays, and creates music for dance, theatre and film. Aaron holds an MFA from NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.
Led by Artistic Director
Victor Maog and Managing Director
Jane Jung, SECOND GENERATION PRODUCTIONS (2g) is dedicated to creating contemporary, world-class Asian American theater that reaches across cultural and racial boundaries. 2g has partnered with some of the country's most prestigious theatre companies to co-produce world premieres of new Asian American plays. Since its inception, Second Generation has supported several hundred artists, through full productions of new plays and community-based events, as well as grassroots developmental work in service of cultivating new generations of excellence in Asian American dramatic arts. The company aims to develop and produce full-length works. The goal of 2g is to commission Asian American playwrights and provide them with a cycle of development from initial workshop to final production.
Second Generation Productions is supported by NYSCA, DCA, and the ART/NY Creative Space Grant and
Nancy Quinn Fund. Galois is funded by The
Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology project. For more information, visit
www.2g.org.
NEW OHIO THEATRE strengthens, nurtures and promotes a community of independent theatre artists and theatre companies by curating and presenting new work in New York City. With its Ice Factory summer festival New Ohio offers emerging and established companies a prime forum in which to develop their work. Ice Factory prides itself on maintaining extraordinary aesthetic diversity along with an unequaled standard for intelligent, imaginative theater.
New York Magazine praises the Ice Factory as "New York's #1 Summer Theatre Festival" and The New York Times applauds the festival's "focus on risky and imaginative new work." The New Ohio is accessible from the #1 train to Christopher St. or A, B, C, D, E, F or M train to West 4th St. For info visit
http://www.NewOhioTheatre.org.
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