Red Bull Theater Presents Two Benefit Readings: GALLATHEA and GALATEA

Today, RED BULL THEATER announced that it is partnering independently with the Drama League and WP Theater on two events inspired by John Lyly's play, Gallathea, an Elizabethan play that was premiered in 1588 by the boy players of the Children of Paul's. In its original production the boys portrayed all the men and women, and Lyly capitalized on heightened comedic possibilities of this practice. Director Emma Rosa Went will offer her take on Lyly's original text; a week later playwright MJ Kaufman gives us the World Premiere of a new play inspired by Lyly's.

"In a cosmic convergence of creativity, director Emma Rosa Went and playwright MJ Kaufman have both been passionately artistically engaged with John Lyly's foundational gender-exploring classic. All of us at Red Bull are thrilled to partner with the wonderful Drama League and the fabulous WP Theatre in sharing these two exciting American Women+ theater artists' responses to Lyly's classic comedy!" said artistic director Berger.

First performed in 1588, John Lyly's Gallathea is a comedy about metamorphosis and desire, a queer love story set inside the landscape of classical myth. In order to avoid becoming dinner for a sea monster, Gallathea and Phillida are sent into the forest dressed as boys. Meanwhile, three shipwrecked brothers set out to seek their fortunes, Cupid stirs up his usual trouble, nymphs fall for mortals, and Neptune God of the Sea waits to make his move. This playful pastoral of love, desire, and finding yourself is an affirmation of identity - joyfully reclaimed for 2021.

Presented in collaboration with The Drama League, Gallathea by John Lyly and directed by Emma Rosa Went, will feature Olivia Rose Barresi (Courage! To the Field! at the Tank, Initiative at Playwright's Realm), Helen Cespedes (The School for Scandal - Red Bull Theater, Timon of Athens - Royal Shakespeare Company/Shakespeare Theatre Company/TFANA), Nathaniel P. Claridad (Disney's Mulan), Yonatan Gebeyehu, (Timon of Athens - TFANA) Amy Jo Jackson (The Great Recession - Flea Theater, Twelfth Night - Manhattan Shakespeare Project), Layla Khoshnoudi (Tumacho - Clubbed Thumb, Men on Boats - Playwrights Horizons), Rami Margron (Hurricane Diane - Old Globe, Pride and Prejudice - Long Wharf), Christopher Michael McFarland (Measure for Measure - TFANA, Cymbeline - Yale Rep), Jason O'Connell (Judgment Day at Park Avenue Armory, Happy Birthday Wanda June for Wheelhouse Theater), Aneesh Sheth (Netflix's "Jessica Jones," Southern Comfort - Public Theater, Twelfth Night - Public Theater's Mobile Shakespeare Unit), David Ryan Smith (Where We Stand - Baltimore Center Stage/WP Theater, Mankind - Playwrights Horizons), and Zo Tipp (Bundle of Sticks at INTAR).

The online reading will premiere LIVE on Monday March 15th at 7:30 PM EDT. A recording of the livestream will be available until 7PM EDT on Friday, March 19th. This event is a benefit for Red Bull Theater. Tickets are Pay What You Can. Advance reservations are recommended.

On Monday, March 22nd at 7:30 PM EDT, in collaboration with WP THEATER, Red Bull Theater will present the World Premiere of Galatea by MJ Kaufman (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, How to Live on Earth). Kaufman's Galatea is a trans love story set against the backdrop of a climate crisis. Loosely based on Lyly's play, MJ Kaufman's new play tells the story of two young women from a village threatened with flooding who escape to the nearby woods disguised as boys and fall in love. Directed by Will Davis (India Pale Ale, Men on Boats) and featuring Grammy Award-winner Ty Defoe, Jo Lampert (Hundred Days, Joan of Arc), Eve Lindley (AMC's "Dispatches from Elsewhere"), Aneesh Sheth (Netflix's "Jessica Jones," Southern Comfort - Public Theater), Futaba Shioda (Rent 20th Anniversary tour), and TL Thompson (Is This a Room). The event will premiere LIVE on Monday, March 22 at 7:30PM EDT. Rebroadcasts will be available until March 26 at 6PM EDT. Advance reservations are recommended.

LIVE DISCUSSION

Thursday March 25th at 7:30 PM EDT, there will be a free Bull Session: an interactive discussion with playwright MJ Kaufman, directors Will Davis and Emma Rosa Went, scholars Julie Crawford and Lauren Robertson, and members of the companies. Advanced registrations are required.

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