Axis Theatre Company to Present William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT

Axis Theatre Company will present a new staging of William Shakespeare's most painful comedy, Twelfth Night. Directed by Axis Theatre's founder and Artistic Director Randall Sharp, this streamlined production is adapted by playwright and dramaturg Marc Palmieri and features original music by Paul Carbonara performed live. Previews for Twelfth Night begin on April 24 at Axis Theatre (1 Sheridan Square, Manhattan), with a press opening set for April 27, for a limited run through May 25, 2024. Tickets are now on sale.

Even in a season of the darkest calamities, does the human will to be happy ever surrender? Shall there be cakes, ale, dancing and love, as the darkness ever looms? Director Randall Sharp brings her signature stark and musical touch to one of Shakespeare's most hilarious, yet heart-breaking tales of unrequited love. Sharp's radical interpretation strips away much of the jovial excess of Shakespeare's most-beloved play and places focus on the yearning for human connection.

The 12-member ensemble cast of Twelfth Night includes Spencer Aste, Brian Barnhart, Eli Bridges, Andrew Dawson, George Demas, Katy Frame, Britt Genelin, Robert Ierardi, Brian Parks, Dee Pelletier, Jon McCormick, and Jim Sterling, along with musicians Paul Carbonara and Yonatan Gutfeld.

The creative team for Twelfth Night includes Karl Ruckdeschel (costume design), David Zeffren (lighting design), Paul Carbonara (original music, sound design), Lynn Mancinelli (prop design, choreography), Will Vicari (wig design), Regina Betancourt (production stage manager), Marc Palmieri (dramaturgy), Jon McCormick (technical director), Amy Harper (assistant light designer), Laurie Kilmartin (assistant stage manager), Brian Barnhart (producing director), and Jeffrey Resnick (executive director).

Twenty-four performances of Twelfth Night will take place April 24–May 25, 2024 at Axis Theatre, located at 1 Sheridan Square in Manhattan's West Village. General admission tickets are $40 for adults, $20 for seniors/students, and $10 for artists and people under 30. Performances are Free for veterans and active U.S. service members and their families. Tickets can be purchased online at www.axiscompany.org.

About the Artists

Randall Sharp (director) is Axis Theatre Company's founder and Artistic Director. Her plays include the Drama Desk Award-nominated Last Man Club (published by DPS), Washington Square (published by TRW), Worlds Fair Inn, Nothing on Earth, Down There, Seven in One Blow (published by DPS and performed every December in NYC and around the country) and the long-running serial Hospital. Sharp wrote and directed The Vast Machine (2015) and co-wrote (with former Blondie member Paul Carbonara) and directed Solitary Light (2014) and Evening – 1910, which premiered to acclaim at Axis in 2016. Sharp's directing credits also include Last Man Club; Nothing on Earth; Down There; Seven in One Blow; Hospital; Edgar Oliver's New York Trilogy (including East 10th Street: Self Portrait with Empty House, winner of the Fringe First Award, Edinburgh Fringe, In the Park, and Attorney Street) and London Paris; A Glance at New York (Edinburgh Fringe & NYC), Julius Caesar; and the U.S premiere of Sarah Kane's Crave, starring Deborah Harry. She also directed the feature film Henry May Long, winner of 13 international awards, and is the host of the popular YouTube cooking show “Dinner Party Tonight.”

Paul Carbonara (original music, sound design) was born in Greenwich Village and has been a performing musician for 30 years. He was the guitarist and musical director for the seminal pop band Blondie from 1997 through 2010. Carbonara has performed with Ray Davies, Coolio, Jose Carreras, and Chubby Checker, among others, and was the guitarist for the New York art rock band Giant Metal Insects in the 1990s. He has composed music for three independent movie soundtracks, including Randy Sharp's Henry May Long and Jyllian Gunther's Pull Out. He has composed commercial jingles for Nickelodeon, SBLI, and Waterworks. Paul composed music for the noted choreographer Robert Moses' work Faith and Fable, presented at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Carbonara performs and records with his own band The Mudlarks. He has also toured much of the world with the Mary McBride Band since 2010, traveling to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. He is a graduate of NYU and studied with the noted jazz guitarist Sal Salvador.

Marc Palmieri (dramaturgy) teaches courses in Shakespeare at Mercy University, where he is an assistant professor. He has also taught Shakespeare at The City College of New York, where he is a guest faculty member of the MFA program in Creative Writing. Marc's plays include the New York Times' “Critic's Pick” Levittown, The Groundling, Carl the Second, Poor Fellas, and  Waiting for the Host. All are published by Dramatists Play Service. His screenplays include Miramax Films' Telling You (1999). He has published prose in Fiction, The Global City Review, (Re), An Ideas Journal, and has one-act plays, scenes and monologues in anthologies by Applause Books, Smith & Kraus and Rowan & Littlefield. Marc's memoir, She Danced With Lightning, (Post Hill Press, 2022) has been an Amazon #1 Best Seller in multiple categories. www.marcpalmieri.com

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