Met Playhouse Hosts East Village Theater Festival 6/6-26

Metropolitan Playhouse, OBIE Award winner and "indispensible East Village institution" (nytheatre.com), presents the second annual East Village Theater Festival, a three-week celebration of the ever-vital life and lore of the East Village. Featuring two series of all new works--Alphabet City and East Village Chronicles--as well as the work of local artists and musicians, and a panel discussion on the neighborhood's identity, the festival will be held every day of the week in Metropolitan's home at 220 E 4th Street June 6th through June 26th, 2011.

The East Village Theater Festival includes a total of 8 new short plays, 6 new solo performances, and a panel discussion with local documentarians and neighborhood advocates. The festival will also feature the work of local artists whose work will appear in the theater lobby.

The two performance series of new works are each in their 7th year: The East Village Chronicles and the Alphabet City Monologues. The East Village Chronicles are new plays inspired by the contemporary life, the lore and the diverse history of the neighborhood. This year's collection, selected from submissions to the theme "Stereotypes", includes plays by award-winning and prolific authors from New York City and around the country: The Philosophers, by Robert Anthony; Baby Marty, by Bryce Richardson; Three Rooms, by Michael Ian Walker; Bitter Fruit from the Bowery, by Larry R. Yates; StaiNed Glass, by Lawrence DuKore; Big Black Mexican Woman, by Alberto Bonilla; The Pretty Young Girl, by Tennessee author Claudia Barnett; and The Last Dream of Arky Malarkey, by Kathleen Warnock.

The Alphabet City solo performances are unlike any other theatrical experience in their marriage of true-life and performance: derived verbatim from interviews with local residents, the monologues present the life and philosphies of current residents in the neighborhood in their own words, as portrayed by actor/interviewers. They have featured over 40 neighbors since 2003, including both prominent and unknown artists and advocates; entrepreneurs and street figures, drug dealers and care-givers. Better known partners include Hilly Christal of CBGB's; photographer Marlis Momber; street philosopher and artist de la Vega; Bill diPaola of Time's Up; Eddie Boros of Avenue B Garden; and "Mosaic Man" Jim Power. Under the direction of Derek Jamison, this year's series includes performance/portrayals by downtown artists Clare Barron as James Tigger! Ferguson; Jane O'Leary as Patricio Jardines; Joel Putnam as Danny Cornyetz; Me'Lisa Sellers as Frances Goldin; Keri Setaro as Miss Aurora Cenzia, MA; and Abraham Sparrow as Alex Sanders.

The festival will also include The East Village: Theory and Practice, a panel discussion with local activists and historians on Wednesday, June 22 at 7:30 (panelists to be announced.)

Exhibitions of the work of East Village Artists will run throughout the festival in the theater's lobby (shared with the Connelly Theater.)

Metropolitan Playhouse explores America's theatrical heritage through forgotten plays of the past and new plays of American historical and cultural moment. Winner of a 2011 Village Voice OBIE award for "For helping us see, theatrically, where we've been and where we are. " and called both "invaluable" and "theatrical archaeologist extraordinaire" by Backstage, Metropolitan has earned accolades from The New York Times, nytheatre.com, and The New Yorker as well for its ongoing mission to produce theater that illuminates American culture and heritage. Recent productions include One-Third of a Nation, The Great Divide, Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Drunkard, Dodsworth, and The Return of Peter Grimm. Past productions of note include Year One of the Empire, The Pioneer: 5 plays by Eugene O'Neill, Denial, Th Octoroon and The Melting Pot.

The East Village Theater Festival begins with an opening reception Monday, June 6th, and runs through Sunday, June 26th. Performances run Mondays through Sundays at 7:30pm; with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm. There are no performances Wednesdays.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $18 for students and seniors, and $12 for Children under 18.
Advance Purchases are $20 adults, $15 students/seniors, and $10 children.
Discount passes are available for multiple events.

To purchase tickets online visit www.metropolitanplayhouse.org or call The Playhouse at 212 995 5302.

Performances:

Panel Discussion--
"The East Village: Theory and Practice"

Monday June 6th - Sunday June 26th, 2011
Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday - Sunday at 7:30pm
Saturday and Sunday at 3pm

Wednesday, June 22nd at 7:30pm

EAST VILLAGE CHRONICLES - Short Play Descriptions

Program A
Directed by Laura Livingston

The Pretty Young Girl, by Claudia Barnett
Inspired by the 1894 true story of Rosie Czeisler, a 14-year-old girl who lived at 192 Stanton Street with her father and her stepmother, who ruled with "a rod of steel." Escaping her life in romantic novels, she finds a tragic way to bond with her favorite heroine.

The Last Dream of Arky Malarkey, by Kathleen Warnock

After the Tompkins Square Riots, street poet Arky Malarkey comes home to the tenement he was born in, not quite noticing it is no longer his. In a play of the flying mind and failing body, he and the new tenant relive the life of the neighborhood :from the Great Depression through the Summer of Love, on to the shooting galleries of "Alphabet City" and the real estate hunts of a gentrifying "East Village."
Bitter Fruit from the Bowery, by Larry R. Yates
In1657, when Asser Levy confronts Peter Stuyvesant with his hatred of Jews, Quakers, and Catholics, to name a few, what the governor decides at his farm, the Bowery, will change history.
Three Rooms, by Michael Ian Walker
The life of Allen Ginsberg's East Village apartment, its newest tenant, and the ever changing face of the neighborhood Ginsberg loved and maybe never left.
Program B
Directed by Andrew Firda

Baby Marty, by Bryce Richardson
Marty is a regular at a lonely dive bar; Zach is a former stoolmate--but a new baby and an old band have a way of changing the dynamics in a changing Village.
The Philosophers, by Robert Anthony
Sammy and Ernie, no longer in business, spend a lot of time in the park, reading and comiserating the changes in the neighborhood. But when Abie the pickle salesman pays them a visit, their perspective gains a whole new vantage.
Big Black Mexican Woman, by Alberto Bonilla
When Suzan passes away, she suddenly finds herself on heavens doorstep and learns some shocking revelations not only about heaven, but about herself.
StaiNed Glass, by Lawrence DuKore
A mixed race couple--disabled combat veteran and an artist who works in staiNed Glass--disagree about dealing with a destructive teenager who throws rocks at the artist's work windows. The problem solver turns out to be an unlikely third party with a practical, realistic, and unexpectedly inclusive solution.

ALPHABECT CITY includes theatrical portrtaits of ...

Evening A

Jane O'Leary as Patricio Jardines- colorist/stylist, former drag queen.

Joel Putnam as Danny Cornyetz -Video Jockey

Me'Lisa Sellers as Frances Goldin- human rights activist/radical literary agent
Evening B

Keri Setaro as Miss Aurora Cenzia, MA.- Director, Virgina Day Nursery

Abraham Sparrow as Alex Sanders-Hondler; retired? Age 85 ("Hondler" is Yiddish for Schemer)

Clare Barron as James Tigger! Ferguson -- "The Godfather of Boylesque" & "The Original King of Boylesque."

The East Village: Theory and Practice
Wednesday, June 22nd at 7:30 pm
A neighborhood defined over generations by transition, what is now called the "East Village" is both an actual place and a reputation of a place. A panel on the history, development, and culture of the East Village featuring city and neighborhood historians, actvists and documentarians. Guests to be confirmed.