92YTribeca will present a reading and panel discussion of Handbook for an American Revolutionary, written and performed by actor, playwright, and Puffin Grant recipient Matthew-Lee Erlbach, whose work Rachel Maddow has called "shocking, engaging, funny, and totally original."
From coal power to white power, Handbook for an American Revolutionary introduces us to a diverse breadth of ordinary citizens in extraordinary circumstances whose battles are reshaping this nation. From a busker street drummer to a deaf Mennonite girl; from the mountaintop removal activist in West Virginia to the migrant field worker in California; from an energy lobbyist to a white nationalist; and from the banks of Wall Street to the banks of the Persian Gulf, the twelve characters we meet in the play are the face of America's turbulent present and a hand to our hopeful future-the 99%. Inspired by Matthew-Lee's travels around the country, Handbook is a provocative and funny play about the many Davids versus Goliaths in 21st century America.
After the reading, writer performer
Matthew-Lee Erlbach will be joined by director
MarK Wing-Davey and moderator Allison Kilkenny for a panel conversation.
Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 on the day of the show. Performance takes place Wednesday, May 23rd at 7:30pm at the 92YTribeca Mainstage, 200 Hudson Street. For more information go to the 92Y website.
Matthew-Lee Erlbach is writer and actor of Handbook for an American Revolutionary (Puffin Grant recipient). His other writing credits include the plays Eager to Lose, a Farce in Verse directed by
Wes Grantom and
Portia Krieger (
Ars Nova, July 2012); Happy Sunshine Kung Fu Flower directed by
Darren Katz and sponsored by The Onion (Zipper/
Ars Nova); and Sex of the Baby directed by
David Chapman at Tisch/NYU grad (Juilliard fellowship finalist), among others. His short film Roger, the Chicken won best screenplay at Houston and has been an official selection at film festivals all over the U.S. and Canada. He will work on his new play Kevin Lamb this summer on a fellowship to SPACE on Ryder Farm. He has also written for The Huffington Post, Nickelodeon, NickToons and WWE. Some of his acting credits include the host of MTV's Epic Fail pilot, Another Earth (Sundance 2011/Fox Searchlight), Important Things with
Demetri Martin on Comedy Central, Law&Order:SVU, and the world premiere of Till the Break of Dawn written/directed by
Danny Hoch Off-Bway, among others Off-Bway and regionally. Additional work has been seen at NYTW,
Culture Project, MCC,
Ars Nova, The Lark, Utah Shakespeare, SPACE, Judson and Nuyorican. Proud graduate, University of Illinois. Also, Second City, Chicago
MarK Wing-Davey first came to prominence in the United States with his highly acclaimed 1992 production of
Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest at NYTW. Since then he has worked extensively in New York City, for NYTW, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, Playwright's Horizons, and
The Public Theater - directing Troilus and Cressida and Henry 5 in Central Park. He directed Passion Play at the Goodman in Chicago, Yale Rep and most recently for Epic Theater in a site-specific production at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn. Additional US and international credits include productions of new and classic plays at ACT, ART, Berkeley, Cincinnati, La Jolla, Mark Taper, McCarter, Milwaukee Rep, Pittsburgh Public, Playmaker's Rep,
Seattle Rep; London's
Royal Court Theatre,
National Theatre, the Edinburgh Festival, and musicals in the West End and Australia.
Committing much of his career to developing new plays, he has directed new work by
Caryl Churchill,
Amy Freed,
Naomi Iizuka, Jose Rivera,
Anna Deveare Smith,
Tony Kushner, and
Craig Lucas, amongst others. His more recent credits include the world première of Unconditional for
LAByrinth Theater Company Theater and
Craig Lucas's The Singing Forest at
The Public Theater and workshops of a new musical by
Brett C. Leonard - Harold's Harem,
Stephen Adly Guirgis' piece: Untitled Ass Play and
Carson Kreitzer's play about the photographer Lee Miller - Behind The Eye (directing its première in Cincinnati in April 2011). He directed three world premières in Spring 2012: KMT - an adaptation of Sukhovo-Kobylin's Russian Trilogy - at NYU,
Mona Mansour's new play The Hour of Feeling for the Louisville Humana Festival and
Brett C. Leonard's new play Ninth and Joanie for LAByrinth in New York. Mr. Wing-Davey is currently the Chair of Graduate Acting at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts where in September 2010 he premièred
Tony Kushner's music theater work: The Henry Box Brown Play.
Allison Kilkenny is a co-host of the political podcast Citizen Radio and a reporter for The Nation. G. Gordon Liddy once said her writing makes him want to vomit, which is the best compliment she's ever received, ever.
