Metropolitan Playhouse Presents Annual EAST SIDE STORIES

OBIE Award-winning theater company Metropolitan Playhouse will present its annual EAST SIDE STORIES, a three-week celebration of the life and lore of the East Village featuring four new plays and six new solo performances.

The festival includes two evenings of solo-performances, based on interviews with current residents of the neighborhood, and one evening of new one-act plays based on the history and the future of the neighborhood.

These new works--comedies, dramas, and a musical!--by turns celebrate and investigate fair housing, gentrification, artistic liberty, immigrants' rights, equal education, and cultural rebellion. They feature famous, infamous, and everyday lives, some in fantasy, some in the very words of their subjects. The entire festival digs deeply into the life and history of one of Manhattan's most storied and vibrant neighborhoods.

TICKETS
Single tickets: $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, $10 for children under 18
are also on sale
at www.MetropolitanPlayhouse.org or (800) 838-3006.

East Side Stories Festival Passes granting admission to all four programs for the discount rate of $50 are available by visiting www.MetropolitanPlayhouse.org.

PERFORMANCES
Performances run April 5 - April 23
Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7:30 pm
Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm

DETAILS and SCHEDULE

Short Play Program: TRANSFORMATION
The plays feature famous figures in Lower East Side history, such as Fiorello LaGuardia, Vincent Astor, Janis Joplin, Bill Graham, Mary Simkhovitch, Marcus Loew, Bruce Mailman. They tell of the founding of celebrated institutions of education, finance, and debauch: Cooper Union, First Houses, The Commodore Burlesque Hall, The Saint, The Fillmore East. Plus there's the dance that was born of a domestic disturbance.

"Cooper Union, Cooper Union" - A Musical
Book and Lyrics by Sheilah Rae; Music by Debra Barsha
Who would dare to put men who were black or white, Jewish or Christian, with...(gasp)... women in the same classroom? The story of Peter Cooper's best and biggest idea ...in song!

"Sunshine in Every Window"
by Rex McGregor
SUNSHINE IN EVERY WINDOW: In 1934, crusading city planner Mary Simkhovitch makes a difficult ally for Fiorello LaGuardia and Eleanor Roosevelt. The mayor and First Lady Just want to build the first public housing in America; Mary demands it live up to America's ideals.

"The Bowery Waltz" A comedy with dancing
by Jen Plants
On a rooftop in the Bowery, one last look at a glorious view and a ferocious contest to earn the right to sell it. But what's the right price for generations of memories?

"Emigrant"
by Arlene Jaffe
Can a building have a soul? 105 Second Avenue: a literal cornerstone of East Village life, from beginning of the 20th century to the end, from den of iniquity to pillar of the community...the story of the many lives lived by one famous and infamous address.

Performance schedule for TRANSFORMATION
Thursday, April 6 at 7
Saturday, April 8 at 3
Wednesday, April 12 at 7
Saturday, April 15 at 7
Friday, April 21 at 7
Sunday, April 23 at 3

Monologue Programs: UNDERGROUND and THE WILD SIDE
Drawn from interviews with neighborhood residents, these monologues tell the stories of real residents' lives. They are "Great theater....Storytelling at its best" (Hi Drama). For 14 years they have captured "the face of the East Village - with all its grit, darkness, ferocity, and yes - life-saving beauty." (TheaterScene.net)

UNDERGROUD
"Survival"
Jonathan Shaw, Tattoo Artist, portrayed by Julie T. Pham

"homegrown"
Cris, Educator, portrayed by marcus d. harvey

and a Psychoanalytic, Tango-Dancing, High Priestess, portrayed by Lenore Wolf

Performance Schedule for UNDERGROUND
Wednesday, April 5 at 7 pm
Saturday, April 8 at 7 pm
Thursday, April 13 at 7 pm
Saturday, April 15 at 3 pm
Wednesday, April 19 at 7 pm
Saturday, April 22 at 3 pm

THE WILD SIDE
"A Good Woman"
LuAnn Daleadnro, Bartender, portrayed by Nylda Ria Mark

"No Regrets"
Kathy von Hartz, Adventurer, portrayed by Teresa Kelsey

"Troubador"
Dani Luv, Troubador, portrayed by Jared Houseman

Performance Schedule for THE WILD SIDE
Friday, April 7 at 7 pm
Sunday, April 9 at 3 pm
Friday, April 14 at 7 pm
Sunday, April 16 at 3 pm
Thursday, April 20 at 7 pm
Saturday, April 22 at 7 pm