Liars & Believers Debut ICARUS at the Cambridge YMCA Tonight

Greek mythology meets burlesque, puppetry, and a modern Americana score in the latest original piece from acclaimed ensemble Liars & Believers, creators of last year's gritty hit, 28 Seeds. Minnie's Menagerie, a peculiar Depression-era sideshow, is raking it in with the help of Daedalus's whimsical technology. But when Daedalus's son falls in love with Minnie's daughter, the star attraction, their passion and plans to escape threaten to bring it all crashing down.

ICARUS features an original Americana score by Nathan Leigh (Song of Songs) and the fantastical puppetry of Faye Dupras. Each show will open with a local band, burlesque, and carnival performers. The opening bands will be, Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library and What Time Is It, Mr. Fox?

Boston Survival Guide calls Liars & Believers "the region's most experimental and visionary artists." Liars & Believers is a non-profit theatre company that creates original live performances that seek to move minds and challenge the boundaries of theater. The company focuses on expanding the audience for live performance in Boston, exploring great local talent of all kinds, and enriching the Boston community.

Icarus features the following creative team:

Conceived and Directed by Jason Slavick
Music and Lyrics by Nathan Leigh
Written by Jason Slavick and the LAB ensemble
Puppetry designer and direction by Faye Dupras
Lighting and Set design by Aaron Sherkow
Costume design by Kendra Bell

Featuring: Austin Auh, Veronica Barron, Steven Emanuelson, Corianna Moffat and Aimee Rose Ranger

The show runs tonight, May 17 - opening band: Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library (http://mjeml.com/) Saturday, May 18 - opening band: What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? (www.whattimeisitmrfox.com) at Cambridge YMCA in Central Sq., 820 Mass Ave., Cambridge, Mass. Tickets: $17/$20/$30 To purchase tickets: http://icarus.eventbrite.com/

Information is available at www.liarsandbelievers.com/icarus and 617.496.8004. Discount promotions are available through Twitter @liarsbelieve and Facebook.

About the Cast:

Austin Auh (Icarus) graduated from Brandeis University with degrees in psychology and music performance. He has worked with local companies such as Imaginary Beasts, Turtle Lane Playhouse, Interim Writers, SLAMBoston, and Happy Medium Theatre Company. Austin has also performed with Connecticut Free Shakespeare and A Collection of Shiny Objects in NYC. Austin has performed with the LAB in previous years (Le Cabaret Grimm, Song of Songs) and is very grateful for the opportunity to create something beautiful and exciting with them again.

Veronica Barron (Ensemble) is a Boston-based performer and maker of theatre that is collaborative, choreographic, and music-based. Her recent work includes composing and performing new music for Whistler in the Dark's Vinegar Tom, lauded as "magnificent" by Boston's WGBH; performing as a dancer in the butoh-based UnAccountable Fog with CHIMERAlab Dance Theatre, presented at the New Orleans Fringe Festival; and collaborating with Aimee Rose Ranger to create and perform Winning Higgins's Love: A Clown Tragedy, which has been presented at The Boston Center for the Arts, the A.R.T.'s Oberon, Puppet Showplace Theater, and others. Current works in progress include a murder ballad inspired by MacBeth and James Bond, and a street theater clown show featuring "the Crumbs de la Creme".Veronica holds a BFA in Theater Arts from Boston University. veronicabarron.wordpress.com

Steven L. Emanuelson (Daedalus) holds a B.S. in acting from Illinois State University and an M.F.A. in Theatre Performance from The University of Georgia. After graduating with his Master's in 2001, Steve pursued a professional acting and teaching career in Atlanta where he worked for such companies as: The ALLIANCE THEATRE (recipient of the 2007 Regional Theatre Tony Award) in Shear Madness, Actor's Express Theatre in both Bent and Some Men, Dad's Garage Theatre in Archie's Weird Fantasy, Debbie Does Dallas (The Musical), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Die Mommy! Die! and The Rocky Horror Show to name a few. He has also been seen at The Atlanta Lyric Theatre as Bernardo in West Side Story and has performed with Jewish Theatre of the South in their productions of Miklat and Capture the Moon. Steve is an Artistic Associate at Dad's Garage Theatre in Atlanta. For six years, he taught acting classes at Actor's Express Theatre as well as giving individual voice lessons in stage speech. Locally, he was in Riverside Theatre Works' production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof this past fall.

Aimee Rose Ranger (Minnie) is a Boston actor, clown and storyteller. For three years she hosted SOOP: Stories Of Our People, a monthly storytelling potluck out of her home, and continues to co-host Liars & Believers the Encyclopedia Show: Somerville, a monthly variety show at the Davis Square Theatre. Aimee Rose and co-collaborator, Veronica Barron, were winners of the first round of Company One's Fringe Wars with Winning Higgins's Love, an original clown tragedy. Aimee Rose has created a few solo shows including My Heart: A Jester at the New England Fringe Festival and Gender Dazed and Confused off- broadway at the Medicine Show Theatre. She is an Artistic Associate with Whistler in the Dark and was last seen in their IRNE award-winning Tales from Ovid. Other credits with Whistler include Trojan Women, Recent Tragic Events, Fen, Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth. She is a resident pirate tour guide for the Freedom Trail Foundation: note, her actual initials read ARR.

