The celebrated performance collective the New York Neo-Futurists kicks off their 10th anniversary season with a new volume in their critically acclaimed series THE COMPLETE & CONDENSED STAGE DIRECTIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL, VOLUME 2. Produced by the New York Neo-Futurists in association with THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY, Crystal Field Executive Director, THE COMPLETE & CONDENSED STAGE DIRECTIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL, VOLUME 2, adapted and directed by Christopher Loar, begins performances on Thursday, April 17 for a limited engagement through Sunday, May 11. Press Opening is Monday, April 28 at 8 PM. Performances take place at Theater for the New City (155 1st Avenue, between East 9th and East 10th Streets, in the East Village). The performance schedule is Wednesday - Saturday at 8 PM; Sunday at 3 PM, with added performances on Monday, April 28 and Monday, May 5 at 8 PM. The regular ticket price is $25 ($20 for preview performances). For tickets, which go on sale March 1st, call OvationTix on 1-866-811-4111 or visit www.nynf.org.
A follow up to the Drama Desk nominated THE COMPLETE AND CONDENSED STAGE DIRECTIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL, VOLUME 1, which was called "an impish illustration of how lively entertainment can be created from theatrical spare parts" by the New York Times, the New York Neo-Futurists continue the adventure into the subconscious of American theater legend Eugene O'Neill. Removing the dialogue and stripping the plays down to pure action, O'Neill's eloquent yet obsessive and often controlling stage directions become a rip-roaring physical comedy.
Now a Broadway mainstay, Eugene O'Neill was once considered an experimental, downtown playwright. His plays defied the melodramatic conventions of the day and much of his work premiered with
The Provincetown Players on MacDougall Street. The New York Neo-Futurists return O'Neill to his experimental roots. "A stoner convention for scholars" (Time Out NY on O'Neill V. 1), THE COMPLETE & CONDENSED STAGE DIRECTIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL, VOLUME 2 spans the years 1913 - 1915, and includes his plays Recklessness, Warnings, Fog, Abortion, and The Sniper.
THE COMPLETE & CONDENSED STAGE DIRECTIONS OF EUGENE O'NEILL, VOLUME 2 features
Cecil Baldwin (voice of the hit podcast Welcome to Night Vale);
Cara Francis (Feast at Public Theater's UTR, The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Volume 1),
Roberta Colindrez (Fun Home, HBO's Girls);
Christopher Borg (
Charles Busch's Judith of Bethulia); and
Dylan Marron (Welcome to Night Vale; and the hit web series Whatever This Is).
The design team includes
Cara Francis (set and props),
Marisa Blankier (lights) and
Christopher Loar (sound). The production stage manager is
Marisa Blankier.
Christopher Loar (adapter/director) is an ensemble member of the New York Neo-Futurists, writing, performing, directing and designing plays for Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind since 2009. Other work includes adapting/directing "Complete/Condensed Volume 1," creating music for interdisciplinary artists Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriye's "Becoming Corpus" at BAM, and performing in
Reid Farrington's Gin & It (PS 122 / Wexner Center / Under The Radar) as well as his Christmas Carol (Abrons Arts Center). He has also performed and presented work at such places as The Ohio Theater, Incubator Arts Project (and the former Ontological-Hysteric), New York Theater Workshop,
The Public Theater, The Bushwick Starr, The New York Clown Theater Festival, The Chocolate Factory, The Brick, FringeNYC, Emerging Artists Theater, 3LD, Eyebeam Art & Technology Center and Chashama.
Now celebrating 10 years in New York City, the New York Neo-Futurists are an ensemble of dynamic writer/performer/directors who are best known for their critically acclaimed, energetic show of original short plays, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (30 plays in 60 minutes), a non-illusory collage of the comic and tragic, the political and personal, the visceral and experimental. Developed out of a format that has been a success in Chicago since 1988, the Neo-Futurists put down roots in NYC in the mid 90's and have been growing strong ever since. After a grand re-birth in the city in 2004, NYNF has created over 3200 new plays, and continues to present award-winning, topical and vital work every weekend at the Kraine Theater and around the New York independent theater community.
NYNF's full length productions include: Not Just a Day Like Any Other (2009 NYIT award winner for Best Ensemble), Laika Dog in Space, The Soup Show (2010 NYIT award nominee for Best Performance Art Production), (un)afraid (2011 NYIT award nominee for Best Performance Art Production and Sound Design), Locker #4173b (2011 NYIT award winner for Best Performance Art Production), The Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of Eugene O'Neill, Vol. 1: Early Plays/Lost Plays (New York Times Critics Pick, Drama Desk Award Nominee, NYIT Award nominee for Sound Design, Choreography, Best Director, Ensemble and Performance Art and the first New York Neo-Futurist main stage show to extend its run and extend for a week Off-Broadway at Barrow Street Theater, and tour to
Arena Stage in Washington DC) and You Are In An Open Field.
