Bristol Riverside Theatre Continues Bridges Informance Series With Castellanos 10/17

Bristol Riverside Theatre continues its Bridges Informance Series with renowned theatre artist Teo Castellanos on Friday, October 17.  Castellanos’ appearance will continue to introduce audiences to innovative performances as BRT gears up for the February 2009 World Premiere of What You Will, a BRT original urban theatre adaptation of Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night.  The event begins at 7:30 p.m. at Bristol Riverside Theatre, located at 120 Radcliffe Street in Bristol.  Tickets are $15 for adults or $10 for students and are available by calling the BRT Box Office at (215) 785-0100 or in person.  A special website has been created with artist interviews, photos and information about the development of What You Will and the Bridges Informance Series at www.howwewill.org. 

To illuminate the unique concept of What You Will, BRT presents the Bridges Informance Series bringing nationally renowned theatre artists to the Philadelphia area.  Part-performance, part-discussion each event will challenge and inspire audiences’ ideas of theatre today.

Castellanos is an actor/writer/director known for connecting stories of the people in the streets to contemporary life, something Shakespeare did in his plays - writing for the common man. Castellanos is the founder and Artistic Director of D-Projects, an urban arts collective whose original theatre work examines and dissects social ills through performance. He has taught theatre workshops throughout the U.S. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For five years, he directed a theatre company of African American and Latino youth/young adults that toured original work to jails, detention centers, residential substance abuse treatment programs and community centers carrying a message focused on HIV prevention.

Castellanos is author of War, Revolution, and the Projects, a one-man trilogy, which has toured on the East coast, and the one-man show NE 2nd Avenue, based on Miami characters, which was commissioned and produced by Miami Light Project as part of their 2001-2002 Contemporary Performance Series. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Miami, Castellanos received his BFA in Theatre from Florida Atlantic University under a full scholarship where he studied with four-time Tony Award winner Zoe Caldwell.

His NE 2nd Avenue was awarded the International Cultural Exchange grant by Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs, which allowed him to bring his work to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won the Fringe First Award. It was also nominated for a South Florida Carbonell Award for Best New Work and was awarded Best Solo Performance by the Miami New Times and Best Original Play by the Miami Beach Sun. It is currently touring nationally and internationally. He is a member of the diverse theatre collective, The Hittite Empire, based in Los Angeles, with which he has toured in the U.S. and London. He has also toured Cuba as part of the Parece Blanca cast, a theatre production that paired Cuban exiles with artists living on the island for a historic performance.

Upcoming Bridges Informance Series include New York-based award-winning actor, rapper, playwright, and educator Will Power (December 5), a pioneer of hip-hop theatre who has been working with Bristol area students during a residency at BRT and Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dance Theatre (January 9) who will present an evening of dance on the BRT stage.

A daring and bold take on Shakespeare’s classic comedy Twelfth Night, What You Will premieres on February 10 and runs through March 1, 2009.  This new adaptation is created by BRT Artistic Director Keith Baker and collaborator Donald Byrd, acclaimed choreographer of Broadway’s The Color Purple and Artistic Director of Seattle’s Spectrum Dance Theatre.  Shakespeare’s original language is heard with a distinctively contemporary American voice as the worlds of modern urban and classical theatre are fused. Music by composer and hip hop producer Justin Ellington completes the marriage of text, high-energy movement and heart-pounding music.  Ellington also composed music for Will Power’s acclaimed The Seven and is a member of the multi-platinum production company Bangladesh which has created songs for artists such as Ciara, Kelis, Marsha (Floetry), Lil Wayne and Ludacris.

The Bridges Informance Series has been supported by a grant from the Marketing Innovation Program, a program of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by The University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

What You Will has been supported by a grant from the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative with additional support from the Marketing Innovation Program, both programs of the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by The University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

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