stage
and film direction: Rene Migliaccio
film co-direction: Vinz Feller
scenographer/painter: Venantius J. Pinto
score: Amaury Groc
editor: Matthew Hysell
sound design: Jeremy A. Wilson
makeup design: Nadia Fadeeva
Gregor Samsa Makeup Design: Venantius Pinto
costume: Roxana Ramseur
director of photography: Damian Ward
production: Lori M. Vincent & Arts, Sound and Movement
On stage: Frank Schneider, Celeste Hastings, Natia Dune & Courtney
Cunningham
On Film: Frank Schneider, Celeste Hastings, Natia Dune, Jay Gaussoin,
Jeb Berrier, Brit Whitton & Barrett Ogden
Performance Schedule: October 31 - November 10
Thursday - Sunday 8:00pm
Sunday matinee 2:30pm
First Flooor Theatre
tickets $15.00
box office (212) 475-7710
preview Wednesday October 30th
After success in the 2002 New
York Fringe Festival and Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Black Moon Theatre Company
will make its La MaMa debut October 31 to November 10 with "The Metamorphosis,"
an "Expressionistic Realism" adaptation of Kafka's classic tale employing
a fusion of live theatre and film. The play is adapted from Kafka's novel and
directed by Rene Migliaccio."The Metamorphosis"
is a technically ambitious multi-media event with a cast of eight, some of
whom appear on film, others on stage and film. The production combines
the stylized elements of expressionist cinema with the immediacy of live
theatre to highlight the essential themes of Kafka's timeless tale. Frank
Schneider performs the role of Gregor Samsa with deep intensity and stylized
body movement. When Gregor Samsa awakes
to discover that he has been transformed into an insect overnight, it is as
though he has been thrust into another dimension, one that he is helpless
to control. As life continues around him, with film whirling around the actors
onstage throughout the production, he struggles to find a place in the world,
to break free from the oppressive "realities" of family and society
and, by extension, his own perceived reality and isolation. Eventually, as Gregor's
metamorphosis continues, the lines between stage and film (and between reality
and fantasy) dissolve and the characters slip back and forth between the two
worlds. Reviewing "The Metamorphosis" in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival,
the Philadelphia Inquirer (Desmond Ryan) described the effect, writing, "The
ingenious fusion of stage and screen, resourcefully directed by Rene Migliaccio,
allows for the evocation of Samsa's pathetic and untimately doomed effort to
adjust to the nightmare of his newly altered state." Reviewing the production
in the New York Fringe, Curtain Up! (David Lipfert) characterized it as "a
Dr. Caligari atmosphere with a touch of Cocteau."Expressionistic Realism
is a technique that provides a stylized, ritualistic expression of reality as
we know it. Migliaccio and co-founder Lori Vincent formed Black Moon Theatre
Company two years ago in NYC in order to focus on this technique, which Migliaccio
has been developing for almost 20 years. As a style of acting, it finds roots
in Greek drama; it uses gesture, mask and movement to physically express emotions
and thoughts. Migliaccio's manifesto on Expressionistic Realism can be found
on Black Moon Theatre Company's website, www.blackmoontheatrecompany.org.
Black
Moon Theatre Company has also produced "The Bakkhai" by Euripides in September/October,
2001 at HERE and two community plays, "The Servant of Two Masters"
and "The Madman and The Nun" by Witkiewicz.In 1983, French-Italian
born director Rene Migliaccio started research on an acting style described
as Expressionistic Realism and founded the Drama Theatre Ci, with Sophocles'
"Antigone" as its first production. By the following year, Migliaccio
headed an acting school called Drama Studio where he directed works by Genet,
Brecht, de Musset and adaptations from works by David Mamet and Maxim Gorki.
In 1987, he directed a production in Los Angeles' Fringe Festival and received
Best Director Award from Drama Logue for "Armaggedon Outta Here."
In 1988 he directed "Deathwatch" by Jean Genet at The Powerhouse in
Santa Monica, which was nominated for Best Ensemble Performance and received
the Best Lighting Award form the critics at LA Weekly. His production of "Awake
and Sing" by Clifford Odets was named by the Los Angeles Times as Best
Theatre of 1989. His Paris productions include "Fear and Misery of the
Third Reich," "Nosferatu" and "The Cenci." His L.A.
productions also include "Fear and Misery of the Third Reich ," "Servant
of Two Masters," "The Cenci " and "Medea." His "Nosferatu"
has been performed in NYC at HERE and at the Prithvi International Theatre Festival
in Mumbai, India. In Spring 2002, Migliaccio directed "Vies Privees"
by Louise Boisvert in Montreal, Canada.
