The Other Mozart (Drama Desk and Off Broadway Alliance award-nominated and New York Innovative Theatre award-winning) returns Off Broadway this season.
Sylvia Milo's The Other Mozart is the true, untold story of Nannerl Mozart, the sister of Amadeus-a prodigy, keyboard virtuoso and composer, who performed throughout Europe with her brother to equal acclaim, but her story faded away, lost to history.
The one woman drama is based on facts and stories pulled directly from the Mozart family's humorous and heartbreaking letters and set in and on a magnificent 18-foot dress, created to fill and spill over the entire stage.
With the opulent beauty of the dress and hair design, the sweet smell of perfume and the clouds of dusting powder rising from the stage, The Other Mozart is a multi-sensual experience that transports the audience into a world of outsized beauty and delight-but also of overwhelming restrictions and prejudice where, finally, this other Mozart tells her story.
Period style movement (by Janice Orlandi) creates a world of opulence and elegance through articulate delicacy of expressive balletic gestures, reverent court bows, and fan language. Along with music composed by her famous brother and Marianna Martines (a Viennese female composer who inspired Nannerl), the play features original music by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen-featured composers of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, BAM and the International Contemporary Ensemble-for the instruments Nannerl knew intimately such as clavichords, music boxes and bells, as well as teacups, fans, and other ordinary objects that might have captured her imagination.
The Other Mozart features four actors in rotation: Sylvia Milo, Samantha Hoefer, Daniela Galli and Jody Christopherson*. The Other Mozart is written by Sylvia Milo, directed by Isaac Byrne.
IF YOU GO:
Little Matchstick Factory presents
The Other Mozart: the forgotten story of Mozart's genius sister
with music composed by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen (additional music by Marianna Martines, Leopold and W. A. Mozart); sound design by Nathan Davis; period style movement directed by Janice Orlandi; costume design by Magdalena Dabrowska (dress) and Miodrag Guberinic (pannier / corset sculpture), with dress concept by Anna Sroka and hair design by Courtney Bednarowski; lighting design by Joshua Rose. *Appearing courtesy of the Actors Equity Association
Performances begin tonight, September 23, and continue through November 13, at varying times and days of the week, featuring the rotating cast of the four actresses.
Press performances (with performances by Jody Christopherson): Sat Oct 29 at 3pm Sun Oct 30 at 7pm Sat Nov 5 at 7pm Sun Nov 6 at 7pm Fri Nov 11 at 7pm Sat Nov 12 at 7pm
The Other Mozart runs 75 minutes.
The Players Theater is located at 115 MacDougal Street, 3rd floor, no elevator (b/w Bleecker and West 3rd Streets). A/B/C/D/E/F/M trains to West 4th Street stop.
Tickets: $45-$65 available online at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/277 or by calling 866-811-4111. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theatre's box office 1⁄2 hour prior to performance. Student tickets $15 available at the door. More information at www.theOtherMozart.com.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Jody Christopherson (performer)
Jody Christopherson is a performer and generative artist living in New York. Recent Credits include; PRIMARY by Gracie Gardner, (IRT) The Reenactors by Juliana Francis Kelly, directed by Tony Torn (Abrons Art Center), Because You Are Good, a solo show devised and performed by Ms. Christopherson based on interviews with Mabou Mines Associate Clove Galilee, (2015 Innovative Theater Award Nomination), Necessary Exposure: The Female Playwright Project (conceptual artist/photographer) a photography/ sound installation at Dixon Place and on Itunes, created with Natalie Johnsonius Neubert, and Greencard Wedding, (writer/performer) a multi-media touring alt/rock musical recently presented by Carrie Morris Peforming Arts (Detroit MI), FilmGate Miami (Miami Light Project), The Allways Lounge (New Orleans, LA) Dixon Place and The Brick Theater in Brooklyn NY. Additional acting credits include; Lincoln Center Film Society, The Kitchen, The Public Theater, Classic Stage Company, Actors Theater of Louisville, Nebraska Repertory, Performance Space122, The Bushwick Starr, Ensemble Studio Theater, Working Theater. Jody is the creator of the New York Theatre Review, an indie theater blog, featuring content created by theater artists with a viewership of 1.5 million in 7 countries. She is a contributor to The Huffington Post, and has been a teaching artist at The Orchard Project and speaker at Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Sylvia Milo (Project's Creator, Writer, Actress)
