Matthew Gasda's New Adaptation of THE BACCHAE Set for Run at SUNY Oswego Tonight

SUNY Oswego Theater Department has commissioned rising young NYC playwright Matthew Gasda to re-conceive and write a new translation/adaptation of THE BACCHAE by Euripides for the contemporary stage.

Gorilla Rep NYC's Christopher Carter Sanderson, who recently joined SUNY Oswego as a professor in their Theater Department, will be directing the production. Additionally, Sanderson is seeking to the bring the show to New York City for Gorilla Rep's Summer 2016 season.

Opening night is set for THE BACCHAE at SUNY Oswego's Hewitt Ballroom, this weekend, October 22, 23, 24 and October 29, 30 and 31. It will be presented on a set of rock-and-roll lighting trusses and ancient stone monoliths.

Matthew Gasda's first play, Messages, was staged in early 2015 as a workshop production by Gorilla Rep NYC and appeared this past summer in NYC's Midtown International Theater Festival. He is currently developing another full-length drama, titled Denmark, which recently received a professional reading in New York. Mr. Gasda is also a working screenwriter: he has recently completed an adaptation of Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters for Maiden Voyage Productions. Gasda is a 2011 graduate of Syracususe University who is currently a Teaching Fellow at Lehigh University, pursuing a Master's in English Literature. To date, he has published two novels, Moon on Water and Sonata for Piano and Violin, and a book of poetry, The American Sublime.

The production features up and coming student performers, including:

Dionysus- Nick Cocks
Pentheus- Khari Constantine
Camdus- Max Fehr
Tiresias- Wyatt Gilbert
Acteon- Ervin Bautista
Heimon- Matt McCabe
Lykos- Iury Esquarcio
Agave/Ghosts Chorus Leader- Alyssa Scruton
Ghosts Chorus/ Understudy Tiresias- Emma Johnson
Ghosts Chorus/Understudy Cadmus- Remington
Ghosts Chorus/Understudy Heimon- Robert O'Leary
Ghosts Chorus- Elsa Neider
Raving Ones Chorus Leader/Understudy Dionysus- Anna Richardson
Raving Ones Chorus/Understudy Pentheus- Libbie Wansink
Raving Ones Chorus/Understudy Lykos- Emily Stott
Raving Ones Chorus/Understudy Ghost Chorus Leader- Alex Matsu
Raving Ones Chorus/Understudy Raving Ones Chorus Leader- Kelci Schlierf
Understudy Acteon- Ghosts Chorus/Understudy- Spencer Ventresca

THE BACCHAE by Matthew Gasda will be published by Serpent Club Press, Fall 2015.

Founded in 1989 by Christopher Carter Sanderson, Gorilla Rep (www.gorillareptheare.org) continues to provide high-quality theatrical productions of classical dramatic works combined with a contemporary immediacy FREE to New York City audiences.

For more information, go to www.oswego.edu/theatre.