 |
|
||||||
| "Perseus is theatre at its best
and most essential: there are no flying cars or falling chandeliers here;
no recycled pop songs or TV stars, either. Instead, you'll find audacity
and imagination and passion, and after luxuriating in them for a while you'll
wonder why you ever settle for anything else." - Martin Denton, NYTheater.com "This is a show about spectacle." - Jason Zinoman, New York Times " Attention, directors, writers and producers: Go see Ellen Stewart's Perseus and learn a trick or two about theater. Any five minutes of this production are more rewarding than the peak moments of most shows I've seen in the past decades." - Trav S.D., Time Out New York PERSEUS – loosely based on excerpts from Ovid, Hesiod and Apollodorus with additional text by Ms. Stewart – is the often-told, but rarely-performed saga of Perseus the son of Danae and the god Zeus – who slew the serpent-headed Medusa and married the beautiful maiden Andromeda after saving her from a sea monster. Ms. Stewart – in her research of the PERSEUS tale – discovered that the Persian race was descended from the offspring of Perseus and Andromeda, something not believed to be widely known. Directed by Ms. Stewart – PERSEUS features a cast of over 25 from the Great Jones Repertory Company – including Chris Wild as the hero Perseus, Meredith Wright as the serpent-haired Medusa, and Prisca Ouya as the beautiful maiden Andromeda. The design team for PERSEUS includes: Elizabeth Swados, Michael Sirotta, Heather Paauwe, Yukio Tsuji and Carlos Valdez – Original Music Composition; Camille Assaf – Costume Design; Tim Schellenbaum – Sound Design; Carol Mullins – Lighting Design; Gorgon Design - Maeda Jun; and Renaurd Gee – Choreography. La MaMa – under the guidance of founder and artistic director Ellen Stewart – enjoys international recognition as the home for theatrical experimentation. La MaMa was one of the first Off-Off Broadway theatres to support full time resident companies, and was the first Off-Off company to tour Europe. La MaMa has been honored with over 50 Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk Awards, Bessie Awards and Villager Awards. Well-known names of the theatre for whom La MaMa was their first artistic home in the U.S. include: Andrei Serban, Jerzy Grotowski, Tadeusz Kantor, Tom O’Horgan, Mabou Mines, Lee Breuer, Elizabeth Swados and Tom Eyen as well as artists from Japan, Korea, Zaire, Ivory Coast and countless other countries. The company’s heritage continues to grow with programs begun by Ms. Stewart in Umbria, Italy, where international understanding is promoted through cultural exchange. La MaMa Umbria has, in the past 12 years, presented 26 theatre productions as well as workshops, art exhibitions and conferences. Last season, La MaMa presented to great critical acclaim the theatrical
event SEVEN – which performed seven Greek plays in repertory including
Ms. Stewart’s world-premiere production of ANTIGONE. In addition,
Ms. Stewart and La MaMa have dedicated the past 30 years to presenting
new adaptations of Greek classics to the masses – at times gaining
national and international attention. |
|||||||
| 2005 page | |||||||