An actress, playwright and producer. Her play, The Other Mozart, had a critically acclaimed Off- Broadway run at HERE Arts Center and in London at St. James Theatre, and has been touring in the US and in Europe. She received the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Solo Performance in The Other Mozart. She played Bob Dylan in the OBIE Award-winning The West Village Fragments - by Peculiar Works; Ophelia in The Ophelia Landscape - with Mira Furlan at the Mark Morris Center; Hamlet in Hamlet - an all-female version of the play, which she adapted and directed herself; she has performed at La Mama, Cherry Lane, Ontological- Hysteric, Dixon Place and The Ohio Theatre. As a member of the Bats at the Flea Theater she starred in Seating Arrangements - co-written by Sylvia, directed by Eric Pold of Gob Squad. Sylvia is also a violinist (acoustic and electric violins - Irving Plaza, The Knitting Factory, CBGB's, Joe's Pub) and has composed scores for dance and theater (Merce Cunningham Studio, La Mama). She is a graduate of New York University, with extensive training at the Lee Strasberg Institute, Michael Chekhov, Stella Adler and The Grotowski Institute in Poland.
Isaac Byrne (Director)
Originally from Texas, based in NYC, Isaac has been awarded the New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Direction twice and productions he has directed have been nominated for a Drama Desk Award, an Off Broadway Alliance award, 24 NYIT awards, and 6 Planet Connection Awards. Credits include: The Other Mozart (NYIT Outstanding Solo Performance,
Nominated for Director), In Vestments (NYIT Outstanding Premier of a New Play), To Nineveh (NYIT Outstanding Production), Tar Baby (DR2, PS122), 52 Man Pick Up (Ars Nova, Edinburgh Fringe), The New Normal, I Used to Write on Walls, Grimm Reality (Co-Production with Bryant Park), and Hazard a Little Death (Planet Connection Best Original Script). He also performs regularly with the Aztec Economy theatre company in the touring show, Butcher Holler Here We Come. He teaches acting at the University of the Arts, New York Film Academy, and the Matthew Corozine Studio.
Nathan Davis (Composer, Sound Designer)
Nathan Davis "writes music that deals deftly and poetically with timbre and sonority" (NYTimes). Current projects include Hagoromo, an evening-length dance opera commissioned by American Opera Projects for premiere at BAM (with Wendy Whelan and Jock Soto). Past premieres at Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, PS122, the Park Avenue Armory, The Kitchen, Roulette, and at festivals in Germany, Austria, Australia, Finland, Holland, Poland, and Cuba. Portrait concerts at the Mostly Mozart Festival and Spoleto Festival USA. Commissioned by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Calder Quartet, Yarn/Wire, La Jolla Symphony Chorus, Steven Schick, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Miller Theatre, and the Ojai Festival. Awards from Meet The Composer, Fromm Foundation at Harvard, Camargo Foundation in Cassis (France), Copland Fund, Jerome Foundation, American Music Center, MATA, and ASCAP. CDs include "The Bright and Hollow Sky", one of TimeOut NY's top 5 classical albums of 2011. As a percussionist, Nathan is a member of ICE, and has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Tokyo Symphony, and the Nagoya Philharmonic. He holds degrees from Yale and Rice.
Phyllis Chen (Composer)
Phyllis Chen has been praised by the NYTimes for her "delightful quirkiness matched with interpretive sensitivity," Phyllis is a pianist, toy pianist and a composer. The featured solo musician in Stephin Merritt's Off-Broadway musical Coraline, Phyllis is one of the founding members of the International Contemporary Ensemble and the founder of the UnCaged Toy Piano, a composition competition to further expand the repertoire for toy piano. A strong interest in interdisciplinary work led her to collaborations with video artist and electronic musician Rob Dietz with whom she created multimedia works such as The Memoirist, Pearlessence, Chroma, and Carousel. Attended Oberlin Conservatory as a recipient of the Dean's Talent Award Scholarship, Masters Degree from Northwestern University and DMA from Indiana University. Her piece Chimers, based on Papageno's magic bells from Mozart's Magic Flute, was premiered at the Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival in 2011, and a program of her music was featured at the festival in 2013.
