Urbanite Theatre, a new Florida-based non-profit, inaugurates an innovative producing model this summer in New York by bringing back Origin Theatre Company's critically acclaimed production of Tim Ruddy's "The International" returns with its original cast for a three-week encore engagement Off-Broadway from Wednesday July 15 to Sunday August 2 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street. Christopher Randolph directs.
"Every year Urbanite will bring back a high-impact production from the previous season that cries out for more time to be seen," says Urbanite's founder and producer Harry Lipstein. "Too many incredible productions are mounted in New York, run briefly and disappear never to be seen again," George C. Heslin, Origin's artistic director, added. Urbanite will focus on the distinguished productions of powerful plays, re-mounting them again in the summer and then putting the productions on track to come to our new theatre in the thriving downtown arts scene of Sarasota."
In Ruddy's probing three-character play, familiar events taking place during an unnamed war in Eastern Europe are seen through the eyes of three different people in three different parts of the world. Linked in surprising ways through the media, technology and global politics these three people couldn't be more disconnected.
"The International" stars
Timothy Carter as a well-meaning international peacekeeper from Holland, who finds himself drawn into a battle that is not his own;
Ted Schneider as an aspiring artist and truck driver from Los Angeles, who watches the war on television, and
Carey Van Driest as a bright, passionate farmwoman who witnesses her idyllic village life shattered by the encroaching conflict. Despite their differences, each of the characters will find themselves spiritually bankrupted by these same events, and unexpectedly linked.
The Irish Voice's arts critic Cahir O'Doherty calls "The International" "a play about war and the seen and unseen violence it does to our spirits." He adds, "it takes a complex experience and makes sense of it [...] with a surety that is remarkable. [...] The most philosophically engaging and accomplished Irish drama I have seen in years."
First seen in the 2013 Origin's 1st Irish Theatre Festival where it won awards for Best Playwright (Ruddy) and Best Actress (Van Driest), "The International" premiered Off-Broadway in a four-week run produced by Origin Theatre Company, from April 3 to May 4, 2014 at the cell. The opening was April 10, 2014.
As it did during its initial run, "The International" will invite audiences to participate in several talk-backs about the collateral effects of civil conflicts in and outside the theatre of war, and a discussion of the challenges faced by the international community in handling cataclysmic fracturing of communities due to racial and religious hatred. Just last month UN Special Envoy
Angelina Jolie decried what she called "the world's inability to defend and protect the innocent."
The show's production design team includes James Maloof (sets),
Tristan Raines (costumes), Derek Van Heel (lighting), and
Benjamin Furiga (sound design). Alexis Qualls is the production stage manager.
"The International's" 21 encore performances, from Wed July 15 at 7:30pm to Sun August 2 at 3pm, will be open for review immediately. Performances are Tues thru Fri at 7:30pm; Sat at 3pm & 7:30pm, and Sun at 3pm (with an added performance on Sun July 19 at 7pm), at The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42nd Street. Tickets, which are $45 to $65, will be available as of June 1 via Ticket Central by phone at
212/279-4200 or online at
www.ticketcentral.com
For more details visit
www.origintheatre.org (Running time is 80 minutes.)
In June Origin Theatre Company begins its 13th season of producing the New York and American premieres of plays by playwrights from Europe. Origin produces the annual Origin's 1st Irish Festival, the city's only all-Irish theatre festival, every September.
Urbanite launched this spring and nurtures new voices in the theatre whose work aims to be of deep human and social consequence. Their inaugural production -- the held-over U.S. premiere of "Chicken Shop" by Anna Jordan -- ran until May 10. Lipstein, a trained architect, developer and actor, designed and built Urbanite in the heart of the growing and bustling arts district in Sarasota, referred to by many as the arts capital of Florida. Urbanite's two co-artistic directors are Summer Wallace and
Brendan Ragan.