About the Director and Creator: Jason Slavick (Director) is a director, writer and educator. He co-wrote and directed, Song of Songs: a Love Romp and wrote and directed Le Cabaret Grimm - a punk cabaret fairy tale {sans fairies}, which premiered at the LAB. Jason wrote and directed Heaven & Hell - The Fantastical Temptation of the 7 Deadly Sins, a new musical adapted from the album by Joe Jackson that was presented at The Boston Conservatory in 2007. As a former company member of Boston Theatre Works, Jason directed Othello (Elliot Norton Award nominated for Best Production and Best Actor), The Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra, and Macbeth. He helped develop and directed Emily Mann's critically acclaimed Meshugah, Olga Humphrey's Veronika Vavoom Volcanologist, and his own play J: A One- Act Improvised Tragi-Comedy. He also directed numerous developmental workshops and readings including The Tattooed Girl by Joyce Carol Oates, Paranoia by Olga Humphrey and others. Jason also directed Professional Skepticism at The Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre. Jason received his BA with honors in Philosophy from Trinity College in Hartford, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and won the George E. Nichols III First Prize in Theater Arts the Blanchard W. Means First Prize in Philosophy. He studied at the Eugene O'Neill National Theatre Institute and at the Warsaw Theatre Academy in Warsaw, Poland.

About the Creative Team:

Nathan Leigh (Music and Lyrics) is a prolific songwriter and composer. He has released 8 full-length albums both as a solo artist and with the bands Super Mirage and A Thousand Ships. As a composer for theatre, he has written scores for Berkshire Theatre Festival, American Repertory Theatre, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Speakeasy Stage, The Debate Society, WHAT, PS 122, Mother Faker Productions (at New World Stages) and many more. His sound design and score for Stoneham Theatre's Strangers on A Train was the 2009 IRNE Best Sound Design. In 2008, he and frequent collaborator Kyle Jarrow were awarded the Boris Segal Fellowship at Williamstown Theatre Festival to develop their musical Big Money with director Shira Milikowsky. Their second piece The Consequences has received workshops at WTF, WHAT, and New York Theatre Workshop.

Faye Dupras (Puppetry design and direction) has worked as a director, puppeteer and educator throughout Eastern Canada and the USA. As an image based theater artist she is dedicated to creating visually and thematically rich, cross-disciplinary new works. She is the artistic director of Foreign Landscapes Productions, under which she produced the award-winning play Bird's Eye View and co-produced By the Willow (UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence 2005). Star Sisters, Faye's most recent co-production, was created with the permission of, and in collaboration with, Canadian oral tradition storyteller Louise Profeit LeBlanc. As a collaborator Faye has worked with many exciting artist including Clea Minaker on the Feist Tour projection work (2007) and Beauty First (2010.) She has worked with Jumblies Theatre in various capacities including directing Tea and Bridges (2006) and the World Stage production of Bridge of One Hair (2007). Faye has had the honor of working with Hua Hua Chang, performing in her internationally touring production of Butterfly Dreams (2002-06). She has also worked with Underground Railway Theatre on several projects including Galileo (2009), Abiyoyo (2012), and Tokoloshe (2013). Faye holds an MFA in "Puppetry Arts" from the University of Connecticut and a BFA in "Theater and Development" from Concordia University in Montreal Canada.

Aaron Sherkow (Lighting and Set design) seeks both projects and collaborators to create interesting audience experiences through powerful storytelling. The LAB continues to be a wonderful environment for creative expression and intense collaboration, having previously worked on Le Cabaret Grimm, Song of Songs and 28 Seeds. Aaron has worked across the country as a lighting, scenic, or projections designer for the Huntington Theatre Company, American Opera Projects, Boston University Opera Institute, Central Square Theatre, Next Act Theatre and Lawrence University. He always appreciates your comments and support @sherkowa

Kendra Bell (Costume design) spends her daytime making beautiful things at Costume Works in Somerville. Before settling at Costume Works, she has worked for Huntington Theater Company, Stonehill College, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Glimmerglass Opera, and Hubbard Street Dance. Some of her design work includes Song of Songs (LAB), The Fantasticks (Prometheus), Cosi Fan Tutte (Millikin University), and Peter (Braintree Films). She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Millikin University and a MFA in Theatrical Design from Rutgers University.

About the Bands:
What Time Is It, Mr. Fox? (http://www.whattimeisitmrfox.com/press/) is making music that feels exposed and personal, but cinematic in scope. The Boston/NYC band blends baroque pop with soul noir, conjuring up something like the dark-tinged drama of Florence + The Machine, the roots of Aretha Franklin, and the songcraft of The Decemberists.

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library (http://mjeml.com/mjemlpressmaterials.html) plays music that iss described by Michael J. Epstein as "down tempo, indie folk/pop with alt-country and anti/counter folk tinges." A PhD with his own sense of humor, who integrates all parts of his life to make music that continually stretches from genre to genre with no filler in between, Michael J. Epstein's intellect has found a harmonious equilibrium between Professor of Audiology/scientist (literally) and pop musician who makes accessible and attention-grabbing music. The music side of his brain is currently focused this big (as in nine members) project.