ANYTHING THAT GIVES OFF LIGHT To Play Joe¹s Pub In 2019

the TEAM (Rachel Chavkin, Artistic Director; Alexandra Lalonde, Producing Director) the award-winning Brooklyn theatre ensemble, will present Anything That Gives Off Light, a co-production with National Theatre of Scotland and Edinburgh International Festival, from March 14-30 at Joe's Pub (425 Lafayette Street) with preceding runs at Virginia Tech and at Crossing Roots: A Rural-Urban Theatre Workshop presented by Cardinal Cross in Whitesburg, KY. Opening night at Joe's Pub is Saturday, March 16.

In a pub at the end of the road, an American woman drinks alone, trying to forget the home she left behind in West Virginia. Two old Scottish friends, one of whom left for London long ago, wrestle with a fresh grief and a festering sense of betrayal. The three collide and set off on an increasingly blurry journey through the Highlands and across the seas, digging down into layers of national mythology, and bringing to the surface memories of migrations forced and chosen. Anything That Gives Off Light features a throbbing score by award-winning duo The Bengsons, mixing the Scottish-American folk tradition with stomping punk, and the TEAM's trademark athletic performance style.

Anything That Gives Off Light was researched via interviews with people from across the political spectrum in Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, and in Scotland. It is written by Jessica Almasy, Davey Anderson, Fraser Ayres, Rachel Chavkin, Brian Ferguson, and Alexander Grierson, with music and lyrics by The Bengsons. It is created in collaboration with Matt Hubbs, Nick Vaughan, Brian Hastert, and Libby King and directed by Rachel Chavkin with associate direction by Davey Anderson. Cast will feature Jessica Almasy, Martin Donaghy, Reuben Joseph, Jessie Linden, Maya Sharpe and Katrina Yaukey, with casting by Laura Donnelly CDG.

"Not only are we bringing Anything That Gives Off Light to the United States for the first time, but we're returning to the place where so much of the play was written," said Associate Director Davey Anderson. "Back in the Spring of 2016 we spent a formative couple of weeks in residency at Virginia Tech, researching and developing the text, with the help of Bob Leonard and his fantastic Performing Arts students, introducing us to local historians, musicians, teachers, farmers, activists and storytellers. Without these experiences our characters and the world of the play just wouldn't be the same. So it feels right to finally perform this show in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Whitesburg, Kentucky, before heading to New York."

All tickets are $35 and are available: ONLINE: At joespub.com / PHONE, 10AM-7:00PM, DAILY 212-967-7555. IN PERSON The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC (Opens daily at 2PM). NOTE: There is a $12 food / two (2) drink minimum per person per show, unless otherwise noted.

Once described by The Guardian as "theatrical excavators of American culture, American dreams and the American psyche," the TEAM is a Brooklyn-based ensemble of 15 core members and a continually expanding group of associate artists. The company creates all of its work collaboratively, drawing inspiration from the news, under-examined histories, YouTube videos and pop culture, and on-the-ground research (including a month spent living in a foreclosed home in Las Vegas). This research becomes the jumping off point for original writing and staging. The company and its creative process were the subject of a 2013 feature-length documentary, The TEAM Makes a Play, directed by Emmy Award Winner Paulette Douglas.

The TEAM is currently at work with Reconstruction (Still Working but the Devil Might Be Inside), which wrestles with Gone with the Wind as a confederate monument still standing over the American landscape. In this American delirium of our past and present, ancient communities are meeting in the woods and the devil might need to be exorcised from our television. Featuring a radically expanded company of artists, Reconstruction will be a work that is full to the brim with the history, innovations, and revelations of a racially & culturally diverse team ranging in age from 23 to 94. The collaborating artists behind Reconstruction are: Brenda Abbandandolo, Jessica Almasy, Denée Benton, Jhanaë Bonnick, Frank Boyd, Vinie Burrows, Rachel Chavkin, André De Shields, Jerome Ellis, Jill Frutkin, Amber Gray, Jeremy O. Harris, Matt Hubbs, Modesto "Flako" Jimenez, Libby King, Ian Lassiter, Zhailon Levingston, Jake Margolin, James Monaco, Kristen Sieh, and Nick Vaughan.

The company presented Primer for a Failed Superpower, a two-night-only concert event featuring a multigenerational band of teenagers, TEAM performers, and Baby Boomers, in August 2017. Since its founding in 2004, the TEAM has created 11 original works including RoosevElvis and Mission Drift (Scotsman Fringe First Award, 2011 Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize, 2011 Herald Angel Award). Their work has been seen in New York at The Public Theater, PS122, Vineyard Theatre, Ohio Theatre, The Bushwick Starr, and New York Live Arts; nationally at ArtsEmerson, A.R.T., Walker Art Center, Playmakers Repertory Theatre, and the UMS/University of Michigan; and internationally at the National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Barbican, Almeida Theatre, and Battersea Arts Centre in London; the Edinburgh International Festival; Culturgest in Lisbon; the Salzburg Festival; Galway Festival; Perth International Arts Festival; and Hong Kong Arts Festival.

