PRINCESS IVONA to Play Clurman Theatre

Following a successful premiere on campus earlier this year, a cast of Williams College students is bringing their production to New York. PRINCESS IVONA is an absurdist, dark-humor play by a well known 20th century playwright Witold Gombrowicz. The play is directed by Omar Sangare, theatre professor at Williams, and founder of NYC's United Solo Festival, who is joined by an international creative team, including a set designer from Europe, a lighting designer from Broadway, and choreographers from the world-famous Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch.

The play challenges the society of empty platitudes with a fresh, young, spontaneous approach. The protagonists raise questions on why one should keep doing things just because this is how we kept doing them in the past. Why is a prince allowed to marry only a princess-and what if he does not wish to do so? This grotesque comic fable by an absurdist master playwright explores what happens when genteel facades are shattered, fear and humiliation take over, and repressed human brutality gushes to the surface.

Witold Gombrowicz's life and works were most recently reminded to New York audiences on the occasion of Atlantic Theater Company production of "3 Kinds of Exile" by John Guare. Originally of Polish descent, Gombrowicz spent most of his life in Argentina, and died in France. He left Poland shortly before World War II, and decided not to come back to the country governed by the communist regime. His plays were not published there until mid-1980s. According to literature historians, in 1968 Gombrowicz was to be nominated for Noble prize in literature and lost to the winner by only one vote.

Princess Ivona Cast Members:

David Carter, Michael Druker, Bailey Edwards, Mia Hull, Veronica Kovalcik, Connor Lawhorn, Spencer Lee-Rey, Evelyn Mahon, Petra Mijanovic, Ben Rosenblum, Sofia Smith, Jackson Zerkle, Carina Zox

Princess Ivona Creative Team:

Author: Witold Gombrowicz

Director: Omar Sangare

Choreographers: Pablo Aran Gimeno & Jorge Puerta Armenta

Set Design: Joanna Kus

Lighting Design: Coby Chasman-Beck

Sound Design: Stephen Simalchik

Costume Design: Deb Brothers

Assistant to the Director: Mia Hull

Dramaturg: Ilya Khodosh

Graphic Designer: Julia Kwinto

Production Manager: Marcin Sangare

Stage Manager: Jacob Wexler

1st ASM: Kimmy Golding

2nd ASM: Venson Williams

3rd ASM: Maryanne Masibo

Light Board Operator: Russell Maclin

Sound Board Operator: Abraham Kirby-Galen

PRINCESS IVONA is coming to NYC for a very limited run, with performances on January 15 and 16, 2016. Tickets are $35 plus $1.25 theatre restoration charge and are available at Theatre Row Box Office and through Telecharge at 212.239.6200, as well as online at www.telecharge.com. This production is presented under the auspices of the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in New York, in partnership with the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Washington, D.C., Polish Cultural Institute New York, and Williams College.

More information at 62center.williams.edu/events/princess-ivona-a-revival-for-new-york-city.