Re-Styled SALOME Gets Encore at The Provincetown Theater

The Provincetown Theater is proud to announce a radically re-styled and re-staged version of Oscar Wilde's "Salome", made possible by presenting sponsor Rick Murray and Crown & Anchor. Wilde's once-banned biblical play will feature new costuming, scenic design, choreography and casting. Performances are at 7:30 Wednesdays through Sundays July 12 through August 19.

Australian native born Kim David Smith will reprise the title role of "Salome", returning to Provincetown following his highly praised "Morphium Kabarett" tour featured at Australia's Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Smith has an international following for his unique "glitter and doom" repertoire, which ranges from 1920s Berlin to original electropop stylings of modern hits. In 2015, his "Stargazing" cabaret show premiered at Joe's Pub at The Public Theater, New York City, with costuming by Serbian-born costume designer and artisan Mio Guberinic.

Artistic Director Tristan DiVincenzo has commissioned Guberinic to create a surprise element for the return of "Salome" to The Provincetown Theater. Mio is known as an inventor of elaborate costume elements for both fashion editorials and stage performances. Guberinic's collaborations include costuming for Katie Perry's latest album and video project "WITNESS". In 2015 Mio created some of the most iconic costume and wearable sculpture pieces for Madonna's Rebel Heart Tour. His work has been seen on American Ballet Theatre's principal dancer James Whiteside (recently featured in XEX Magazine) and Off-Broadway's "The Other Mozart," as well as many other staged works. This incredibly talented designer's creations have been included in "Other Worldly", a book of clothing designs billed "subversive, unwearable, radically post-human."

The work of painter and fashion collaborator Scooter LaForge will further enhance "Salome". LaForge enjoyed recognition as a San Francisco artist before his New York work with renowned costumer Patricia Field (herself an early champion of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat). As an Antwerp Six member, LaForge went on to collaborate with fashion designer Walter Van Beirendonck. His hand-painted garments have been described as "natural extensions of (his) visual language: colorful, humorous, wild, loud, fun." Pop Royalty such as Rihanna, Beyoncé and Miley Cyrus are often seen and photographed in his creations.

New choreographic elements will also be added to this production of "Salome" by dancer Terry Gene Norgeot. Norgeot had a long career on Broadway stages before coming to Cape Cod to work for numerous theaters and dance companies. Returning cast members include: James P. Byrne, Jo Brisbane, Sallie Tighe, Kevin J. Doherty, Robert Junker, Tim Richmond, Roger Chauvette, and dancers Alice Gong and Angel Rosen. They will be joined by newly cast: Joe MacDougall, Freddy Biddle, Karen Stewart and Cuba Birnbaum.

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"Salome" director Tristan DiVincenzo, "We are honored to bring fresh visual elements by important designers such as Mio Guberinic and Scooter LaForge to our audiences. Their artistry dovetails perfectly with our vision of a new Provincetown Theater, a vision that is fully supported by our progressive board of directors. Our mission is to re-imagine classic theater pieces, casting across gender, age and international boundaries."

"Salome" is peopled with the historic characters of the Old Testament including: King Herod (lecherous ruler slowly going mad); Queen Herodias (mother of Salome accused of many sins by John the Baptist); Salome (Herod's stepdaughter who becomes defiant in her sexual awakening); and Jokanaan (aka John the Baptist, who rails against Herodias and issues dark prophesies from his prison cell). The cast is further filled out with other biblical royals, court toadies, religious zealots, slaves, soldiers, and mythological creatures.

Written in 1891, the play was quickly condemned as a blasphemous take on the biblical fable of Salome, and banned in England for the next forty years. The play is dense with elements of religious mysticism, prophecy and superstition. Its characters argue, debate, and dismiss ideas about religious belief, morality, the ruling class, and especially human lust and subservience to sexual desire. Wilde's lyrical text mates image-rich cadences and repetitions with the narcissistic, violent and sexually-charged appetites of the play's central characters.

According to director DiVincenzo, "Our audiences will see a highly-stylized "Salome" performed against an elaborately wasted landscape of a dystopian future...a sort of post-apocalyptic scene of desolation, overlaid with the trappings of ruling class grandeur."

All performances will take place at The Provincetown Theater, 238 Bradford Street, Provincetown, MA. Tickets are available online at www.provincetowntheater.org or by calling the box office at 508-487-7487.

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