The TEAM is Jessica Almasy, Frank Boyd, Rachel Chavkin, Stephanie Douglass, Jill Frutkin, Amber Gray, Brian Hastert, Jake Heinrichs, Matt Hubbs, Libby King, Ian Lassiter, Jake Margolin, Dave Polato, Kristen Sieh, and Nick Vaughan.

THE National Theatre OF SCOTLAND is delighted to be returning to New York in March 2019. Earlier in 2019, the Company is presenting Adam, directed by Cora Bissett at NYU Skirball Centre for the Performing Arts. Previous successful productions include a six month residency at the McKittrick Hotel with The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (winner of the Best Unique Theatrical Experience-at the Drama Desk Awards 2017) and presentations of Black Watch, Beautiful Burnout and Let the Right One In at St Ann's Warehouse and The Bacchae and Macbeth with Alan Cumming at The Lincoln Center Festival.

The National Theatre of Scotland is dedicated to playing the great stages, arts centres, village halls, schools and site-specific locations of Scotland, the UK and internationally. As well as creating ground-breaking productions and working with the most talented theatre-makers, the National Theatre of Scotland produces significant community engagement projects, innovates digitally and works constantly to develop new talent. Central to this is finding pioneering ways to reach current and new audiences and to encourage people's full participation in the Company's work. With no performance building of its own, the Company works with existing and new venues and companies to create and tour theatre of the highest quality. Founded in 2006, the Company, in its short life, has become a globally significant theatrical player, with an extensive repertoire of award-winning work. The National Theatre of Scotland is supported by the Scottish Government.

The Edinburgh International Festival is an unparalleled celebration of the performing arts and an annual meeting point for peoples of all nations. Committed to virtuosity and originality, it presents some of the finest performers and ensembles from the worlds of dance, opera, music and theatre for three weeks each August. The International Festival continues to attract people both locally and from across the globe, with audiences from 80 nations attending this year's cultural celebration in Edinburgh.

Joe's Pub, named for The Public Theater's founder Joe Papp, opened in 1998 and plays a vital role in The Public's mission of supporting young artists while providing established artists with an intimate space to perform and develop new work. Under the new leadership of Director Alex Knowlton, this fall begins Joe's Pub's 20th Anniversary Season of presenting the best in live music and performance nightly, committed to diversity, production values, community and artistic freedom. The venue also offers opportunities like New York Voices, an artist commissioning program that provides musicians resources and tools to develop original theater works; Joe's Pub Working Group, an artist development initiative; The Vanguard Award & Residency, a yearlong series that celebrates the career of a prolific and influential artist, who leads their own artistic community; and nationwide programming partnerships. Commissioned artists include Mx Justin Vivian Bond, Bridget Everett, Daniel Alexander Jones, Ethan Lipton, Toshi Reagon, Allen Toussaint and more. The venue's food and beverage partner is NoHo Hospitality Group, helmed by acclaimed chef Andrew Carmellini. With its intimate atmosphere and superior acoustics, Joe's Pub presents talent from all over the world as part of The Public's programming downtown at its Astor Place home, hosting approximately 800 shows and serving over 100,000 audience members annually.

THE PUBLIC is theater of, by, and for all people. Artist-driven, radically inclusive, and fundamentally democratic, The Public continues the work of its visionary founder Joe Papp as a civic institution engaging, both on-stage and off, with some of the most important ideas and social issues of today. Conceived over 60 years ago as one of the nation's first nonprofit theaters, The Public has long operated on the principles that theater is an essential cultural force and that art and culture belong to everyone. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Oskar Eustis and Executive Director Patrick Willingham, The Public's wide breadth of programming includes an annual season of new work at its landmark home at Astor Place, Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, The Mobile Unit touring throughout New York City's five boroughs, Public Forum, Under the Radar, Public Studio, Public Works, Public Shakespeare Initiative, and Joe's Pub. Since premiering HAIR in 1967, The Public continues to create the canon of American Theater and is currently represented on Broadway by the Tony Award-winning musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Their programs and productions can also be seen regionally across the country and around the world. The Public has received 59 Tony Awards, 170 Obie Awards, 53 Drama Desk Awards, 54 Lortel Awards, 32 Outer Critic Circle Awards, 13 New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards, and 6 Pulitzer Prizes.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: www.theteamplays.org

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