The Insights & Revelations Performance Series Is Now In Residence At The Emelin Theatre For 2009/2010 Season

The Insights & Revelations Performance Series, is delighted to be in residence at The Emelin Theatre of Mamaroneck for the 2009/2010 season. There, the Series will present a wide range of sneak previews and behind-the-scenes looks at New York City's finest off-Broadway companies, with its signature moderated artist discussion and reception following each performance.
"I am delighted to have such an accomplished presenting partner in The Emelin Theatre and thrilled at the prospect of introducing their adventurous and sophisticated audiences to our world-class presentations," stated Anna Becker, Founding Producer of The Insights & Revelations Performance Series. "The Series has been met with such enthusiasm and we look forward to building upon that success this season. I am particularly excited by the superior quality and range of artists we have slated to perform, talk and mingle with us."

Lisa Reilly, Executive Director of the Emelin Theatre added: "All of us at the Emelin Theatre are delighted to have The Insights & Revelations Performance Series as a new member of the Emelin family. Our audiences expect excellence, and this great series will give them a wonderful opportunity to experience world-class theatre in an intimate and extraordinary way. A perfect addition to the 2009/2010 season, this year's ‘Insights & Revelations' programs mark the beginning of a great collaboration between the Emelin and The Deep End Productions."

PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION:

Get an inside look at the creative process by witnessing sneak previews, open rehearsals and great new works in process before they land off-Broadway. Participate in post-show discussions with the artists and mingle with them at a reception afterward!

Thursday, October 1, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.

Inside Shakespeare with The Shakespeare Society | $25

A behind-the-scenes look at the process of taking Shakespeare from the page to the stage. Excerpted performances by notable Shakespearean performers, with commentary from The Shakespeare Society's Artistic Director, Michael Sexton. A discussion and reception with the artists follows the program.

Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 8:00 p.m.
The Liar Show | $25

The return of our 2007 sold-out hit show, with new storytellers!
4 Storytellers, 3 True Stories, 1 Pack of Lies. Liar features New York's most celebrated storytellers telling stories that will make you laugh, make you think, or just make you glad you're not them. But listen carefully because one of these people is making it all up. Audience members interrogate the tellers and cast their vote for the Liar. Winners receive a Liar t-shirt. Featuring James Braly (NPR, Life In A Marital Institution), Martin Dockery (Wanderlust), Ophira Eisenberg (Comedy Central), and Steve Osborne (NYPD Gang Squad Lieutenant). Hosted by Andy Christie (who?). A discussion and reception with Christie and the storytellers follows the performance.

Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 8 p.m.

The Really Big Once | $25

Sneak Preview! Witness a new play in development from Target Margin Theater, Off-Broadway's award-winning experimental theatre company. Based on Tennessee Williams' collaboration with Elia Kazan, The Really Big Once draws upon their notebooks and memoirs, scenes from Camino Real, and Kazan's HUAC testimony to form a dream-like collage that is a complex meditation on alienation, the passage of time, and what it means to create something "experimental." A discussion and reception with the artists follows the performance.
Inspiring Performances, Artful Conversation, and a Sublime Artist Reception

Tickets are $25 per presentation. Get 25% off if you order all three! For more season information and ticket purchases visit www.emelin.org or call (914) 698-3045.
Visit The Insights & Revelations Series web site for in-depth information Series offerings, as well as artist interviews, theatre-going links, and more, at: www.TheDeepEndProductions.org.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

The Shakespeare Society is a not-for-profit cultural organization, presenting entertaining and challenging programs that combine stage performances by outstanding actors with illuminating commentary by noted Shakespearean writers, scholars, and directors. Past participants have included Harold Bloom, F. Murray Abraham, Stephen Greenblatt, Liev Schreiber, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Kathleen Chalfant, Michael Cumpsty, Jefferson Mays, Marcia Gay Harden, Patrick Stewart, Sir Peter Hall, Derek Jacobi, Philip Bosco, Marjorie Garber, Ralph Fiennes, Ron Rosenbaum, Richard Easton, John Guare, and Claire Bloom. www.shakespearesociety.org

Michael Sexton, Executive & Artistic Director, he has directed world and New York premieres of plays by Marsha Norman, Rinne Groff, Ain Gordon, Rogelio Martinez, Victor Lodato, Phil Porter, Chloe Moss, Marin Gazzaniga, Caryl Churchill, RoseMary Moore, and Robert Clyman and workshops of plays by Tony Kushner. He has worked at New York Theater Workshop, the Public Theater, Manhattan Class Company, Soho Rep, PS122, Portland Center Stage, The Old Globe, Playmakers Rep, Rising Phoenix Rep, Cherry Lane Alternative, the Samuel Beckett Theater, and the Harold Clurman Theater, among others. He is a regular guest artist at NYU's Graduate Acting Program (Zelda Fichandler, Chair), the JuilliardSchool (Michael Kahn, Chair), and most recently, Columbia University. He co-edited (with Tim Page) Four Plays by Dawn Powell for Steerforth Press.

The Liar Show is presented in New York City at The People's Improv Theater, Comix, the Cornelia Street Café and the DR2 Lounge and was a hit at The 2008 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The shows aren't literary readings--the performers don't read, they "tell"--nor are they standup comedy, but the stories are as thoughtfully crafted as literature, and as entertainment, they're refreshingly direct and funny. And with "Liar" you get to play along. It's smart AND it's fun. How odd.

