THEATER OF THE ARCADE Returns as Part of FringeNYC 8/13

A violent brute holds an innocent young woman captive and attacks anyone who dares approach. A glutton eats everything in sight while running away from the ghosts that haunt him. A lone survivor forges a peril-ridden path towards a lush refuge he can never reach. Are these the plots of classic video games, or are they searing narratives of modernist drama? A hit of The Brick Theater's 2010 Game Play festival of video-game theater, this collection of short plays returns to explore what happens when stories born of the arcade are given the high literary respect and dramaturgical rigor they deserve.

From "geek theater companies Piper McKenzie (The Bubble of Solace and Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury at The Brick; Trav S.D.'s Manson-parody rock musical hit Willy Nilly in FringeNYC 2009) and The Fifth Wall (creators of the acclaimed Suspicious Package series of interactive tech-driven noir dramas, including this summer's Red Cloud Rising), Theater of the Arcade is written by Jeff Lewonczyk and directed by Gyda Arber. The cast consists of Steve Burns (the original host of TV's Blue's Clues), who joins original cast members Fred Backus, Hope Cartelli, Stephen Heskett, Josh Mertz and Shelley Ray. The show will perform at 45 Bleecker on the following dates:

Sat 8/13 @ 9pm
Tue 8/16 @ 4:30pm
Thu 8/18 @ 5:45pm
Sat 8/20 @ 4:30pm
Sat 8/27 @ 7:45pm

Piper McKenzie (pipermckenzie.com) has been a fixture of the downtown and Brooklyn scenes since being founded by Hope Cartelli and Jeff Lewonczyk in 1998. Called "brazenly experimental, unapologetically populist, and surprisingly endearing" by IndieTheater.org, Piper McKenzie creates mock-epic movement theater and kinetic plays/musicals at the intersection of physicality, comedy and mythology (both pop-culture and historical). Recent shows include the holiday family comedy Bethlehem or Bust: How the Three Kings Teamed Up to Deliver the World's First Christmas Presents; Theater of the Arcade: Five Classic Video Games Adapted for the Stage (returning to the stage in August as part of the New York International Fringe Festival); Craven Monkey and the Mountain of Fury; and the hit FringeNYC musical Willy Nilly: A Musical Exploitation of the Most Far-Out Cult Murders of the Psychedelic Era.

The Fifth Wall (www.thefifthwall.info) focuses on the theatrical intersection of audience, performer, and technology. Productions include Suspicious Package (‘Best Off-Off Broadway Theatrical Experience,' ITBA; Nominee ‘Best Production of a Play,' NY IT Awards), Suspicious Package: Rx (published in Plays and Playwrights 2010), Q&A: The Perception of Dawn (‘quite ingenious!'-nytheatre.com), Red Cloud Rising (Game Play Festival), Crash Splash and Espionage! (Tiny Theater, The Brick), and Theater of the Arcade: Five Classic Video Games Adapted for the Stage.