Red Bull Theater, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival & Bedlam To Present Rolling World Premiere Of MEDEA: RE-VERSED

RED BULL THEATER, celebrating its 20th Anniversary, has announced that Red Bull will join forces with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival and Bedlam to present the rolling World Premiere of Medea: Re-Versed by Luis Quintero, co-conceived and directed by RBT Associate Artistic Director Nathan Winkelstein. 

The cast will feature Sarin Monae West (most recently seen in Mint Theater's The Rat Trap; Her other credits include The Skin of Our Teeth (LCT/Broadway; Merry Wives - Off-Broadway, Shakespeare in the Park and Mia MIA at La MaMa) as Medea.  Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Originally commissioned and developed by Red Bull Theater, the rolling World Premiere begins outdoors at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival from June 12th to August 30th. It then moves indoors, Off-Broadway, at the Sheen Center Frank Shiner Theatre, beginning previews Thursday September 12th 2024 with Opening Night set for Monday September 23rd. This limited engagement continues through October 15th only.

"All of us at RED BULL THEATER are thrilled to bring Luis Quintero's electrifying rendition of this ancient classic to vivid new life for contemporary audiences in New York. It was clear from the first workshop we produced of Luis's Medea in the spring of 2022 that it was something special. It has been a pleasure to further support the work with a commission and ongoing development through a second Red Bull workshop and Revelation Reading that blew the roof of the theater in the spring of 2023. It is a testament to the power of the work that it has attracted this unique 3-way partnership, with two other incredible companies joining us to co-produce and share this uniquely powerful work with more audiences. I look forward to collaborating with our terrific colleagues at HVSF and Bedlam. With the phenomenal Sarin Monae West in the title role, and with Luis and Nathan's vision, this will be a show not to be missed!” said RBT Founder and Artistic Director Jesse Berger.

"We're thrilled to collaborate with our friends at Red Bull and Bedlam, two companies I have long admired, on this rolling world premiere production of MEDEA. Luis's inspired work as an actor has lit up the HVSF tent for many seasons, and we cannot wait for his work as a playwright to wow audiences in the Hudson Valley and in New York City next year,” said Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival Artis­tic Di­rec­tor Davis Mc­Cal­lum.

"Bedlam is honored to partner with Red Bull and HVSF to produce this brilliant piece of work. Luis Quintero and Nathan Winkelstein have collaborated to create the most vivid, electrifying Medea I have ever seen. I know audiences in New York City and the Hudson Valley will be extremely lucky to witness this incredible production," said Eric Tucker, Bedlam Artistic Director.

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 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.

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 art-mak­ing, 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: RemarkaBull Podcasts, Online Readings, Seminars, and more. "The classics-shaking Red Bull Theater,” as Time Out NY has called it, has presented 24 Off-Broadway productions and over 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 Medea: Re-Versed or any of Red Bull Theater's programs or productions, visit www.redbulltheater.com.

To post a comment, you must register and login.