MEDEA: RE-VERSED: a Rap Adaptation of Euripedes' MEDEA to be Presented at Red Bull Theater

RED BULL THEATER has announced the cast for the next offering of a new season of OBIE Award-winning Revelation Readings: Medea: Re-Versed by Luis Quintero, a rap adaptation of Euripedes' Medea, conceived and directed by Red Bull's Associate Artistic Director Nathan Winkelstein. This event will premiere for one night only, at 7:30 PM ET on Sunday May 21st at the Lucille Lortel Theater (121 Christopher Street). Tickets are $52 - $92 each (including $2.00 Convenience Fee). To purchase tickets, go to redbulltheater.com/medea-re-versed.

"I'm very excited for Red Bull to share Luis Quintero's thrilling new version of Medea. It's part of our mission to share new plays in conversation with the classics, and this one fits the bill in extraordinary ways. Join us to revel in the wordplay and visceral excitement of ancient Greek drama brought to life in the most contemporary of ways. With a fabulous cast and a master beat-boxer (!) under the direction of our wonderful associate artistic director Nathan Winkelstein, this promises to be a uniquely exciting event," said Red Bull's Founder and Artistic Director Jesse Berger.

An ice-cold, high-octane adaptation of Euripides' play written in battle rap verse, this brand new hip-hop version of Medea sheds contemporary light on the classic tragedy. This story reignites the sacred rage of our ancestors and explores the destruction that comes when a society suppresses and silences women.

Luis Quintero is thrilled and humbled to be making his playwriting/composing debut in NYC with Red Bull Theater. Graduating from UNCSA in 2016, Luis has worked all over the United States as an Actor at theaters such as DCPA, Old Globe San Diego, The Alley, Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Stages Reparatory Theater, Triad Stage and more. He is currently performing in his fourth season with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Cold Spring NY.

The cast will feature Sarin Monae West (most recently seen in the Mint Theater's The Rat Trap; Broadway: The Skin of Our Teeth; Off-Broadway: Merry Wives - Shakespeare in the Park, Mia MIA - La MaMa) in the title role, along with Jason Bowen (Broadway: The Play That Goes Wrong; Off-Broadway: The Play That Goes Wrong; Long Day's Journey into Night - Audible, Native Son, Measure for Measure - The Acting Company; If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka - Playwrights Horizons, Crumbs from the Table of Joy - Keen Co); Mark Martin (Freestyle Love Supreme); Luis Quintero (Red Bull Theater debut); David Ryan Smith (RBT: Arden of Faversham; Broadway: One Man Two Guvnors, Passing Strange; Off-Broadway: Epiphany - Lincoln Center Theater); Debbie Tjong (We're Gonna Die - Second Stage; The Wrong Man - MCC Theater; Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future - Ars Nova); and Skyler Volpe (Sing Street - New York Theatre Workshop; Cherchez La Femme - La MaMa).

FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

"When I set out to adapt Medea I asked myself who am I writing this for? First, I needed to honor the memory of the original Medea. Meaning the very woman who fought for her own justice when no one else would. Her suffering was not a play, it was lived and I felt compelled to write with that reverence in mind. Second, to expand the traditional theater audience. I wanted to compose a piece that pushes the boundaries of musical theater and utilize a three-piece band with simple music that anyone could play. Thirdly, it needed to accentuate the live theatrical experience. In a world of streaming the communal exchange of vibration and energy in the present moment is what sets theater apart. So, I'm attempting to create a new form of theater that encourages you, the audience, to participate in the storytelling itself. Using these three pillars as my compass I began writing Medea. To start I looked up the testimonies of women who had committed filicide to try to understand why they felt that was their only option and what kind of spousal relationships fostered these outcomes. I researched the Ancient Greek societal opinions of foreigners who they considered barbarians, something not so dissimilar to the opinions some Americans hold. With this research in mind I exposed myself to several adaptations of Medea and was captivated by her unique story. Despite the high mortality rate of childbirth and lack of medicine at that time, she survives her pregnancy only to be treated as an outcast by her village and adopted country, and emotionally abused and abandoned by her husband. My mission was to honor her suffering while daring to investigate the reasons behind her decisions. When I thought about how to style the music I was hit by this brutal fact. My non-artist friends don't listen to Musical Theater. The sound pallet just doesn't resonate with their tastes. So I set out to compose music and write verse that got them excited to come to see the show on the first listen. I explored the underbelly of hip hop. Medea is about blood, blades, betrayal, fate and fire and there are scores of albums in the Hip-Hop cannon that are depictions of real-life people in similarly desperate situations. Suicidal thoughts by Biggie Smalls, Dance with the Devil by Immortal Technique, N.Y State of Mind by Nas, to name a few. I wanted to create a space for them in the theater. That meant I had to depart from the traditional form. I had to think grittier. Challenge the audience to keep up with the lyrics or, even better, earn their investment so much so that they return to listen again to catch all the double and triple meanings embedded in the words. No disrespect to the Tony voters in the seats I'm composing for the homies in the streets. There is an intrinsic musicality to speech. The transition of vowels form melody, the consonants create percussion and rhythm. I am a student of Shakespeare and Hip-Hop as both are auditory experiences filled with metaphors, rhyme schemes and word play. Shakespeare also embraced the reality that there was a live audience viewing his plays. There is no fourth wall. The active participation of, and engagement with, the audience is paramount to the experience. I looked to Battle Rap culture to inspire this cross pollination. In Battle Rap the audience' opinion is what matters most. This is how I built the scenes. Each interaction is a battle that the audience participates in. There's no telling what punchlines will hit certain houses and which will not. Whose side will each audience be on? I don't know - and that uncertainty, that openness, is what will create the irreplicable communal experience that IS theater," said playwright Luis Quintero.

