Marymount Manhattan College Presents GIRL GONE, 10/21-10/25

Girl Gone by Mac Wellman with direction by Paul Lazar, choreography by Annie-B Parson, with music composed and directed by Cynthia Hopkins marks the premier fall production at Marymount's Division of Fine Arts. The production will play 5 performances only; Wednesday, October 21 through Sunday, October 25 at the Theresa Lang Theatre.

Three young girls who are more than slightly wicked set upon the completion of Pandora's work: to unleash all manner of wickedness into the world, and undo in the process the hope of Hope. Wellman's elliptical and witty play serves as a canvas for integrating dance, song, and intriguing stage images.This production is performed by students in the Theatre Arts programs of the College.

Girl Gone will feature DiAna Gonzalez-Morett (Headmistress), Terrell Green (Vadoo), Molly Groome (Buggins), Rebeca Iavarone (Faye/ Dorrit), EVan Johnson (Chaz), Courtney MacNeil (Dinah), Jillian Mason (Evil Sister), Devin Nelson (Hope), Liana Rowe (Faye/ Dorrit), Kaylyn Scardefield (Madame Tomba), Chris Stokes (Forrest), Elise Vanderkley (Mother), Jessica Zambrotta (Evil Sister) and Rachel Zeiger-Haag (Evil Sister). Paul Lazar will direct Girl Gone written by Mac Wellman, with songwriter with music direction by Cynthia Hopkins and choreographed by Timberly Harris and Molly Hickok.

The creative team for Girl Gone includes: Paul Markert (Assistant director), Chip Rodgers (Assistant Director), Lisa Jaeger (Stage Manager), Elise Napoli (Assistant Stage Manager), Andrew Jennings (Assistant Stage Manager), Rob Dutiel (Set Director), Sophia Palacios Blanco (Assistant Set Director), Ray Recht (Lighting Director), T. Michael Hall (Costumer), Kirche Zeile (Costume Designer Professor), Mary Fleischer (Producer), Owen Spruill (Student Producer), Ross Champpell (Operations Director), CatrIona Jones (Administrative Secretary).

Paul Lazar founded Big Dance Theater in 1991 with Annie-B Parson. His work with the company includes conceiving, directing and/or performing in such works as PLAN B, Mac Wellman's Antigone, Another Telepathic Thing, Shunkin, Mac Wellman's Girl Gone, as well as dance/theater adaptations of Tristan Tzara's The Gas Heart, Ödon von Horvath's Don Juan Returns from the War, and Fassbinder's Bremen Freedom. He received a BESSIE in 2002. Outside his work with Big Dance Theater, Mr. Lazar has been an Associate Member of The Wooster Group, acting in Brace Up!, Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape. Other acting credits include Marie Irene Fornes' Mudd, and Richard Maxwell's Cowboys and Indians. His film career includes roles in Silence of the Lambs, Beloved, Lorenzo's Oil, Philadelphia, and Henry Fool. He has been a guest teacher at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, The Bill Esper Studio, The Michael Howard Studio and Rutgers University. He co-directed Botho Strauss' Big and Little with Annie-B Parson, and directed Len Jenkin's Dark Ride for NYU's Experimental Theater Wing. He directed Major Bang for the Foundry Theater in the spring of 2005.

Mac Wellman's recent plays are: Bitter Bierce, at PS 122; Jennie Richee, with the Ridge Theater, at The Arts at St Ann; Anything's Dream at Mulhenberg College; and Antigone, with Big Dance Company at Dance Theater Workshop. He has published two novels with Sun & Moon Press: The Fortuneteller and Annie Salem; Sun & Moon also published A Shelf In Woop's Clothing, a book of poems, From The Other Side Of The Century II, an anthology of plays (co-edited with Douglas Messerli), Two Plays: The Land Beyond The Forest, and Crowtet 1 and 2, the latter two volumes under the Green Integer imprint. Roof Books has recently published his Miniature, a book of poems. He has received numerous award: NEA, NYFA, Rockefeller, McNight and Guggenheim Fellowships. In 1990 he received an Obie for Best American Play (Bad Penny, Crowbar, and Terminal Hip). In 1991 He received another Obie for Sincerity Forever. He has received a Lila Wallace-Readers' Digest Writers Award, and most recently the 2003 Obie for Lifetime Achievement. He is the Donald I. Fine Professor of Play Writing at Brooklyn College.

