Justin Vivian Bond to Lead Classic Stage Company's A MAN'S A MAN; Performances to Begin Jan. 10, 2014

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, announced today that acclaimed avant-garde performance artist Justin VivIan Bond will star in the company's upcoming new production of Bertolt Brecht's A MAN'S A MAN as Leokadia Begbick, canteen proprietress (a role originated by Brecht's wife Helene Weigel), beginning performances Friday, January 10 at CSC (136 East 13thStreet). A MAN'S A MAN will be directed by Brian Kulick and feature a new score and new songs by Tony Award-winning composer Duncan Sheik. Kulick and Shiek collaborated on last season's production of Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle at CSC. Tickets for A MAN'S A MAN will go on sale December 12.

In this early knock-about, anti-just-about-everything farce by Brecht, an innocent dockworker Galy Gay in British Colonial India is rather unorthodoxly enlisted into Her Majesty's Armed Forces, where he is "dismantled like a car" and then reassembled into the ultimate fighting machine.

Mx Justin VivIan Bond is a writer, singer, painter, and performance artist. Mx Bond is the author of the Lambda Literary Award winning memoir TANGO: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels, published by The Feminist Press and Susie Says..., a collaboration with Gina Garan (Powerhouse Books, 2012). V's debut CD DENDRPOPHILE was self-released on WhimsyMusic in 2011 and was followed by SILVER WELLS in 2012. In 2011 Justin Vivian's art exhibition The Fall of the House of Whimsy was presented at Participant Inc. in New York City. Mx Bond was nominated for a Tony Award for Kiki and Herb Alive On Broadway in 2007. Other notable theatrical endeavors include starring as Warhol Superstar Jackie Curtis in Scott Wittman's production of Jukebox Jackie: Snatches of Jackie Curtis as part of La Mama E.T.C.'s 50 Anniversary Season, originating the role of Herculine Barbin in Kate Bornstein's groundbreaking play Hidden: A Gender, touring with the performance troupe The Big Art Group and appearing in John Cameron Mitchell's film Shortbus. Other films include Sunset Stories (2012), Imaginary Heroes (2004), and Fanci's Persuasion (1995). Mx Bond is a recipient of The Ethyl Eichelberger Award, The Peter Reed Foundation Grant, and The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award for Performance Art/Theater, an Obie and a Bessie.

CSC is currently presenting Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Julian Cihi. CSC's 2013/2014 Season also features The Last Two People On Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville, performed by Mandy Patinkin and Taylor Mac, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman (presented at the Abrons Arts Center); Bertolt Brecht's A Man's A Man, featuring new music by Duncan Sheik, directed by Brian Kulick; and David Ives' The Heir Apparent, adapted from the play by Jean-François Regnard, directed by John Rando.