CEW Productions to Offer Industry Reading of CASTLE IN THE AIR, 9/22

CEW Productions will produce an Industry reading of Brooke Ciardelli and Oscar Blustin's new adaptation of Alan Melville's Castle in the Air on Monday, September 22 at 5pm at the Westside Theatre, 407 W. 43rd St. Ethan Paulini will direct a cast that includes Tim Booth, Mac Brydon, Tessa Faye, Chris Flockton and Rachel Pickup.Tickets are free and can be obtained by visiting http://www.eventbrite.com/e/castle-in-the-air-industry-reading-tickets-12726377939

A stylish and farcical comedy set in the 1950's in a crumbling Scottish castle. Drowning in bills for the upkeep of his castle, the Earl of Locharne has nothing but his charm and good looks to stay afloat. He and his gal Friday get stuck between the American Heiress there to buy it, and the surprise arrival of a stuffy government inspector there to requisition it and leave him with nothing. A laugh-out-loud, heart-warming farce full of Scottish Highland games, ghost lore and mismatched lovers.

Brooke Ciardelli first came across Castle in the Air and enlisted a British co-writer whom she had worked with before, Blustin, whose aesthetic and sense of humour suited the piece. Together, they spent a few months on a first draft, which had a reading in London in July 2013, then wrote a further draft for a second, closed reading in New York in October 2013. The response to both readings was enthusiastic - the piece felt more modern but had not lost the wit and charm of the original.

The writers estimate that roughly 20% of Melville's dialogue remains and 80% is new writing, moving the style closer to farce than the original. Their intent was to create a new adaptation in the style of a classic British comedy, leaving plenty of space for a director to put their mark on it. Most of all, they wanted to write a truly entertaining night out at the theatre.

Prior to Castle in the Air, Blustin and Ciardelli have collaborated on The Shrew Tamer, an adaptation combining Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and John Fletcher's response piece The Tamer Tamed. Currently, they are working on Ciardelli's adaptation of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge, which was granted unprecedented permission by the Miller Estate to transpose the original Italian-American Catholic family to a modern day Arabic-American Muslim family.

Previously, Ciardelli created an adaptation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, produced by Northern Stage, a theatre company which she founded and Artistic Directed for 16 years. As director, highlights include European premiere of A. R. Gurney's Black Tie for Vienna's English Theatre, a reading of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Patrick Stewart and Lisa Harrow, and a workshop production of Arthur Miller's then-unpublished Resurrection Blues, with the playwright in residence. Ciardelli also directed award-winning productions of All My Sons, Amadeus, LES MISERABLES, and Hamlet.

Recently, Blustin was commissioned by the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Durham to write The Black Staircase, an immersive play inspired by the history of Durham Castle. He began working with Ciardelli on the Emerging Artists Scheme at Northern Stage, as Director on Sleuth, and Romeo and Juliet; as Associate Director to Ciardelli on Red, Amadeus, The History Boys, Hamlet, and Evita. Blustin is the Artistic Director of SPECIFIQ, a London-based site-specific theatre company.

More information at www.brookeciardelli.com and www.oscarblustin.com.