Melvillapalooza
Metropolitan's Fourth Annual Living Literature Festival presents
Ten New Works Inspired by Herman Melville
January 12 - 25, 2009
Metropolitan Playhouse hosts Melvillapalooza, the theater's fourth annual Living Literature Festival of performances inspired by The Life and work of an American author. Melvillapalooza is a collection of ten new works by artists and companies from across the US taking their inspiration from Herman Melville. Performances take place daily from January 12 to 25 at Metropolitan Playhouse, 220 East Fourth Street.
Tickets may be purchased online at www.metropolitanplayhouse.org or by calling TheaterMania 212 352 3101.
Melvillapalooza includes musical adaptation, performance poetry, and full-length plays ranging from short story adaptations to biographical fantasies. Additional events include readings of Melville's works, and discussions with contemporary authors and scholars of Melville's influence. The shows are divided into six different programs (the "Voyages"), each consisting of one or two presentations. All in all, Melvillapalooza includes ten individual performances by solo artists and theater companies, each presented four times over the festival. (Project descriptions and schedule follow.)
Featured presenters include Packawallop Productions (FringeNYC Winner for Best Overall Production, 2003 and Best Director, 2005); Danny Ashkenasi ("A musical voice that commands attention" whose beTwixt, beTween and beTwain is "transcendent, lovely, and moving."-nytheatre.com); Rick Mitchell (California State University, Northridge, whose Brecht in LA is "a delight"-Leonardo Review); Angela Alaimo O'Donnell (whose "finely crafted" poems in her collection Mine are "inspired"- Comstock Review); David Lally (whose Little Edie and the Marble Faun "uncover[ed] the poignant power of ...two seemingly disparate sources [in a] touching examination of memory and loss." - BackStage.)
Previous years' festivals were the Poefest (2006), Twainathon (2007), and Hawthornucopia (2008-"exhilarating"--nytheatre.com). Metropolitan Playhouse explores America's theatrical and cultural moment. Metropolitan has earned accolades from The New York Times, The Village Voice, BackStage, and nytheatre.com. Recent noted productions include Anna Christie, Nowadays, Year One of the Empire, The Pioneer: 5 plays by Eugene O'Neill, Denial and The Melting Pot.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS
Voyage A
The Archangel
by Dan Evans
a LuLu LoLo Production
Wrestling with writer's block as he tries to finish Moby Dick, Melville follows a downward spiral until an archangel and a prostitute offer assistance.
Billy Budd
Adapted by Scott Barrow
A Stages on the Sound Production
An adaptation of Melville's story of a virtuous sailor whose innocent defiance of tyranny leads to his inconsequential martyrdom at the hands of the British fleet.
Voyage B
Mr. Melville's Playhouse
by David Lally
A fantastical meeting between Melville and his most famous creations. By the creator of "Little Edie and the Marble Faun".
Ishmael, Mon Amour
By Michael Bettencourt
Beginning where Moby Dick ends, Ishmael and Ahab confront a white-suited whale in an afterlife of mutual discontent.
Voyage C
The Composition of Herman Melville (abridged)
a new full length play by Rick Mitchell, with music by Max Kinberg
An examination of the author's early success, fall from popularity, and family difficulties, set against the background of the abolitionist movement and the Civil War. Including fragments of Melville's text, a play-within-the-play based on an 1840s, theatrical freak show and Melville's first and most popular novel, Typee, the production draws divergent histories and fictions as the author's "intentions" begin to turn against him..
Voyage D
Cock-A-Doodle-Doo!
a musical play by Danny Ashkenasi,
produced by Frederick Byers Productions
An adaptation of Melville's ironic story of a man whose inflated view of his own worth and his dismal view of his age and leads him to a hubristic downfall. Ashkenasi's adaptation is a blend one-man-play, chamber opera, and traditional literary adaptation to seek the off-beat humor, and spiritual and satirical themes of the story. By the creator of "The Telltale Heart, a musicabre"; "beTwixt, beTween, and beTwain"; and "The Song of Job: 9/11".