Cynthia Hopkins is a writer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and theater artist. In 1999, she formed the band Gloria Deluxe, which has since produced five full-length albums and performed at numerous venues in New York City and elsewhere. Opening for legendary artists such as David Byrne and Patti Smith, the group has developed an enthusiastic following for its unique blend of folk, cabaret, rock, blues, and country music. Gloria Deluxe has been an integral component of works created with Accinosco, including Accidental Nostalgia (an operetta about the pros and cons of amnesia) (for which Ms. Hopkins received a 2005 Bessie Award) and Must Don't Whip ‘Um, a prequel to Accidental Nostalgia, which premiered in January 2007. Ms. Hopkins has also created solo music/theater works including Tsimtsum, a piece commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop for the May 2006 'Sourcing Stravinsky Festival'; and Song Before Love Songs (a post-apocalyptic requiem for the human race), a composition commissioned by Bang on a Can which premiered in February 2005. In addition, Ms. Hopkins has worked as a composer, musician, and performer for many projects, including Big Dance Theater's Antigone, Shunkin, and Another Telepathic Thing (2001 Bessie award for composition; 2000 OBIE award for performance); and Ridge Theater's production of Mac Wellman's at Jennie Richee, for which she won a 2001 Obie Award as part of the collaborative team. Ms. Hopkins also performs as a guest artist with groups including Bonnie Prince Billy and Dan Zanes and Friends. She is currently at work on Part III of the The Accidental Trilogy (of which Accidental Nostalgia is Part I and Must Don't Whip ‘Um is Part II), titled The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success).

Marymount Manhattan College Theatre Arts Division. The Theatre Arts programs at Marymount Manhattan College wants something special: professional theatre training combined with a strong liberal arts education in Manhattan.

MMC Theatre Arts graduates leave with viable, competitive portfolios and audition material. Recent graduates of MMC have gone on to prestigious graduate schools (The Juilliard School, Yale School of Drama, DePaul University, Harvard, Columbia University), films (Chaplin, Field of Dreams, Get on the Bus, Little Odessa, Scenes From A Mall, The Edge of Seventeen), television (100 Centre Street, Ellen, ER, In Living Color, New York Undercover, Melrose Place, The West Wing), The Royal National Theatre (London) and Broadway (Wicked, Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins, Rock 'n' Roll, The Lion King & Little Shop of Horrors) national tours (Aida, Dreamgirls, Fosse, Guys & Dolls, Showboat), Off-Broadway (Lincoln Center Theatre, Vineyard Theatre, Krane Theatre, American Place Theatre, Mabou Mines, La Mama Theatre, LAByrinth Theater Company) and regional tours. Others have been hired as stage managers, lighting designers, directors, playwrights and arts managers in performing arts venues such as The Dallas Theatre Center, The Second Stage Theatre, The New York Shakespeare Festival, Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre, Touchstone Pictures and Dance Theatre Workshop. Still others have gone on to careers in architecture, education, law, medicine, and business.

Marymount Manhattan College Division Of Fine And Performing Arts fall 2009 season will also include: As You Like It William Shakespeare's witty, playful and totally magical As You Like It is a compelling romantic adventure in which Rosalind and Orlando's celebrated courtship is played out against a backdrop of political rivalry, banishment and exile in the Forest of Arden. This production is performed by students in the Theatre Arts programs of the College with direction by John Basil, scenic design by Aaron Switzer, lighting design by Gretchen Engle, costume design by Kirche Leigh Zeile, music composed and directed by Bruce Lazarus, vocal coaching by BarbAra Adrian, and choreography by Haila Strauss. November 18-21 at 8:00PM and November 22 at 2:00PM Location: Theresa Lang Theatre (221 East 71 Street NY, NY 10021) Cost: General admission: $10; senior citizens & students with valid ID: $5.

PRODUCTION PERFORMANCES:

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21 AT 8:00PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22 AT 8:00PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23 AT 8:00PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24 AT 8:00PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25 AT 2:00PM

TICKETING INFORMATION:

Tickets are available through email at TheatreTickets@mmm.edu, by telephone at 212.774.0760 or at the box office on the day of the performance (seats are limited).
Ticket prices range from $5.00-$10.00. Reservations begin Wednesday, October 7.
For more information please visit the Marymount Manhattan College Theatre Production Workshop website at http://marymount.mmm.edu/cgibin/MySQLdb?MYSQL_VIEW=/news/view_theater.txt.