KURT VONNEGUT'S MOTHER NIGHT Launches The Fall Season At 59E59 Theaters

59E59 Theaters is thrilled to present the NYC premiere of Kurt Vonnegut'S MOTHER NIGHT, adapted and directed by Brian Katz. Produced by The Custom Made Theatre Company with Executive Producers William & Ruth Isenberg and Leah Abrams, and Producer Jay Yamada, Kurt Vonnegut'S MOTHER NIGHT begins performances on Friday, October 5 for a limited engagement through Sunday, November 3. Press Opening is Wednesday, October 10 at 7:15 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday - Friday at 7:15 PM; Saturday at 2:15 PM & 7:15 PM; Sunday at 2:15 PM. Please note there is no matinee performance on Saturday, October 6. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Single tickets are $25 - $35 ($24.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or visit www.59e59.org.

MOTHER NIGHT is a meta-theatrical tale of duplicitous spies, bumbling white supremacists, and an anti-hero that served "evil too well and good too secretly, the crime of our times," writes author Vonnegut. It is also a love story, which fantasizes an idyllic "nation of two" as the only way to survive when the world has gone mad.

MOTHER NIGHT tells the story of Howard W. Campbell, an American-born, Nazi propagandist who makes a cameo in Vonnegut's most famous novel, Slaughterhouse-Five. But Campbell's story is much more complicated: a double agent for the Allies, he was passing along secrets coded in his anti-Semitic radio broadcasts heard throughout the Third Reich. But at the same time, these broadcasts inspired and entertained Germans, helping them to believe the racist, totalitarian lies of Hitler and Goebbels.

Called "chillingly relevant" and "wonderfully compelling" by the Mercury News at its world premiere in San Francisco last year, MOTHER NIGHT uses non-linear storytelling to piece together Campbell's history, and expertly fills in the jigsaw puzzle of a life that mirrors the great events of the last century, and ones we are living with today.

The cast features Andrea Gallo (Coney with Blue Coyote Theater Group), Gabriel Grilli (Bad Girls Good Writers at The Brick), Trish Lindstrom (Dora Award for Once, dir. John Tiffany, in Toronto), Matthew Van Oss (Veil'd at Women's Project), Eric Rice (Orson's Shadow at Theatre Row), Dave Sikula (Sam & Dede at 59E59 Theaters), and Dared Wright (BlacKkKlansman, dir. Spike Lee).

The design team includes Daniel Bilodeau (scenic design); Adam Gearhart (lighting design); Zoë Allen (costume design); Julian Evans (original music and sound design); and Stephanie Dittbern (properties design). The Production Stage Manager is Aliyah Nissim.

Brian Katz (adapter/director) is Custom Made's founding Artistic Director and has directed over thirty-five productions for the company including the world premiere of his original adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Mother Night (San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Excellence in Theatre Award - Stage Direction, 2017), The Play About the Baby by Edward Albee (SFBATCC - best production, 2012), This is Our Youth (SFBATCC nom - direction, 2015), and Chess (SFBATCC - best production, 2016). Other recent projects include Middletown by Will Eno, A Bright Room Called Day by Tony Kushner (SFBATCC nomination - direction), Next to Normal (SFBATCC nomination - best production), and the regional premieres of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer, and Red Light Winter. His adaptation of Candide has been presented in both San Francisco and New York. Brian has worked at Aurora Theatre, California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, and with Killing My Lobster among others. He is an alumnus of Clark University.