THIS IS LIKE THAT By Michael Sean Cirelli, Premieres In TNC's Dream Up Festival

With performances between August 31st and September 4th, Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival will present the world premiere of "This is Like That" by Michael Sean Cirelli, a solo performance piece in the form of an eccentric slide lecture with a temperamental carousel projector and an apple.

The play is a collaboration between Cirelli and director Emerie Snyder that received a workshop performance in 2018 with Jordan Carlos as part of All For One Theater's Solo Collective. Cirelli will be resuming the lead role for the Dream Up Festival performances, which are 8/31 at 8PM, 9/1 at 5PM, 9/2 at 6:30PM, 9/3 at 9PM, and 9/4 at 6:30PM. Tickets are available at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4299736.

After unexpectedly realizing that he's meant to be giving a lecture to everyone around him, a befuddled language professor attempts to explain the beauty he finds in language-only he cannot find the words. A piece for anyone who has ever felt misunderstood, or felt they might feel understood but weren't. "This is Like That" is a one-person play that grapples with questions about language, identity, religion, and the stories we tell others and ourselves.

Writer and performer Michael Sean Cirelli's plays include Grit (Crashbox Read.Play.Write.), The Rogue King (Crashbox Living Room series), and This Is Like That (All For One So|CO). He has performed with and written sketches for Literally Everyone. As an actor, he can be seen performing with Crashbox Theater Company, Tiny Rhino, Horse Trade Theater, and the August Strindberg Rep Theater. Most recently he has appeared as Tim (aka Tuna Casserole Guy) in the short film Victim No. 6 directed by Nancy Menagh and as William Lloyd Garrison in Augustus directed by Jon Stone Alston. He is also a founding member of the legendary improv group Herschel. Michael is a graduate of DeSales University with a BA in Theater and has also attended the Atlantic Theater Company's conservatory training program. ww.michaelseancirelli.com

Emerie Snyder is a NYC-based theatre director and creator of new performance work, focusing on site-responsive theatre, relationships between visual art and theatre, and solo performance. She has directed new plays by contemporary playwrights including Erin Breznitsky, Anton Dudley, Lally Katz, Davy Rothbart, Gwydion Suilebhan, and Mfoniso Udofia. Current projects in development include Exhibit, an immersive gallery tour performance; and Dutiful Victims, a site-specific theatre experiment inspired by Eugene Ionesco's Victims of Duty. Emerie is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, and the Arts Curator for Warren Saint Marks Community Garden in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and was a 2019 Artist-in-Residence at Elsewhere in Greensboro, NC. www.emeriesnyder.com

The play includes projections designed by Eamon O'Connor and costume design by Michelle Ridley.

Theater for the New City is located at 155 First Ave., at E. 10th Street.

2019 marks the tenth anniversary of the Dream Up Festival (www.dreamupfestival.org), presented by Theater for the New City from August 25 to September 15, 2019, and offers a lineup of wide-ranging and original theatrical visions embracing drama, poetry, music, and dance. The Dream Up Festival consists of performing artists representing theater and performance companies in their theater complex in downtown New York.

With its Dream Up Festival founders, Crystal Field and Michael Scott-Price, open Theater for the New City (TNC), which customarily presents new work by local artists, up to theater from the country at large and to artists from overseas.

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