In "Looking for Parcifal," the award-winning playwright Brenda Shoshanna parts the curtains on the strange interactions between family and staff in a seemingly normal hospice where nothing appears to go right. "Looking for Parcival" receives its world premiere at the Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street, beginning Tuesday January 20. Directed by Richmond Shepard, the serio-farce features a cast of six that includes Dan Burkarth, Vanna Pilgrim, Marcus Watson, Lisa Landino, Nate Steinwachs, Jonathan Hendrickson. The production's two-week Off-Off-Broadway engagement plays through Saturday January 31, with an opening set for Sunday January 25 at 3pm.
In "Looking for Parcifal" a family tries to come to grips with a missing relative as the disconcertingly patient chief physician Dr. Decroy dispenses one bit of no-news-is-good-news after another in a seemingly unending litany of ambiguity about the missing brother whose passage from life to death may be more than imminent. In addition to imploring Dr. Decroy, who is constantly ignoring his pages, the brother's siblings look for answers wherever they can, including the nurse Mia, who turns out to have fallen madly in love with the dying patient and now wants to share in their grief. A peek through the veils that may or may not separate this world from the next, Shoshanna's comedy uncovers how much we invent about the grief we experience when facing or not facing the death of someone we hold dear.
Shoshanna, who received a number of playwriting awards when she was playwright in residence at both the
Jewish Repertory Theater and Ensemble Studio Theater in the late '80s and early '90s, is a best-selling author and psychologist who writes and speaks widely on finding peace of mind in stressful environments. She appears frequently on television and radio as an expert on spirituality, anxiety, and grief. "Looking for Parcival" is her first play to be produced professionally in close to 10 years. Shepard is a director, teacher, and performer who has been a fixture in New York's downtown theatre scene for several decades. Currently a theatre critic and bon vivant, he is also the self-proclaimed world's oldest active mime.
"Looking for Parcival" performs from Tuesday January 20 through Saturday January 31 at the
Gene Frankel Theater, 24 Bond Street (between Lafayette and Bowery). 10 performances take place from Tuesday through Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm in the first week, and Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm in the second week. Tickets, which are $18, are now on sale and can be purchased in advance by calling
800/838-3006 or by visiting
www.brownpapertickets.com.
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