Photo Flash: 59E59 Theaters Launches the 2018 Subscription Series with BALLS

59E59 Theaters (Val Day, Artistic Director; Brian Beirne, Managing Director) is thrilled to launch the 2018 Subscription Series with BALLS, written by Kevin Armento and Bryony Lavery and directed by Ianthe Demos and Nick Flint with movement direction by Natalie Lomonte.

Produced by One Year Lease Theater Company and Stages Repertory Theatre, BALLS begins performances on Tuesday, January 16 for a limited engagement through Sunday, February 25. Press Opening is Wednesday, January 24 at 7 PM. The performance schedule isTuesday - Friday at 7 PM; Saturday at 2 PM & 7 PM; and Sunday at 2 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison). Single tickets are $25 - $70 ($25 - $49 for 59E59 Members). Tickets are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online atwww.59e59.org.

It's 1973, and Houston's Astrodome is playing host to one of the biggest cultural events of all time as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs face-off in The Battle of the Sexes tennis match.

BALLS is a high-intensity theatrical re-telling of this unforgettable match and the cultural debates it ignited around sexism, women-in-sport, and equality. Called "pulse racing and stomach-tightening" by theHouston Press, One Year Lease's signature high-energy physical style embraces the carnival atmosphere of the original event, and features a shot-by-shot re-imagining of the entire match.

The cast features Danny Bernardy (PEMDAS with OYL), Donald Corren (Broadway's Souvenir andTorch Song Trilogy), Alex J. Gould (The Woodsman at 59E59), Danté Jeanfelix (Playing Hot at Ars Nova), Zakiya Iman Markland (Junk at La Jolla Playhouse), Olivia McGiff (PEMDAS with OYL), Elisha Mudly (When We Went Electric at The Tank), Cristina Pitter (Playing Hot at Ars Nova), Richard Saudek(Stockholm and pool (no water) with OYL), and Ellen Tamaki (The Holdouts).

The design team includes Kristen Robinson (set design); Mike Riggs (lighting design); Brendan Aanes(sound design); and Kenisha Kelley (costume design). The Production Stage Manager is Kate Shelton.

BIOS

Kevin Armento's (co-playwright) play Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally premiered Off Broadway in 2015 (59E59 Theaters/One Year Lease, New York Times Critic's Pick, Drama Desk Nomination). Recent work includes Good Men Wanted (New York Stage and Film), Playing Hot (Pipeline Theatre), killers (Tom Noonan's Paradise Factory), and Companion Piece (Pleasance Theatre, London). He's a current member of Ars Nova's Makers Lab and the Working Farm at SPACE on Ryder Farm, a previous Artist-in-Residence at The Drama League, and was recently awarded grants from The Jerome Foundation and Brooklyn Arts Council. Other work has been presented at Arena Stage, Cape Cod Theatre Project, Dixon Place, Seaview Productions, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, and his spec script Comfortably Numb was recently optioned by CBS Studios.

Bryony Lavery's (co-playwright) play Frozen won the TMA best play award, the Eileen Anderson centralTelevision award, was produced at Birmingham Rep, then the National Theatre, then on Broadway where it was nominated for four Tony awards. Stockholm, for Frantic Assembly, won the Wolff-Whiting award for Best Play of 2008. Beautiful Burnout for The National Theatre of Scotland and Frantic Assembly received a Fringe First at Edinburgh, before productions in the UK, New York, Australia and New Zealand. Recent work includes: The Believers [Frantic Assembly], Queen Coal [Sheffield Crucible], Treasure Island[National Theatre], 101 Dalmatians [Chichester Festival Theatre], Brideshead Revisited [York Theatre Royal/ETT], Our Mutual Friend [Hull Truck/City of Culture 2017]. Current theater projects: Slime [large sonic piece for Banff/Only The Animal, Canada], The Parting Glass [Manchester Royal Exchange], The Lovely Bones [Birmingham Repertory Theatre], Swallows and Amazons [Chester Storyhouse], Brighton Rock [Pilot Theatre], Wigmaker [musical with Douglas Hodge], Dr@cula [Central School Speech & Drama]. Television: "Cruising." Other plays include: A Wedding Story, Last Easter, Her Aching Heart [Pink Paper Play of the Year 1992], Smoke, Dirt [nom. Charles McArthur award for most outstanding play or musical of 2013, Washington DC], More Light, Thursday... Other Adaptations include A Christmas Carol,Precious Bane, The Wicked Lady, and Behind the Scenes at the Museum. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an honorary Doctor of Arts at De Montford University and an Associate Artist at Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Ianthe Demos (co-director) is a founding member and the Co-Artistic Director of One Year Lease. With OYL Ianthe most recently directed Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally by Kevin Armento (New York TimesCritic's Pick and Edinburgh Stage Award) and pool (no water) by Mark Ravenhill (New York Times Critic's Pick). Other directing credits with OYL include Bed by Brendan Cowell, Phaedra's Love by Sarah Kane,Teaser Cow by Clay Chapman, The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco and more. Interested in the intersection of theater and education, Ianthe has served as a guest director and teacher at Vassar College, Harvard University and PACE as well as developing OYL's annual Apprentice Program in northern Greece. Ianthe divides her time between Greece and New York City.

Nick Flint (co-director) is a theater and film director, actor, writer and the Co-Artistic Director of One Year Lease. He has been developing new plays with playwrights and ensembles for over twenty years, as well as leading workshops, readings and extended development processes. With OYL Nick's directing credits include Stockholm by Bryony Lavery, Skin Tight by Gary Henderson, and The Killing Room by Daniel Keene. Nick has performed extensively with OYL including recently in pool (no water) by Mark Ravenhill and Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally by Kevin Armento (Edinburgh Stage Award for best ensemble). He wrote and directed the short feature film Bridge; co-wrote and directed the TV comedy pilot "Ensemble," and directed the short film Upstanding. As an actor, he has also performed with the major Australian state theatre companies including Sydney Theatre Company in The Shape of Things and Melbourne Theater Company in The Recruit. Screen credits include ongoing roles on the Australian TV dramas "Home & Away," "All Saints," "Love Bytes;" the feature films Ned, The Tumbler, Regretting Fish, as well as numerous shorts. He has performed as one of The Flying Karamazov Brothers and has trained extensively with the Siti Company.

Natalie Lomonte (movement director) is a choreographer, performer and teacher in NYC. She has collaborated to create work and toured extensively with Momix, Pilobolus, The Chase Brock Experience and Parsons Dance. She has performed on national television throughout the U.S., Europe and Japan and danced with Liza Minnelli in the movie Sex and The City 2. Natalie was in the original Broadway cast of Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, where she eventually served as the Dance Captain and Dance Supervisor. In 2012 Natalie became the Movement Director for One Year Lease Theater Company and an Adjunct Professor of Dance at Fordham University. She choreographs for theater, dance and film and has led creative movement workshops at Harvard University, PACE University and Vassar College. Her choreography has been honored by the San Francisco Dance Film Festival for Alter Ego and in 2015,Within, commissioned by Parsons Dance for The Joyce Theater, was critically acclaimed in the New York Times. Later that year, she premiered Common Heart, a piece commissioned for the Ailey/Fordham BFA Fall Concert, and served as Assistant Stage Director/Choreographer for the live-broadcast stadium show, "44th National Day Abu Dhabi." Last year, Natalie served as Assistant Choreographer to Mia Michaels, creating the brand new New York Spectacular starring the Radio City Rockettes in NYC. This year, she has been the guest choreographer for the 2107 Whitney Houston Biennial and the 2017 Omaha Musical Theater Awards.

Photo by Os Galindo