Andy Christie is the the creator and host of "Liar." He is co-author and illustrator of "I Wasn't Kidding" (Random House/Ballantine Books) as well as a featured Moth Main Stage storyteller (in New Haven and The Players Club in NYC), and four-time Moth

Story Slam champion. His short stories & essays have appeared in The New York Times, literary journals and online (The Distillery; GSU Review; Mr. Beller's Neighborhood; Dan Kennedy's Really Small Talk, among others). Please visit www.andychristie.com.

The Storytellers:
James Braly was called "Never less than excellent" by the NY Times. The only two-time winner of the Moth GrandSlam, he has told his stories on NPR and with The Moth/TNT National Tour. His monologue, Life In A Marital Institution, just completed an extended run Off-Broadway, is now on tour, and there is a film and book in the works. www.JamesBraly.com

Martin Dockery is co-creator of the play C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E, which ran on Broadway as The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. His play Oh, That Wily Snake! is being read by university students as part of a McGraw-Hill anthology textbook on literature. The New York Times has called his writing "Fey and fantastic," BackStage West has called it "deliciously enjoyable," and the L.A. Weekly has deemed it "compelling . . . entertaining . . . divinely inspired." His one-person show Wanderlust was presented as part of The Insights & Revelations Performance Series in 2008. A frequent performer in New York's storytelling scene, he is a record seven-time finalist in The Moth's bi-annual Storytelling Championship. www.MartinDockery.com

Ophira Eisenberg is a MAC Award Finalist for Best Female Comic, and has appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and Fresh Faces of Comedy. She also had her own comedy special on CTV's Comedy Now! Ophira performs regularly at renowned comedy clubs all over the world and also tours with The Moth, a NYC storytelling phenomenon and is currently featured on the Moth's Audience Favorites CD. Ophira was selected by BackStage as one of "10 Standout Stand Ups Worth Watching" in their Spotlight on Comedy Issue and hailed as a "Highly Recommended Favorite" by Time Out New York Magazine.

Steve Osborne spent 20 years in the NYPD. He retired a lieutenant in the detective bureau, where he was the commanding officer of the Manhattan Gang Squad. He has told hs hair raising stories on stages all over the U.S. He also works as a police procedural consultant for television and film.
Target Margin Theater was founded in 1991 on the principle that works of art return us to real truths more powerfully by their divergence from a strict illustration of reality. Through classic as well as contemporary texts, they seek continuously to expand their conception of what can take place in a theater. Many company members who were involved in Target Margin's first production, Titus Andronicus, remain TMT members today. The company has earned a reputation as one of the premier presenters of experimental theater in New York City.

David Herskovits is the Founder and Artistic Director of Target Margin Theater. In past seasons with TMT, he has directed "Dido, Queen of Carthage" by Christopher Marlowe, and the premieres of Rinne Groff's "The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem" and "Tulpa" by Todd Alcott. David recently directed "The Love Suicides at Amijima" at the Institut Internationale de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezieres, France, and "Fuente Ovejuna" for the National Asian-American Theater Company. His 1998 production of "Mamba's Daughters" by Dorothy and DuBose Heyward won an OBIE for the company, and was presented at the 1999 Spoleto Festival USA. Other productions include classics from Shakespeare to Ibsen, opera and music-theater, modern writers such as Gertrude Stein and Marguerite Duras, and neglected works with literary and historic significance. He has published articles in The New York Times, Theatre Magazine, and Performing Arts Journal, among others and has taught at New York University, Yale College, Harvard College, and with the Lincoln Center Institute.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS:

The Deep End Productions, producers of The Insights & Revelations Performance Series (a 2007 Best of Westchester Award-winner), was founded by Series Producer Anna Becker, and is dedicated to presenting world-class, professional artists in an intimate setting. Provocative and inspiring material and audience access to the artistic process are central to The Deep End's mission. Previous presentations in the Series include Symphony Space's Thalia Follies: A Political Cabaret, The New Group's A Spalding Gray Matter, The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's The Tempest, and Classic Stage Company's open rehearsals of The Merchant of Venice with Ron Leibman and Richard III with Michael Cumpsty. Anna Becker has produced for theatre, television and film for more than 20 years. She served as Theatre Program Director for the New York State Council on the Arts, and as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, AT&T Foundation, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Fund for the Arts. Becker most recently produced Life in a Marital Institution at 59E59 Theaters and SoHo Playhouse.
The Emelin Theatre, located in Mamaroneck, New York, and founded in 1972, is the oldest continuously operating performing arts theater in Westchester County. Its mission is to bring the best in live performing arts to Westchester and other nearby communities and to promote a cultural life that entertains, educates, and invigorates. The Emelin, well-known for its high-quality and affordable programs, is one of the few performing arts venues in this region which offers a broad mix of entertainment appealing to all ages and tastes, produces its own theater performances, and attracts diverse audiences throughout Westchester County and beyond. Due to its strategic location in centrAl Westchester, the Emelin also attracts theatergoers from New York City, New Jersey, and lower Connecticut.

Photo 1: The Liar Show
Photo 2: Michael Sexton
Photo 3: Ten Blocks on the Camino Real

Photo credit Alan Haywood