Metropolitan Playhouse Announces Panelists For 'The Changing East Village' To Be Held 8/3

Metropolitan Playhouse, the "indispensible East Village institution" (nytheatre.com), announces the panelists for its Monday Night Discussion Panel The Changing East Village. Panelists will indllude Council Member Rosie Mendez (District 2); Steve Zeitland, Founder and Executive Director of City Lore, Eric Ferrara, Founder and Executive Director of the East Village History Project; and Marguerite Van Cook, Multimedia Artist and Executive Director of the Howl! Festival.

The panel is a part of Metropolitan's East Village Theater Festival, a three-week celebration of the changing culture of the East Village. Combining two of the theater's annual new works series and featuring the work of local artists and musicians, the festival will be held every day of the week in Metropolitan's home at 220 E 4th Street August 3rd through 23rd, 2009.

Council Member Rosie Mendez, a lifelong New Yorker who grew up in Williamsburg Houses, began her community service career as a tenant organizer, and then became a housing specialist at the Parodneck Foundation. With a degree in law and experience with Brooklyn Legal Services, she was Democratic District Leader for her community and served as the Chief of Staff to her Council predessor, Marguerita Lopez. She took office in January 2006.

Steve Zeitland founded City Lore in 1986 to produce programs and publications that convey the richness of New York City's cultural heritage, while current efforts embrace national audiences as well. Sponsored programs include The People's Poetry Gathering ; Place Matters; CARTS: Cultural Arts Resources for Teachers and Students; People's Hall of Fame; and various Music Programs and Publications.

Eric Ferrara directs the East Village History Project, whose programs are organized and operated by community historians, educators, artists, activists and preservationists dedicated to promoting awareness and appreciation of the history, culture and community of the East Village. The project's mission is to document the East Village's great history comprehensively and accurately by conducting interviews, researching public records, primary sources, books and maps, newspaper archives, municipal archives, and any other historical resources, and to provide this research freely to the public.

Marguerite van Cook is a mult-media artist and longtime resident of the East Village. She is also Exceutive Director of the neighborhood's annual Howl! festival and has helped create Howl! HELP, providing emergency assistance to qualified performing artists in crisis. The festival, inspired by the belief that the arts are a vehicle for unity and offer the potential to build and reflect a community that strives towards harmony, integrity and excellence seeks to honor the past and envision the future to give voice to our present.

The East Village Theater Festival includes a total of 8 new short plays, 6 new solo performances, a reading of a full-length play, and a panel discussion with local documentarians and neighborhood advocates. The festival will also feature receptions for three local artists whose work will appear in the theater lobby, and pre-show performances by local musicians.

Other special events include:

An opening reception on Monday, August 3rd at 8 pm and a reading of Judy Chicurel's Tales from Beautiful Pearl's on Monday, August 10th at 8 pm.

Exhibitions of the work of East Village Artists will run throughout the festival in the theater's lobby (shared with the Connelly Theater.) Multi-media artist and performer Little Annie (Annie Bendez O'Connor) shows through August 16th; Comic book artist and documenter of the Lower East Side James Romberger's work shows from the 17th through the end of August.

Metropolitan Playhouse explores America's theatrical heritage through forgotten plays of the past and new plays of American historical and cultural moment. Called a "theatrical archaeologist extraordinaire" by Backstage, Metropolitan has earned accolades from The New York Times, The Village Voice, and The New Yorker as well for its ongoing mission to produce theater that illuminates who we are by revealing where we have come from. Recent productions include It Pays to Advertise, Power, Nowadays, Year One of the Empire, The Pioneer: 5 plays by Eugene O'Neill, Denial and The Melting Pot, as well as this year's Melvillapalooza.

The East Village Theater Festival begins with an opening reception Monday, August 3rd, and runs through Sunday, August 23rd. Performances run Tuesdays through Sundays at 8pm; with matinees Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm.

To purchase tickets online, visit www.metropolitanplayhouse.org, theatermania, or call The Playhouse at 212-995-5302.

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