Magis Theatre to Host Special Launch Party Entitled THE HEALING SUN

Magis Theatre Company was set to present Thornton Wilder's rarely produced play "The Alcestiad", with a satyr play The Drunken Sisters beginning on this year's Solstice, June 20, 2020, outdoors at Roosevelt Island's Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, but due to the shutdown, had to reschedule the run for next June 2021.

In honor of its original opening night, Magis Theatre will host a Solstice launch party event entitled "The Healing Sun," for its new interactive website (www.Alcestiad.com) that focuses on this timely and powerful play. It will feature interviews with the cast, dramaturgical material about Wilder's play, letters from Thornton Wilder during the writing of the Alcestiad, and a walking tour of Four Freedoms Park, the outdoor venue on Roosevelt Island in New York City where the event will be held next June. The event will stream on Facebook @ Magis Theatre Company

"Wilder sets his play on three days of summer solstice, 12 years apart. Solstice means "when the sun stands still"... a moment of change from the days getting longer to once again getting shorter, calling attention to growth and transformation. On this day, the sun is at its strongest, healing herbs at the full potency. At this time in our own history, we are in great need of healing not only of bodies but of our society and our planet." George Drance, Magis Theatre Company

"The Healing Sun" launch party event will be held on Saturday, June 20, at 7 PM. It will include Sheree V. Campbell, Russ Cusick, Deniz Demirer, Margid Sharp Douglas, Brian Douglas George Drance, Kimbirdlee Fadner, Sara Galassini, Jacqueline Lucid, Tony Macht, Mae Roney, Diego Andres Tapia, and Jenna Wyman.

The Alcestiad takes place in a world where individualism and greed have been driving forces in recent years, this work of Thornton Wilder celebrates the beauty of making sacrifices for the good of others and how this kind of courageous self-giving can transform society. Alcestis learning through her pain to overcome it by understanding is a theme that is crucial for us today.

Magis Theatre seeks out neglected works of the past that still have something important to say to us in our present. "The Alcestiad" is one of those pieces and was brought to Magis Theatre's attention by Irene Worth in 1997. In a world where individualism and greed have been driving forces in recent years, this work of Thornton Wilder celebrates the beauty of making sacrifices for the good of others and how this kind of courageous self-giving can transform society.

One of America's most lauded playwrights, Thorton Wilder's rarely performed play, The Alcestiad premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 1955, directed by Tyrone Guthrie and is inspired by Euripides Greek tragedy Alcestis. Wilder's third-act imagines a world after Alcestis returns from the land of the dead, her kingdom is overthrown by a tyrant and is ravaged by a plague. The play deals with the power of irrational fear in society at the hands of those who would seek to intimidate others brutally as well as askes questions about the meaning of human life and its' relationship to the divine.

Thornton Wilder said of The Alcestiad, "On one level, my play recounts the life of a woman-of many women-from bewildered bride to sorely tested wife to overburdened old age. On another level, it is a wildly romantic story of gods and men, of death and hell and resurrection, of great loves and great trials, of usurpation and revenge. On another level, however, it is a comedy about a very serious matter."