ABOUT THE PLAY

How do you solve a problem like Medea? Her infamy is larger than life; it resists the constraints of the stage. There have been other terrifying anti-heroes in the history of tragedy, but a woman capable of killing her own children threatens to break the bounds of imagination. Even Lady Macbeth, a theatrical descendant who imagines dashing out the brains of a nursing infant, can't steel herself to carry out actual violence, and ultimately subsides into madness and suicide. Medea, though, ends her play not beaten down but darkly triumphant. In the final scene of Euripides' tragedy, she turns up to taunt her defeated husband from a winged chariot suspended above the stage. By occupying the position reserved for the deus ex machina, Medea reminds us that she's semi-divine, the granddaughter of the sun god Helios. "There's a deity's entity in my identity," she tells us in this brilliant adaptation. A supernaturally powered fury, she refuses to be reduced to human fragility. Theatrical productions often try to humanize Medea by presenting her as descending into weakness and insanity after her husband's abandonment. In Euripides' version of her story, however, she's defined less by heartbreak than by steely, strategic vindictiveness. Proud, fierce, and intent on honor, she's a kind of epic hero whose fight lies in the domestic sphere. Jason has disrespected her by breaking his wedding vows, solemn oaths made before the gods, and her task is to ensure that he's punished. Quintero gives us a Medea similarly defined by her power and insistence on justice. "There's no peace for those / Who break oaths with me," she warns Ageus. Later she tells the Chorus, "Now I see just how this ends / Justice for revenge." Medea's plan reflects a careful calculation to maximize Jason's suffering, rather than a desperate burst of emotional frenzy. Medea is defined above all by her acute intelligence. As a sorcerer, she's defined by her skill with poisons and potions, and as an avenger, she deploys her words as drugs. She lulls Jason into complacency by playing the part of a weak, injured woman, flattering his ego while working out the components of her plan. Hip hop, with its rapid-fire swaggering verbal dexterity, offers a thrilling vehicle for this unsettling demigod. Luis Quintero's incantatory rhymes situate Medea in a new version of Greek tragedy's ritualized world, neither ancient nor modern but partaking of both. This is not just any domestic tragedy - as the chorus leader reminds us, "There's Gods in this house." The play dazzles with verbal pyrotechnics, promising the audience to "keep it clear with rhythm and stichomythia / so you can listen here to the tragedy of Medea." But at its heart it asks us to examine what we're doing in the theater, vicariously experiencing someone else's catastrophe. "For there to be a tragedy somebody has to pay," the chorus points out. "Who does it cost for us to pay to see a tragedy?"

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ABOUT THE DIRECTOR

Nathan Winkelstein has been with the company for seven years, and Associate Artistic Director for three. He is the Producing Director of the Revelation Reading Series as well as the host of Remarkabull Podversations. He also serves as the casting associate for Red Bull. Nathan has acted or directed for numerous companies around the country, including The Alley, NYU Grad, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Shakespeare Theater Company, LCT, The Folger, American Shakespeare Center and others. Dubbed 'The Pied Piper of Shakespeare' Nathan provides private acting coaching to select clients and has taught for Red Bull, STC, LCT, TGS and Maggie Flanagan Studio. Nathan received his BA in Theater from the University at Buffalo and his MFA in Classical Acting from the prestigious Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the UK. Nathan is a proud member of Actors Equity.

ABOUT RED BULL THEATER

"For 20 years, Red Bull has, thankfully, continued to keep many great classic plays alive for contemporary audiences." - The New York Times

Red Bull Theater, hailed as "the city's gutsiest classical theater" by Time Out New York, brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences, uniting a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull Theater is New York City's home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, the company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics. A home for artists, scholars, and students, Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences, and strives to make its work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all. We value and practice inclusiveness, equity, and diversity in all of our activities, and are committed to antiracist action. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition, in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences, and in the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Variety agreed, hailing Red Bull's work as: "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years."

Since its debut in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare's Pericles starring Daniel Breaker, Red Bull Theater has served adventurous theatergoers with Off-Broadway productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company also offers outreach programs including Shakespeare in Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms; Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars; and Classical Acting Intensives led by veteran theater professionals. During the pandemic, Red Bull created several new and ongoing programs to serve audiences and artists with our mission: RemarkaBULL Podversations, Online Readings, Seminars, and more.

Red Bull Theater has presented 20 Off-Broadway productions and nearly 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving a community of more than 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of over 65,000. The company's unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Off-Broadway Alliance, and OBIE nominations and Awards.

For more information about any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.

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