Greg Mehrten News

The Wooster Group has extended their previews of CRY, TROJANS! (Troilus and Cressida) through February 15 at the Performing Garage. The production is a re-working of their half of a 2012 collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company, focusing on the Trojan side of the drama as a pastiche American 'Indian' tribe.

Presenters La MaMa and St. Ann's Warehouse, and producers piece by piece productions, Mabou Mines and Dovetail Productions-all ardent and longtime supporters of the 'bad boy of avant-garde theater' (Village Voice) Lee Breuer-unite for the World Premiere of Breuer's epic magnum opus, La Divina Caricatura. Breuer wrote and directs the work, a mixed-media pop-opera with Bunraku puppets, a cast of singers and live music composed by Lincoln Schleifer that ranges from Motown to Broadway and reggae to raga. La Divina Caricatura, a metaphorical send-up of Dante's classic, concerns Rose the Dog, who makes a pilgrimage through love to Paradiso. Rose thinks she's a woman and fantasizes a mad love affair with her master John, an East Village independent filmmaker. The show, Part 1 of a trilogy, draws on material that stretches all the way back to Breuer's doo-wop opera Sister Suzie Cinema (1975).

Presenters La MaMa and St. Ann's Warehouse, and producers piece by piece productions, Mabou Mines and Dovetail Productions-all ardent and longtime supporters of the "bad boy of avant-garde theater" (Village Voice) Lee Breuer-unite for the World Premiere of Breuer's epic magnum opus, La Divina Caricatura. Breuer wrote and directs the work, a mixed-media pop-opera with Bunraku puppets, a cast of singers and live music composed by Lincoln Schleifer that ranges from Motown to Broadway and reggae to raga. La Divina Caricatura, a metaphorical send-up of Dante's classic, concerns Rose the Dog, who makes a pilgrimage through love to Paradiso. Rose thinks she's a woman and fantasizes a mad love affair with her master John, an East Village independent filmmaker. The show, Part 1 of a trilogy, draws on material that stretches all the way back to Breuer's doo-wop opera Sister Suzie Cinema (1975).

The Wooster Group is currently developing a production of one of William Shakespeare's most enigmatic plays, Troilus and Cressida, translating it into a distinctly American idiom. The Group will present four weeks of preview performances of this new production, CRY, TROJANS! (Troilus & Cressida), from January 8-February 2 at The Performing Garage (33 Wooster Street).

Two years into its second half-century, La MaMa, under the artistic direction of Mia Yoo, continues the omnivorous work of its founder, the late Ellen Stewart. The institution's fall 2013 season is a mixture of established artists and forms La MaMa has long supported (Lee Breuer, Dario D'Ambrosi, puppetry) and celebrated artists and programs new to La MaMa (Irina Brook, Chiori Miyagawa and Alice Reagan, Pascal Rambert, Maureen Fleming, Dan Fishback and Max Steele, and many others). Show-by-show descriptions are below.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that Sontag: Reborn, based on the books by Susan Sontag and edited by David Rieff, adapted and performed by Moe Angelos, directed by Marianne Weems, and produced in collaboration with The Builders Association, will begin performances Tuesday, May 28 at NYTW, 79 East 4 Street, between Bowery and Second Avenue. Opening night is set for Thursday, June 6 at 7pm. Sontag: Reborn is scheduled to run through Sunday, June 30.

The Sundance Institute Theatre Program announced the acting company and collaborators for the three projects being developed at its Fall Lab, which begins today at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA). Under the supervision of Philip Himberg, Artistic Director of the Theatre Program, and Producing Director Christopher Hibma, the two-week Lab provides creative support and direction for innovative musical theatre and ensemble-generated projects.

The Sundance Institute Theatre Program previously announced that it would return to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) for its Fall Lab, which provides creative support and direction for innovative musical theatre and ensemble-generated projects.

The Wooster Group will present nightly performances of HAMLET at The Performing Garage during a three-week video shoot of the production. Public showings of the live performance begin the evening of tonight, October 24th and run through Sunday, November 11th, 2012.

The Sundance Institute Theatre Program today announced that it will return to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA) for its Fall Lab, which provides creative support and direction for innovative musical theatre and ensemble-generated projects. Also announced today were the three projects that have been selected to participate.

The Wooster Group will present nightly performances of HAMLET at The Performing Garage during a three-week video shoot of the production. Public showings of the live performance begin the evening of Wednesday, October 24th and run through Sunday, November 11th, 2012.

La MaMa presents Poor Baby Bree in I Am Going to Run Away, a one-woman musical conceived and performed by Bree Benton, with an original book written by Bree Benton and fifteen archival songs from the golden age of vaudeville (1890s-1930s). I Am Going to Run Away is directed by David Schweizer, with musical direction by Franklin Bruno (on piano), and featuring Karen Waltuch (on viola) and Jacob Garchik (on tuba and trombone).

Now considered a prominent venue for award winning theatre, Culture Project had its humble beginnings in a former piano manufacturing factory on East 91st Street. It then moved to a lumberyard at 45 Bleecker Street which it converted into a two-theater performing arts center with Bombitty of Errors and And God Created Great Whales as its initial attractions. Now Culture Project has officially returned to 45 Bleecker making it its permanent home, and will present And God Created Great Whales, the innovative piece that launched the Culture Project into prominence over a decade ago.

Now considered a prominent venue for award winning theatre, Culture Project had its humble beginnings in a former piano manufacturing factory on East 91st Street. It then moved to a lumberyard at 45 Bleecker Street which it converted into a two-theater performing arts center with Bombitty of Errors and And God Created Great Whales as its initial attractions. Now Culture Project has officially returned to 45 Bleecker making it its permanent home, and will present And God Created Great Whales, the innovative piece that launched the Culture Project into prominence over a decade ago.

The Kennedy Center presents Mabou Mines DollHouse in the Eisenhower Theater from October 20-22, 2011. Conceived and directed by Lee Breuer and adapted by Lee Breuer and Maude Mitchell, Mabou Mines DollHouse adapts the classic Ibsen story of A Doll's House in a production featuring original music and a collage of Edvard Grieg's piano works assembled by Eve Beglarian. Press night is Thursday, October 20 at 7:30 p.m.