NEVA Begins Previews at the Public Theater Tonight

The Public Theater will begin previews for the English language premiere of NEVA, written and directed by Guillermo Calderón, tonight, March 1. NEVA will run through Sunday, March 31 in The Public's Anspacher, with an official press opening on Monday, March 11. Guillermo Calderón's criticaly acclaimed production, DICIEMBRE, was seen as part of The Public's 2011 Under the Radar Festival.

Single tickets, priced at $55, are on sale now at (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at The Public Theater box office at 425 Lafayette Street. The Library at The Public will also be open nightly for food and drink, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and Joe's Pub will continue to offer some of the best music in the city.

The complete cast of NEVA features Bianca Amato (Olga Knipper), Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Masha), and Luke Robertson (Aleko). NEVA features costume design by Susan Hilferty.

In a gorgeously crafted reflection on life, art and the revolutionary impulse, Chilean writer-director Guillermo Calderón's NEVA tells the story of Anton Chekhov's window, the actress Olga Knipper, who arrives in a cold and dimly lit theater in St. Petersburg in the winter of 1905 to rehearse The Cherry Orchard. As she and two other actors await the rest of the cast, they huddle together, act out scenes from their lives and muse on their art form and on love - while, unseen, striking workers are being gunned down in the streets by the Tsarist regime during what will be known as bloody Sunday. Political and human, haunting and fresh, this smart, thrilling and often humorous ensemble work will envelop you just as you least expect it and stir what it means to create art in violent times.

GUILLERMO CALDERÓN (Director, Playwright) was a part of The Public's 2011 Under the Radar Festival featuring his acclaimed production, Diciembre. He is Chile's foremost Contemporary Theatre artist, and his plays include Neva, Diciembre, Clase, Villa, Discurso, Quake, and School. Calderón's productions have toured extensively through South America and Europe. Festival stops have included Buenos Aires InterNational Theatre Festival, Chekhov Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Festival d´Automne, Santiago A Mil, Seoul Performing Arts Festival, TeatroStageFest, TEATERFORMEN Festival, Wiener Festwochen, World Theatre Festival, and RADAR L.A. He has been commissioned by the Schauspiel Duesseldorf, The Royal Court Theatre and Foundation Santiago A Mil. His co-written screenplay Violeta won the World Cinema Jury Prize for Drama at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the International Federation of Film Critics Prize for Best Film at the 2012 Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival. Calderón's awards include Best Play of the Year (Art Critics Circle of Chile), three Chilean Altazor Awards for Best Playwright and Best Director, and 2010 Bank of Scotland Angel Award (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Villa and Speech will be published in Theater Magazine (Yale) this spring.

Bianca Amato (Olga Knipper). Her Broadway credits include Arcadia and The Coast of Utopia. She has been seen Off-Broadway in The Broken Heart; Trumpery; The Importance of Being Earnest; and Mr. Fox: A Rumination. Her regional credits include Private Lives, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Arcadia, As You Like it, and Pygmalion. She has been seen on television on "The Big C," "Blue Bloods," "The Good Wife," "Sex and the City," "Isidingo," "The Adventures of Sinbad," and "Gegen Den Wind."

Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Masha) has been seen on Broadway in In The Next Room. Her additional New York theater credits include We Are Proud to Present a Presentation...; born bad; Red-Handed Otter; Love, Loss, and What I Wore; Dreams of Flying Dreams of Falling; Family Week; Ruined, for which she received Obie, Audelco, and Clarence Derwent Awards; The Misanthrope; Chicken; A Small, Melodramatic Story; 'nami; (I am) Nobody's Lunch; The Ladies. Her film and television credtis include Red Hook Summer, Spring/Fall, Rachel Getting Married, "Chappelle's Show," "Law & Order: SVU," and "Law & Order: CI."

LUKE ROBERTSON (Aleko) has been seen regionally in The Winter's Tale, A Doll House, Spoon Lake Blues, The Importance of Being Earnest, Cyrano, Jerry and Tom, Passion Play, and Even Maybe Tammy. His film and television credits include The Suspect, How We Got Away With It, The Favor, Imaginary Heroes, Levity, "Deception," "The Good Wife," "Blue Bloods," "Law and Order," "Law & Order: SVU," and "Third Watch."

Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg

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