Janice Orlandi (Period Style Movement Director)
A movement specialist in period styles, historic dance, psychophysical techniques, character transformation and physical dramaturgy. Trained and co-taught with Loyd Williamson and Richard Schechner. Recent directing credits include: Bette Davis Ain't for Sissies (Five Stars at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, St. James Studio London; Theater Row, Laurie Beechman, 59E59), Garbo Dreams (Red Room NYC). Movement Director: The Contrast (Mirror Repertory Company St Clements), An Ideal Husband and Tartuffe (Sonnet Repertory NYC). A certified teacher of Michael Chekhov and Williamson Technique. Period style specialist of Elizabethan and Restoration, Baroque, Regency, Victorian, Edwardian, 1920's-1970's. Artistic director at Actors Movement Studio NYC, faculty at TISCH School of the Arts, Atlantic Theater Company, University of the Arts Philadelphia, Rutgers University, New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Her work as an educator, director, actress and movement coach has been seen at Williamstown Theater Festival, State Theater School Denmark, Lindenberg Center for Culture Netherlands, Princeton Repertory Shakespeare Festival, Classic Stage Company, Circle Rep Lab. Founding Member of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot. Featured in BACKSTAGE and the AMERICAN THEATER MAGAZINE on current "Trends in Movement Training" in theater. Member of SAG/AFTRA, AEA, SSDC.
Magdalena D?browska (Costume Designer - Dress)
A versatile Polish designer whose projects include fashion, theatrical costumes and set designs, Magdalena is a graduate of ?azarski University in Warsaw and of the Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design. Her designs have been finalists at such prestigious competitions as Oskary Mody, OFF Fashion, and Z?ota Nitka. She participated in joint shows organized during the International Millinery Competition in France. She designed costumes for the plays, Taksówka, Spacerowicz and Ukryj Mnie w Ga??ziach Drzew directed by Igor Gorzkowski for Studio Teatralne KO?O. She also designed sets and costumes for Obchód Teatru, Czyli Kim Jest Wojciech B.? at the National Theatre of Poland and for the opera, Hamlet, at the Teatr Wielki in Poznan, Poland. She also runs INNI - a fashion and costume design studio.
Miodrag Guberinic (Costume Designer - Pannier Sculpture)
Miodrag graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago with an MFA in costume design. Recent design work includes: The Maiden (La Mama Theater); Eurydice (LIU); Good Breeding (NYU); The Memory Tax (Chernuchin Theatre); Indigo Dai (Incubator Arts Project); Touch (The Hudson Guild Theater); King and I, Amhal and the Night Visitors, Lombardi, Steel Magnolias (Harbor Lights Theater); How Deep is the Ocean (NYMF); Ghost Girl (The Workshop Theatre); Special (Theatre Row Studios); Where We Were Born and Animals Out of Paper (Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago). He received Norrenbroock Design Award from Northwestern University 2011 and The Merritt award for the best Graduating exhibition from The Goodman theater in Chicago 2011.
The Other Mozart was developed at the Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC as part of the AFO Festival. The play repeatedly returned to Austria in 2014 at the invitation of the Mozarteum Foundation and Mozarteum University in Salzburg. It had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run at the HERE Arts Center in New York City and continues touring internationally. It was presented at Toronto University and in Munich at the Pasinger Fabrik and last September at the St. James Theatre in London to critical acclaim.
The Other Mozart was nominated for the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design in a Play and the 2015 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Solo Performance. The play was nominated for eight New York Innovative Theatre Awards: Outstanding Solo Performance - Sylvia Milo, Outstanding Director - Isaac Byrne, Outstanding Costume Design - Magdalena Dabrowska & Miodrag Guberinic, Outstanding Set Design - Anna Sroka, Outstanding Sound Design - Nathan Davis, Outstanding Original Music - Phyllis Chen & Nathan Davis, Outstanding Original Full-length script - Sylvia Milo and Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play - winning Outstanding Solo Performance and Outstanding Original Music.
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