The Wooster Group to Premiere New Works at St. Ann's This Spring

St. Ann's Warehouse, which has long provided a second New York home for The Wooster Group, will present two new works by the company this spring: the New York Premiere of Cry, Trojans! (Troilus & Cressida), March 24 - April 19; and a remounting of Early Shaker Spirituals: A Record Album Interpretation, April 23 - May 4. Both runs are strictly limited and cannot be extended. The upcoming engagement marks both The Wooster Group's first performances at the St. Ann's Warehouse interim theater at 29 Jay Street in DUMBO, and St. Ann's final presentation in the space, before the organization moves to its permanent home in the historic Tobacco Warehouse in Brooklyn Bridge Park this fall.

Critics are welcome to Cry, Trojans! as of April 3 at 8pm for an official opening April 7 at 8pm. Critics are invited to Early Shaker Spirituals as of April 25; the official opening is May 1.

Tickets, starting at $25, are available from www.stannswarehouse.org and by phone at 718.254.8779 (Tues. - Sat., 1pm - 7pm) or 866.811.4111 (24 hours).

In Cry, Trojans! The Wooster Group takes on Troilus and Cressida, William Shakespeare's enigmatic Trojan War play. The Wooster Group's work on the play began in 2012, when The Royal Shakespeare Company invited them to collaborate on a production for the World Shakespeare Festival, in conjunction with the London Olympics. The companies chose Troilus and Cressida because of its two-sided nature. Scenes alternate between the Trojan and the Greek camps until the battles begin in Act V. The Wooster Group and the RSC each developed their own style by rehearsing separately, in different countries at first, and then came together to overlay their efforts. The resulting collaboration was performed at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and at Riverside Studios in London.

Cry, Trojans!, directed by Elizabeth LeCompte, is The Wooster Group's reworking of this initial collaboration into a piece of their own that focuses on the Trojan side of the story. To deal with the absence of the British company, the Group has imagined that the Trojans are retelling the legend of a great war, taking on the personas of their enemies. In a story without heroes or heroines, a story in which no value-moral, romantic or political-survives unquestioned, The Wooster Group uses the charge of Shakespeare's rhetoric and a vivid range of cultural sources that touch on America's founding myths to evoke the unstable ground on which the characters struggle.

The cast features Ari Fliakos, Greg Mehrten, Andrew Schneider, Scott Shepherd, and Kate Valk with Koosil-ja, Suzzy Roche, Casey Spooner, Jim Fletcher and Eric Dyer. The creative team includes Folkert de Jong and Delphine Courtillot (Set Elements, Props and Costumes), Enver Chakartash (Assistant for Costumes), Bruce Odland with Bobby McElver and Max Bernstein (Sound), Jennifer Tipton with Ryan Seelig (Lighting), and Andrew Schneider (Video, Projections and Control Interfaces). Teresa Hartmann is Stage Manager, Emily Rea isProduction Manager, and Jamie Poskin is Assistant Director.

Following Cry, Trojans! at St. Ann's Warehouse, The Wooster Group continue their investigation of American voices with a remounting of Early Shaker Spirituals: A Record Album Interpretation. The latter garnered acclaim at the Performing Garage in New York (May 17 - June 15, 2014), at REDCAT in Los Angeles (January 21 - February 1, 2015), and at Z Space in San Francisco (February 5 - 8, 2015).

Early Shaker Spirituals is a performance based on a 1976 LP of Shaker hymns, marches, anthems and interviews recorded by Sister R. Mildred Barker and the sisters of the Shaker community in Sabbathday Lake, Maine. Directed by Kate Valk, the piece features Cynthia Hedstrom, Elizabeth LeCompte, Frances McDormand, Suzzy Roche and Bebe Miller. The performers channel the voices of the Shaker singers to give a new live rendering of all twenty tracks from side A of the album, with Jamie Poskin reading from the liner notes. Following the songs is a series of seven dances in which the women are joined by Matthew Brown, Modesto Flako Jimenez, Bobby McElver, Bebe Miller and Andrew Schneider.

Early Shaker Spirituals features a set by Elizabeth LeCompte and Jim Clayburgh, lighting by Jennifer Tipton with Ryan Seelig, costumes by Enver Chakartash with Christine Stevenson and Naomi Raddatz, and sound by Bobby McElver and Max Bernstein. Erin Mullin isStage Manager, Emily Rea isProduction Manager, Bill Kennedy is Technical Director, and Jamie Poskin is Assistant Director.