CVK: EXTENDED PLAY Comes to Wilbury Theatre Group Beginning This Month

Wilbury Theatre Group will present Clever and Vanglorious Kings' Extended Play for 3 performances only: August 31 - September 2, 2023. Clever and Vainglorious Kings, a legendary new wave duo, reunite for this special concert performance, restaging their famed 1986 concert tour, which reinterprets the myths of Artemis and Apollo. First performed at FringePVD in 2022, this Extended Play is created and performed by Harvard Artistic Producer and performer James Stanley and theatre artist Jesse Hawley. For more information, visit thewilburygroup.org/cvk

"Jesse and James bring an incredible amount of care and intentionality to all of their work," says Wilbury Artistic Director Josh Short. "They spend years refining and workshopping and giving every piece such an incredible amount of attention. And the result is that every piece they bring to our stage is a fully lived-in and complete theatrical experience. I've been in awe of their work since they brought House Warming to us years ago, and then to collaborate with them on The Olneyville Expo in 2019 was an absolute privilege - but the experience that is CVK: Extended is unlike anything we've ever seen. The music fully composed and performed by Jesse and James, the historical essay about the duo - there's an incredible amount of background and thought put into the work. I encourage our audience to dig into the work of CVK before attending by reading the essays, listening to their original music on Spotify, and get excited for this reunion tour!"

This presentation of CVK: Extended Play is a Special Performance event during our 2023/24 Season. Admission is included for 2023/24 Members to this Special Event in addition to our 2023/24 Main Series season. For more about our 2023/24 Season and Memberships, visit thewilburygroup.org/2023-24.

CVK: EXTENDED PLAY is funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies.

About Clever and Vainglorious Kings:

In 1986, the legendary, but short-lived New Wave duo CVK (Clever and Vainglorious Kings) played their final show at the Orpheum Theater in Boston, Massachusetts. The band had produced only one four song EP and two full length records, and then disbanded as suddenly as they had come onto the scene. Though bypassed by critics in the 80s, CVK achieved a cult status among audiences for their live shows, in which their musical performances were interwoven with political commentary, tales from their own personal narratives and (most quizzically) theatrical reenactments of Greek myths. By the release of their second and final album in 1985, the two had, in fact, assumed the characters of the Greek gods Artemis and Apollo, characters they would maintain both on and off the stage until their disbandment and subsequent disappearance the following year.

For this rare reunion, CVK will restage their 1986 concert tour, making good on their promise to "resume their roles as light-bringers in times of darkness."

Lighting and projections by Andy Russ and movement by Ali Kenner-Brodsky CVK: Extended Play was developed with support from SPACE on Ryder Farm, Harvard's ArtLab, and the Wilbury Theater Group.

This performance is the culmination of a wider trans-media project that includes a full album of music and a faux-historical essay, as well as t-shirts, stickers and other band-related artifacts - all accessible at the show.

About the Artists:

Jesse Hawley and James Stanley did their first show together in 1997 in New York City and have been working together in theater, music and visual art ever since. From 2000 to 2017 they made immersive spectacles and material artifacts with the OBIE-winning collective National Theater of the United States of America (NTUSA) - including 8 shows, a book of poetry, a vinyl record and an illustrated acting manual. Their works toured nationally and internationally, and were recognized with multiple awards, grants and residencies including an OBIE, a Spalding Gray Award, two Henry Hewes Design Award Nominations and residencies at MacDowell, chashama, LMCC and SPACE at Ryder Farm. Meanwhile they performed (or otherwise collaborated) extensively with artists like Young Jean Lee, Richard Foreman, Mallory Catlett, Thomas Bradshaw, Phil Soltanoff, Normandy Sherwood, and Richard Maxwell. Since relocating to New England, they've continued their work together, mostly at the Wilbury Theater (House Warming, 2017; Olneyville Expo, 2019). Hawley teaches and directs in the Drama Department at the Tabor Academy and Stanley is Artistic Producer of Theater, Dance and Media at Harvard, where he teaches making theater from archival sources.

For more information, visit thewilburygroup.org/cvk

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