Red Bull Theater's 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE Begins Tonight

This season's mainstage production, John Ford's 'Tis Pity She's A Whore, directed by Red Bull Artistic Director Jesse Berger, will begin a limited Off-Broadway engagement tonight, Tuesday April 14th at The Duke on 42nd Street. Opening Night is set for Sunday April 26th. Performances continue through May 16th.

What if Romeo and Juliet were brother and sister? Find out in this daring and provocative thriller. This heart-pounding tale of love, lust and hypocrisy is a deliciously perverse romantic tragedy. Siblings Annabella and Giovanni fall into an incestuous affair with a brutal velocity that sets Renaissance Parma aflame with its passionate force. Defiant in their desires to the bloody end, these lovers take "star-crossed" into a whole new galaxy.

This crown jewel of Jacobean drama has scandalized and enthralled audiences for four centuries with its singular journey through the fires of desire. In its first major Off-Broadway production in 20 years, this rollicking ride will have your moral compass spinning wildly.

'Tis Pity She's A Whore will feature Matthew Amendt, Kelley Curran, Clifton Duncan, Franchelle Stewart Dorn, Ryan Farley, Ryan Garbayo, Philip Goodwin, Christopher Innvar, Amelia Pedlow, Everett Quinton, Rocco Sisto, Derek Smith, Auden Thornton, Tramell Tillmann, and Marc Vietor.

'Tis Pity She's A Whore will have set design by David Barber, costume design by Sara Jean Tosetti, lighting design by Peter West, sound design by John Ivy, properties design by Karin White, with music composed by Adam Wernick and fight direction by Rick Sordelet.

Performances will be Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at 7:30, Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm, with matinees Saturday at 2pmand Sunday at 3pm. No matinee Sunday April 26th. Tickets for 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, now on sale, begin at $40 and are available by visiting DukeOn42.org, by phone at 646/223-3010 or in person at Box Office (located at 229 West 42nd Street, between Broadway and 8th Avenues). Prices vary based on availability - securing tickets early guarantees the best rates.

Red Bull Theater: Hailed as "the city's gutsiest classical theater" by Time Out New York, is the not-profit Off-Broadway theater company specializing in plays of heightened language. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, Red Bull Theater embraces the imagination of theatergoers through intimate, imaginative productions of great classic stories from all eras and cultures. Red Bull Theater's eleventh season builds upon their unique history and mission to present vital and imaginative performances of heightened language plays from all eras and cultures as they launch a second decade of sharing great classic stories.

Acclaimed as "a dynamic producer of classic plays" by The New York Times, Red Bull Theater has previously staged productions of Pericles, The Revenger's Tragedy, Edward the Second, Women Beware Women, The Duchess of Malfi, The Witch of Edmonton, The Maids, Th?e Dance of Death, Loot, ?The Mystery of Irma Vep, and the first Off-Broadway revival of Volpone in over 50 years. The company's work has been hailed as "the most exciting classical theater in New York" (Time Out New York), "Dynamite! (The New York Times), "Triumphant" (Associated Press), and "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years" (Variety), among others. The company has staged over 125 readings through its ongoing OBIE Award-winning Revelation Readings, develops new plays of heightened language and classical adaptations through ?Cockpit In-the-Raw Workshops and its annual Short New Play Festival, ?offers education programs for NYC students through its Direct Address outreach program, as well as professional training through Master Classes taught by top working professionals. ? Red Bull Theater's work has been recognized with multiple Callaway, Drama League, Lucille Lortel, and OBIE Award nominations and Awards. www.redbulltheater.com

The New 42nd Street: Founded in 1990, The New 42nd Street is an independent, nonprofit organization charged with long-term responsibility for seven historic theaters on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. In addition to running The New Victory Theater, The New 42nd Street built and operates the NEW 42ND STREET Studios--a ten-story building of rehearsal studios, offices and a 200-seat theater named The Duke on 42nd Street-for national and international performing arts companies. Since its opening on June 21, 2000, the NEW 42ND STREET Studios has been fully occupied by both nonprofit and commercial theater, dance and opera companies. With these institutions and the other properties under its guardianship, The New 42nd Street plays a pivotal role in fostering the continued revival of this famous street at the Crossroads of the World.

The Duke on 42nd Street: The Duke on 42nd Street is an intimate 200-seat black box theater built and operated by The New 42nd Street. Since opening in 2000, the theater has been available on a rental basis to international and domestic nonprofit organizations to present their work. Companies that have presented at The Duke on 42nd Street theater include: Theatre for a New Audience; Playwrights Horizons; Lincoln Center Great Performers; Transport Group Theatre Company; The NYC Tap Festival; and 92nd Street Y's Harkness Dance Project. In October 2008, Lincoln Center Theater launched "LCT3" at The Duke on 42nd Street. In 2012, the American premiere of the Royal Court Theatre's Olivier Award-winning play, Cock, was presented by Stuart Thompson, Jean Doumanian and the Royal Court Theatre. NEW 42ND STREET presentations at The Duke on 42nd Street have included: Karole Amitage's Armitage Gone! Dance; Chicago Shakespeare Theater's Rose Rage; Naked Angels and Dan Klores's Armed and Naked in America; and Classical Theater of Harlem's production of Langston Hughes's Black Nativity. Notable NEW VICTORYpresentations at The Duke on 42nd Street include Joan McLeod's The Shape of a Girl, Steppenwolf Theater Company's The Bluest Eye and the smash hit, Once and For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen, presented by The New Victory Theater in cooperation with The Under the Radar Festival.

For more information visit www.redbulltheater.com.

Photo by Richard Termine