New York Theatre Workshop Presents THREE PIANOS, 12/19-1/9

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that Three Pianos, written, arranged, and performed by Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, and Dave Malloy, and directed by Rachel Chavkin, will begin performances Tuesday, December 7, at 7pm, at NYTW, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery.  Opening night is scheduled for Sunday, December 19 at 7:00pm.  The production runs through January 9, 2011.

A theatrical explosion of Franz Schubert's Winterreise song cycle, Three Pianos is a colorful and imaginative evening of chaos that explores Schubert's music, life, and times.  On a blustery winter night three friends-each manning a piano-perform Schubert's famous work adding their own fantastical touches and inventive arrangements, while drinking and grappling with fundamental questions about the nature of music.  Eventually the three slip into a wild reenactment of a "Schubertiad," a party similar to ones thrown by Schubert and his friends, and the audience joins in (with complimentary wine!) on an evening of hilarity and heartbreak, not to mention compositional mayhem, shifting rivalries, and some unfortunate butchery of the German language.  Three Pianos is the winner of a 2010 OBIE Award.

Rick Burkhardt is an award-winning composer, songwriter, and playwright whose original chamber music, theatre, and text pieces have been performed by dozens of ensembles in over forty US cities, as well as in Europe, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.  He is a founding member of the Nonsense Company, a touring experimental music/theater trio, and songwriter/accordionist for the Prince Myshkins, a political cabaret/folk duo whose songs have been performed and recorded by a wide variety of musicians across the US.

Alec Duffy is a director/playwright and is the founder of the theatre company Hoi Polloi.  Recent original work includes The less we talk: a meditation on group-singing, Dysphoria (Ontological Theater) and The Top Ten People of the Millennium Sing Their Favorite Schubert Lieder, which premiered in New York and toured to Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago. Duffy is a Drama League Directing Fellow and was one of seven directors nationwide to be selected for the 2007-09 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors. 

Dave Malloy is a composer/sound designer/performer, winner of a 2009 Jonathan Larson Grant and a recipient of the 2009-11 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Theatre Designers. His most recent large-scale work, Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage, a Banana Bag & Bodice SongPlay commissioned by Berkeley's Shotgun Players featuring dueling trombones and 40's vocal jazz harmonies, enjoyed sold out runs in Berkeley and New York, received the 2008 Glickman Award and appeared on the Best of 2008 lists of every major Bay Area paper (including two #1 spots).
Rachel Chavkin is the artistic director of the TEAM, with whom she has directed/co-authored six works including Particularly in the Heartland, Give Up! Start Over! (In the darkest of times I look to Richard Nixon for hope), Howl, based on the poem by Allen Ginsberg, and Architecting, produced by the National Theatre of Scotland. Outside of her work with the TEAM she has collaborated with Taylor Mac on The Lily's Revenge at HERE, playwright/composer Molly Rice and composer Ray Rizzo on Canary, and playwright Steve Yockey on Wonder. She earned her BFA at NYU where she now serves on the directing faculty at Playwrights Horizons Theater School, and earned her MFA at Columbia University.

The set design for Three Pianos is by Andreea Mincic; costume design is by Jessica Pabst; lighting design is by Austin Smith; sound design is by Matt Hubbs & Dave Malloy; video design is by Dave Malloy; production stage manager is Jessie Vacchiano.

New York Theatre Workshop, now celebrating its 28th season, is a leading voice in the world of Off-Broadway and within the theatre community in New York and around the world. NYTW has emerged as a premiere incubator of important new theatre, honoring its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape our lives. In addition, NYTW is known for its innovative adaptations of classic repertory. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village neighborhood, NYTW presents three to five new productions, over 80 readings, and numerous workshop productions, for over 45,000 audience members.  Over the past 28 years, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, and Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number, and Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's Aftermath. The 2002 remounting of Martha Clarke's seminal work Vienna: Lusthaus and subsequent American tour was one of the longest-running productions in NYTW's history.  NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies, and minority artist fellowships. In 1991, NYTW received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement and in 2000 was designated to be part of the Leading National Theatres Program by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Terra Fossil is the official wine sponsor of Three Pianos.

Three Pianos plays at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery.  The regular performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:00pm; Wednesday through Friday at 8:00pm; Saturday at 3:00pm and 8:00pm; Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.  There will be a special student matinee on Thursday, January 6 at 1pm.  There is no performance on Christmas Day.  Three Pianos runs through Sunday, January 9, 2010.  Tickets start at $65 and may be purchased online at www.ticketcentral.com, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or by phoning Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200.  For exact dates and times of performance, visit www.nytw.org.
AfterWords post-performance audience discussions will take place Tuesday, December 14 after the 7pm performance; Saturday, December 18 after the 3pm performance, and Saturday, January 8 after the 8pm performance.

NYTW is pleased make theatre accessible to everyone with its $20 CheapTix Sundays program. A dedicated number of tickets for Sunday evening performances at 7:00pm can be purchased in person at the NYTW Box Office for only $20. Tickets may be purchased in advance, payable in cash only and are available to all audience members.

NYTW also has $20 student tickets available for all performances. Student tickets may be purchased in advance from the NYTW Box Office with valid student identification.
The NYTW Box office is open 1:00pm to 6:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

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