Medieval Mystery Plays get a modern twist for Christmas in the Streets of New York for Strangers and Other Angels.
Theatre-lovers, theologians, strangers and other angels are invited into the streets of New York for a free theatrical event that mines the story of the first Christmas and celebrates the abundance of community. Starting at the Museum of the City of New York (located at 5th Avenue at 104th Street) on Saturday, December 6th at 4 p.m., Compagnia de' Colombari, an international collective of performing artists, including Tony and Obie Award-winners and acclaimed musicians, will present Strangers and Other Angels, the medieval mystery play vividly re-imagined for the 21st century.
Under the direction of Karin Coonrod (New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre and Theatre for a New Audience) and the musical direction of Paul Vasile, Compagnia de' Colombari is an international collaborative of visionary performing artists, born in Orvieto Italy and based in New York City, dedicated to new and old works from diverse traditions and cultures, creating spectacles for the public free of charge.
Strangers and Other Angels invites the audience to step into a raucous confluence of story and song: the centuries-old Second Shepherds' Play in a modern American vernacular, the writings of Walt Whitman and Mark Stevick, a new musical compositions by Kyle Sanna, and an original musical setting of Psalm 121 in Arabic by Akram Haddad. Strangers... involves opera singers, step-dancing angels, steel drummers, crazy modern shepherds, and, like its Italian counterpart, winds its way inside and outside of spaces in the Museum of the City of New York, leading into the streets of New York around 5th Avenue and 104th Street.
From seasoned artists to the youngest up-and-comers, Strangers and Other Angels celebrates abundance. Colombari aims for an artistic hospitality that runs against the grain of our commercialized culture of Christmas. According to Director and Colombari Founder Karin Coonrod, this joyous event, "slams the extremities of our human experience next to each other: the raucous comic meets the mysterious larger than ourselves. This is theater of, by, for and with the audience...celebrating the eternal now."
The cast includes actors Trazana Beverley (Tony Award winner for For Colored Girls...), Michael Rogers, Michael Potts (Obie Award winner),Tony Torn, Elliot Villar; musicians Pheeroan AkLaff, Kyle Sanna, Tony Geballe, Kinan Azmeh, Marlon Guerra; singers JD Webster, Cherry Duke, Kamel Boutros, Kevin Massey, Darren Lougee and Kelli Rae Powell; dancers Janille Hill and Simone Coonrod. Schools involved include PS 33 from the Bronx and the Calhoun School on the Upper West Side. Production Design is provided by John Conklin,Chris Akerlind (winner of the Tony Award), and Peter Ksander (winner of the Obie Award).
Strangers and Other Angels is free of charge and open to everyone. Reservations are not required. The program is 90 minutes and duration and participants should dress warmly.
The Mission of Compagnia de' Colombari:
Compagnia de' Colombari is an international collaborative of performing artists, born in Orvieto, Italy, and based in New York City, dedicated to new and old works from diverse traditions and cultures, creating spectacles for the public free of charge.
The company is named after the colombari-dovecotes-etched into the volcanic plateau on which Orvieto is poised. The dovecotes, networked one to another on the high cliff, demonstrate a synergy between the individual and the collective.
The Colombari play at the intersection and clash of cultures to celebrate what connects humankind at its core, in coincidence with extravagant distinction. Going to the root of the form, the Colombari generate theater for a new century and believe that every place is a space for the sacred architecture of theater between performer and audience.
A Short History of Compagnia de' Colombari:
From its inception in 2003, Compagnia de' Colombari re-imagined the medieval mystery plays for the 21st century in Orvieto, the very city where the Feast of Corpus Christi was launched in the 1260's-the festival which inaugurated the tradition of the plays. Using the city as stage, Colombari's virtuosity and high level of community involvement has catalyzed a new tradition of theater in that Italian city at the time of the festival each spring.
