Libra Theater Company Presents Shakespeare's 12th NIGHT, Now thru 5/12

Libra Theater Company has announced its Spring 2012 production of 12th Night by William Shakespeare. Directed by Evan Mueller (Amphibian Productions' Animals Out of Paper – "Best Of", Fort Worth Weekly), 12th Night features a talented ensemble cast including Drama Desk nominee Jeremy Morse (Bloodsong of Love, Ars Nova) as well as original songs and music direction by Jeff Raab. The show runs tonight, May 1 through May 12, 2012.

In 12th Night, the inhabitants of Shakespeare's land of Illyria really know how to get into trouble. In fact, they do it in style: Mistaken identities. Malicious tricks. Tangled love affairs.

The production will feature Angela Cristantello*, Steven Cuevas*, Joe Fellman, Will Gallacher, Ashley Grombol, Alex Mandell, Ryder McNair, Nick Moore, Jeremy Morse*, Emily Rose Prats, Jeff Raab, Roy Richardson, and Victoria Weinberg. Costume design by Travis Boatright.

(*Appear courtesy of Actors Equity Association. 12th Night is an Equity Approved Showcase.)

12th Night will be performed at The Underground Lounge, 955 West End Avenue (at 107th Street, near both the 103rd Street and 110th Street stops on the 1 train).

Show dates are Tuesday, May 1 at 8pm, Wednesday, May 2 at 7pm, Thursday, May 3 at 7pm, Saturday, May 5 at 8pm, Wednesday, May 9 at 7pm, Friday, May 11 at 8pm and Saturday, May 12 at 8pm.

Tickets are $15 with $10 tickets available to the first 10 ticket buyers at each performance. Note that all ticket holders are also subject to a two-item minimum purchase at The Underground. There will also be a special limited-seating preview on Monday, April 30 at 1:30pm. Tickets for this performance are $8.

To purchase tickets, go to Libra's website (www.libratheater.org) or go directly to the event ticketing page at https://www.artfullyhq.com/store/events/137.

For more details, visit www.libratheater.org.

Evan Mueller is a director, teacher, and actor, currently teaching and working at New York University. In New York and regionally, Evan has worked with various theater companies, such as North Carolina's Wendell Theater Group and Manbites Dog Theatre; Amphibian Stage Productions in Fort Worth, Texas; the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival; The Public Theater of Maine, The Warehouse Theatre in South Carolina; the McCarter Theater and the Rutgers Theater Company in New Jersey; the Source Theatre Company in Washington DC; and in New York: Ars Nova, the Sweet William Collective, the Samuel French Company, the New Phoenix Theater Company, the Engeman Theater, 86th Street Films, The Triptych Theater Company, The Artful Conspirators, the Lightning Strikes Theater Company, and the Hamptons Shakespeare Festival. As a director, Evan's recent projects include: Miss Witherspoon, Nocturne, Dolores, Romeo & Julie, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, The First Day of School, Animals Out of Paper, and a series of short films for the Arts Council of Forth Worth called "For Love" about the financial struggles of a regional theater in difficult economic times.

Jeff Raab's performing credits include Lend Me a Tenor (White Plains Performing Arts Center), Broadway's Rising Stars (Town Hall), Man of La Mancha (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina), Seussical (Westchester Broadway Theater), The Entropy Songs (Libra Theater Company) and staged readings at the York Theatre and Metropolitan Playhouse. Jeff has also worked as a director (Greater Tuna, Lives of the Saints, Cinderella, Harvey) a songwriter and musician, having written and/or played for over 30 productions, and a dialect coach (Steel Magnolias, Drood, Tommy). He is a staff member at Little Village Playhouse, an innovative youth theatre company in Westchester County, and he has interned at Off-Broadway's York Theatre Company and Classic Stage Company. He is a graduate of the NYU Steinhardt Musical Theatre Program.

Libra Theater Company is dedicated to creating quality theater that honors and works with the time commitments of its artists. Most recently, Libra presented Songs You Should Know, a concert of new and rarely performed works by composers like Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days), Brad Alexander (See Rock City), and Joe Iconis (Bloodsong of Love). The concert included performances by Jeremy Jordan (Newsies), Ashley Spencer (Priscilla…), and Jessica Grové (A Little Night Music). Past work includes The Entropy Songs, a musical by 2011 Jonathan Larson Grant recipient Joshua H. Cohen; Fleet Week and Other Reasons to Sail, a three-night concert event of songs by Sam Carner and Derek Gregor; and Midsummer Musicals, an evening of readings of short musicals by Joshua H. Cohen, Sophia Chapadjiev, Mat Eisenstein, Mark T. Evans, Allison Leyton-Brown, Sara Nicholson, and Sunny Dahlia Turner. Libra also operates its free quarterly In the Balance reading series.