New Brew Presents SEX! COMEDY! ECONOMICS! AN EVENING WITH TRAV S.D. (AND FRIENDS), 4/3

On Friday April 3rd, New Brew Performs Select Scenes From: The Curse of the Rat King: Trav S.D. (libretto) and David Mallamud (music) have been collaborating on this campy comic opera since 2010. It is a post-modern mash-up of Universal horror films, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, the writings of Sigmund Freud, and numerous other elements. On the bill with him will be selections from Three Way, by David Cote (libretto) and Robert Paterson (music), which has been described as "a kind of NC-17 Il trittico", and two works with lyrics by UTC#61's Edward Einhorn: The Velvet Oratorio (music by Henry Akona) and Money Lab (music by Avner Finberg).

The Curse of the Rat King
libretto: Trav SD
music: David Mallamud

Three Way
libretto: David Cote
music: Robert Paterson

The Velvet Oratorio
libretto: Edward Einhorn
music: Henry Akona

Money Lab
libretto: Edward Einhorn
music: Avner Finberg

Featuring David Gordon, Seth Gilman, Anne Hiatt, David Macaluso, Cameron Russell, and Krista Wozniak with Christopher Berg tinkling the piano keys.

RSVP here

Meet the Creators

Who and What is TRAV S.D. ?
Writer and performer Trav S.D.'s most recent play was the just-closed, critically acclaimed "Horseplay, or The Fickle Mistress" at La Mama's Ellen Stewart Theatre, featuring Molly Pope, Everett Quinton and Jan Leslie Harding. Prior to that, he produced and directed the first revival in history of the Marx Brothers' first Broadway show "I'll Say She Is", a sold-out hit of the 2014 New York International Fringe Festival. He has presented his own plays, vaudeville revues and solo shows at such venues as Joe's Pub, La Mama, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, the Ohio Theatre, HERE Arts Center and the Brick. He is perhaps best known for his 2005 book "No Applause: Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous", and his popular show biz blog Travalanche.

David Mallamud's music was recently heard Off-Broadway in the parody Twilight: The Musical (New World Stages, directed by Gabriel Barre) to which he contributed several songs. He is currently working with playwright Philip Dawkins on the stage adaptation of the Dr. Seuss book The Sneetches for The Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis, a violin concerto with Mike Mills from R.E.M. for Robert McDuffie, a musical with Josh Cohen and Cara Lustik for the Vital Theatre Company, a CD of his music with The Albany Syphony's Dogs of Desire, and projects with Alisa Hauser, Jonathan Matthew Gilbert, and Jared Eberlein.

Robert Paterson was Composer of The Year at Carnegie Hall from the Classical Recording Foundation and his works have been on the Grammy® nomination ballot for Best Contemporary Classical Album the past two seasons. Current engagements include a commission with the Utah Arts Festival via winning their annual competition, Safe Word with Fort Worth Opera's Frontiers Showcase, and The Companion presented by American Opera Projects and American Modern Ensemble at the Roulette in Brooklyn. An album of his choral works was just recorded with Musica Sacra and conductor Kent Tritle, and will be released in 2015.

David Cote is theater editor and chief drama critic for Time Out New York. He is a contributing critic on NY1's On Stage. His reporting, blogging and commentary have appeared in Opera News, The Guardian and on WNYC. David is also an early-career playwright and librettist. Plays: Otherland, commissioned by the Gingold Theatrical Group. Opera: Fade and The Scarlet Ibis with Stefan Weisman; Threeway with Robert Paterson.The Scarlet Ibis was premiered at HERE this January in co-production with Beth Morrison Projects' PROTOTYPE Festival.http://davidcote.com

Edward Einhorn has been the Artistic Director of Untitled Theater Company #61 since he founded it in 1992. In that time, he has curated the Havel Festival, The NEUROfest, The Ionesco Festival, and Untitled Theater's 24/7 Festival. Perhaps most prominently, he directed the Off-Broadway production, Fairy Tales of the Absurd, at Theatre 80. He has also directed at venues such as PS 122, HERE, The John Houseman Studio, The Connelly Theatre, Nada Theatre, Musical Theatre Works, The Present Company Theatorium, and many others. He is also the author of A Very Improbable Story, a picture book on probability, and of two modern Oz sequels: Paradox in Oz and The Living House of Oz. He has published two books of plays: The Golem, Methuselah and Shylock, and Lysistrata. Recent awards include a Sloan Grant from Ensemble Studio Theater and Person of the Year from nytheatre.com . He was also declared a 'Revolutionary Mind' by Seed Magazine. edwardeinhorn.com

Henry Akona is a freelance director, composer and arranger based in New York City as well as the associate artistic director of Untitled Theater Company No. 61. His work is known for intensely physical staging and incorporating live, usually original, music. Recent productions include the world premiere of The Lathe of Heaven(composer), adapted from the novel by Ursula K. Le Guin; the English-language premiere The Pig or Václav Havel's Hunt for a Pig(director/arranger), performed in the Ice Factory 2011 festival at 3LD Art + Technology Center; Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (composer) at 3LD Art + Technology Center; Rudolf II (director/arranger) at Bohemian National Hall; The Velvet Oratorio(composer/director) which had its world-premiere at the Bruno Walter Auditorium, Lincoln Center as part of the Performing Revolution in Central and Eastern Europe Festival presented by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center;Scenes From a Misunderstanding (director); Cat's Cradle: a calypso musical(composer); Hiroshima: crucible of light (director/composer), the English-language premiere of Václav Havel's A Butterfly on the Antenna (director/composer) in the Havel Festival.

Avner Finberg is an Israeli composer and violinist residing in New York City. He is a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music, Mannes college, and a doctoral candidate in Manhattan School of Music. He studied composition with Menahem Zur and Ari Ben-Shabtai in Israel, and Robert Cuckson and Susan Botti in the United States. His music has been performed by the MSM Philharmonia, the Mannes Orchestra, Meitar ensemble in Israel, and ensemble Platypus in Vienna, among others. As a violinist his engagements include the Israeli Philharmonic, Tiroler Ensemble für neue musik, and Shleswig-holstein musik festival.

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