Peter Beard Leads Q&A After Jeremy Crutchley's SACRED ELEPHANT at La MaMa Tonight

Tonight, September 10 at 7:30 PM in La MaMa's First Floor Theater, Jeremy Crutchley will give a special performance of his remarkable one-man show, "Sacred Elephant," to benefit the Stand Up for Mothers Campaign of AMREF (African Medical and Research Foundation). The performance will be followed by a reception and Q&A hosted by renowned photographer and artist, Peter Beard.

A limited number of seats have recently been made available for the general public. Tickets are $100 for the play, reception and Q&A; $50 for the play only, and can be purchased at http://amrefplay.eventbrite.com. The show's American premiere run is September 4 to 22 as part of Summer Shares at La MaMa.

Peter Beard is the noted photographer and artist whose photos of Africa and African animals, especially elephants, have been widely shown and published since the 1970s. He is also noted for his photographs of celebrities. In the early 60s he worked at Kenya's Tsavo National Park, during which time he photographed and documented the demise of over 35,000 elephants and 5000 Black Rhinos and published two The End of the Game books (1965 & 1977). In 1996, shortly after he was skewered and trampled by an elephant, his first major retrospective opened at the Centre National de la Photographie in Paris, followed by other exhibits in Berlin, London, Toronto, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo and Vienna. Beard has befriended and collaborated on projects with many artists including Andy Warhol, Andrew Wyeth, Richard Lindner, Terry Southern, Truman Capote and Francis Bacon.

Jeremy Crutchley is British-born and educated. With a 35-year career bridging two countries, he has also become one of South Africa's foremost leading actors. In the UK, his work has been seen in several BBC TV dramas as well as with the RSC and on the West-End stage. His distinguished career includes Shakespeare, solo shows, Rock Theater, TV and Feature Films. "Sacred Elephant," a tour de force solo performance, is his first appearance on the US stage.

In "Sacred Elephant," he acts the famed epic poem of the same name that was written in 1987 by Heathcote Williams but never previously adapted for the stage. The work is directed by Geoffrey Hyland. The popular and haunting poem begins, "The shape of an African elephant's ear is the shape of Africa. The shape of an Indian elephant's ear is the shape of India..." and dares humans to find any superior link between form and land ownership. The poem examines the life of elephants in their natural habitat and in captivity. Its text is stark and uncompromising, hauntingly beautiful and highly emotive: a fitting tribute to all the animals that have been and will be sacrificed to satisfy man's greed. The writing challenges mankind to regain its lost moral compass, asking what it says about us that we destroy a creature which, by our own measurements, is greater than we are.

The American premiere run of "Sacred Elephant" will be through September 22, 2013, produced by SheerNerve Productions in association with BuyArt and Cockpit as part of the Summer Shares at La MaMa. Performances are in La MaMa's First Floor Theater, 74A East Fourth Street, Wed-Sat at 8:00pm, Sun at 3:00 PM. Tickets to the regular run are $20 general admission, $18 seniors, $16 students and available through Smarttix, (212) 868-4444, www.smarttix.com. The show's website is: www.sacredelephantplay.com.

Pictured: Actor Jeremy Crutchley. Photo by Rob Keith.

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