Stolen Chair's POTION: A PLAY IN THREE COCKTAILS Extends thru 6/15 at PEOPLE Lounge

Stolen Chair presents POTION: A PLAY IN THREE COCKTAILS, written by Kiran Rikhye, directed by Jon Stancato and composed by Sean Cronin, with cocktails by mixologist Marlo Gamora. The show runs every Sunday at PEOPLE Lounge, now through June 15, 2014.

In a Lower East Side bar, combine...
4 parts downtown theatre
3 parts live music
2 parts love story
1 part farce
3 dashes of opera
Shake vigorously and garnish with cocktails designed by an award-winning mixologist.

Charley sells potions, handcrafted and custom made. From potions that can make the forgetful remember to potions that will stop a compulsive liar from fibbing, Charley's concoctions satisfy a diverse clientele. But the one potion Charley hasn't been able to master is that one she wants for herself: a love potion. Potion, a "spoken word opera" immerses its audience in the giddy world of Charley's bar and her regular (and irregular) customers, with Marlo Gamora's flight of 3 original "potions" served by the actors as the play unfolds.

To create the uniquely rhythmic text for Potion, Stolen Chair's playwright Kiran Rikhye dug deeply into the Italian libretti of the operas by Mozart, Verdi, Donizetti, and more. For each scene of Potion, Rikhye mapped out the meter, rhymes, repetitions, and simultaneity of an aria, duet, trio, or quartet to create a template for her own original text. The result is an intoxicating and incantatory verse play unlike any other, set to a genre-bending original score performed live by multi-instrumentalist Sean Cronin. The ensemble performs this "opera" in spoken voice that is every bit as virtuosic, dizzying, and delightful as operatic song in a site-specific staging by Jon Stancato that explores every nook and cranny of PEOPLE's bar and makes the audience feel they are VIP guests at Charley's magical speakeasy.

Potion: A Play in Three Cocktails performs every Sunday at 7pm at PEOPLE Lounge (163 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington). Tickets ($30-$50, plus $20 cocktail prix fixe) may be purchased online at www.stolenchair.org/tickets or by calling 1-800-838-3006.

STOLEN CHAIR Called "Ingenious" by The New York Times, "Innovative" by Time Out NY, and "Captivating" by The Huffington Post, Stolen Chair creates playfully intellectual and exuberantly athletic works of theatre so immersive you don't need to leave your seat to be completely transported. Aesthetically promiscuous and wickedly irreverent, the company refuses to draw the line between high art and great entertainment or between thinking and feeling. Previous productions, all written by Kiran Rikhye and directed by Jon Stancato, include The Man Who Laughs (Drama Desk "Unique Theatrical Experience", "Outstanding Music in a Play," and Outstanding Lighting Design" Award nominations), Bachelors' Tea Party, Kinderspiel, Theatre is Dead & So Are You,Quantum Poetics, Commedia dell'Artemisia, and Stage Kiss. Stolen Chair is supported, in part, by public funds from the NYSCA and The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York's Nancy Quinn Fund. Potion was developed, in part, through a residency SPACE @ Ryder Farm. For more information, visit www.stolenchair.org.