Red Bull Theater & Bedlam Reveal Complete Cast For MEDEA: RE-VERSED At Sheen Center

RED BULL THEATER has revealed the full cast for the Off-Broadway engagement of the rolling World Premiere of Medea: Re-Versed by Luis Quintero, co-conceived and directed by RBT Associate Artistic Director Nathan Winkelstein.

Joining the previously announced Sarin Monae West in the title role will be Siena D'Addario (The Seagull - The Instigators/Access Theater, Blue Wizard/Black Wizard -  Incubator Arts Project;  As You Like It - RADA George Bernard Shaw Theatre, London); Melissa Mahoney (Measure for Measure, As You Like It - Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival); Mark Martin (VOCA PEOPLE - Off-Broadway: Westside Theatre, New World Stages);  Jacob Ming-Trent (for Red Bull Theater: How Shakespeare Saved My Life, The Alchemist -  Lortel Award nomination; Merry Wives - Drama Desk nomination; Father Comes Home from the Wars - Lortel Award); Luis Quintero (Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Romeo and Juliet, Into the Woods, Love's Labour's Lost, Cyrano, The Book of Will, Twelfth Night - Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival); and Stephen Michael Spencer (Clyde's - Broadway/Second Stage Theatre; The Assassination of Julius Caesar as Told by William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw - BEDLAM; Julius Caesar - Theatre for a New Audience/Oregon Shakespeare Festival).   

Tickets will go on sale today, July 9th. Performances at the Sheen Center Frank Shiner Theatre will begin Thursday September 12th with Opening Night set for Monday September 23rd. This limited engagement will continue through October 13th only. Originally commissioned and developed by Red Bull Theater, the rolling World Premiere is in performances now through August 30th, outdoors at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival prior to the Off-Broadway premiere.

Medea: Re-Versed will feature scenic design by Emmie Finckel, costume design by Nicole Wee, lighting design by Cha See, and sound design by Matt Otto. Mark Martin will serve as music director.  

"All of us at Red Bull Theater are thrilled to bring Luis Quintero's electrifying new rendition of this ancient classic to vivid life for contemporary audiences in New York. Audiences in the Hudson Valley are already leaping to their feet for Medea: Re-Versed  in its outdoor summer run, and you will be able to join the excitement here indoors in NYC this fall as part of our rolling world premiere in partnership with our wonderful colleagues at Bedlam and the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. You've never seen a Medea like this. With the phenomenal Sarin Monae West in the title role, this is a show not to be missed!” said RBT Founder and Artistic Director Jesse Berger.

"Music and Myth making is one the oldest of human traditions. In excavating the past, I discover what resonates with the present. When I set out to modernize 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 was compelled to write with that reverence in mind. Second, I am writing to expand the traditional theater audience. Musically, I wanted to compose a piece that broke out of the mold of musical theater. A three-piece band with simple music that anyone could play and, most importantly, that non-theater goers would headbang to in their cars the same way they would to Joyner Lucas, Rage Against the Machine, or Evanescence. 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 by looking back to Shakespeare I set out to create a new form of theater that encourages audience participation and channels it into the storytelling itself. Using these three pillars as my compass, I began writing Medea," said Luis Quintero.

“There's more to her than anyone could ever infer – You can kick my words to the curb. I think it's time that we heard from her.”

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 of family, power, and revenge - as terrifying and shocking today as it was two thousand years ago. Quintero's version of the story reignites the sacred rage of our ancestors and illuminates in the most human terms the extraordinary lengths that some people will travel to even the scales of justice.

Luis Quintero, who will also serve as Emcee, is thrilled and humbled to be making his playwriting/composing debut in NYC with Red Bull Theater and excited to share this play with audiences and generous collaborators at HVSF and Bedlam.  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 Repertory Theater, Triad Stage and more.

Nathan Winkelstein has been with Red Bull Theater for eight years, and Associate Artistic Director for three. He is the Producing Director of the Revelation Reading Series as well as the host of Red Bull Podcasts, the Director of Education and 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, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, 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 and SDC.

Founded in 1987, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) (Davis McCallum, Artistic Director; Kendra Ekelund, Managing Director) is a critically acclaimed (The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal), professional, non-profit theater company based in Garrison, NY, one hour north of Manhattan. HVSF has established a reputation for lucid, engaging, and highly inventive productions staged in rotating repertory under an iconic, open-air theater tent overlooking the Hudson River. In recent years, HVSF has also ventured beyond the tent, touring its work to other venues through­out the Hudson Valley as part of its HVSF On the Road series, transferring productions to other the­aters, engaging its community through radically participatory artmaking, and reaching over 50,000 stu­dents and educators annually through its year-round Education programs. HVSF be­gan per­for­mances at its first permanent home in 2022. Rooted in the landscape of the Hudson Valley, with the plays of William Shakespeare as their touchstone, HVSF engages the widest possible audience in a theatrical celebration of our shared humanity.

In 2022, Bedlam (Eric Tucker, Artistic Director) celebrated its tenth anniversary. What has remained consistent in all their work – be it Shakespeare, Shaw, or Austen; in a theater, a classroom, or online – is the belief that the classics are for everyone, and that exploring these traditional forms yields unique insights into our humanity and inspires empathy in us all. Bedlam looks forward to celebrating this belief in practice over the course of its eleventh season.

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: the Red Bull Theater Podcast, Online Readings, Seminars, and more.

For more information about Medea: Re-Versed or any of Red Bull Theater's programs or productions, visit www.redbulltheater.com.

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