Rob Campbell, Amber Gray and More Lead CSC's GREEK FESTIVAL, Beginning Tonight

Classical Greek theatre will take over Classic Stage Company when it begins its 2015/2016 season with the inaugural GREEK FESTIVAL!

The festival will include several weeks of performances, readings, seminars and will feature a Mainstage Production of IPHIGENIA IN AULIS, acclaimed playwright Anne Washburn's (Mr. Burns, a post-electric play) transadaptation of Euripides' final play, directed by Obie Award winner Rachel Chavkin (Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812). IPHIGENIA IN AULIS will feature original musical by The Bengsons and choreography by Sonya Tayeh. Previews begins tonight, September 10 at CSC (136 East 13th Street) for a limited engagement through Sunday, September 27.

The cast of IPHIGENIA IN AULIS will include Rob Campbell (Agamemnon/Achilles), Amber Gray (Clytemnestra/Menelaus), Audrey Elaine Hailes (Chorus), Nike Kadri (Chorus), Austin Ku (Chorus), Jo Lampert (Chorus), Abigail Nessen (Chorus), Kristin Sieh (Iphigenia).

Scenic design for IPHIGENIA IN AULIS is by Arnulfo Maldanado, costume design by Normandy Sherwood, lighting design by Austin Smith and sound design by Stowe Nelson.

IPHIGENIA IN AULIS will perform Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7 pm; Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets start at $40 and are available at www.classicstage.org or by calling (212) 352-3101 / 866-811-4111 or at the box-office at 136 East 13th Street, New York City (between Third and Fourth Avenues).

GREEK FESTIVAL will also include THE FRAGMENTS, a staged reading series in which distinguished playwrights Ellen McLaughlin, Charles L. Mee, and Mac Wellman each take a fragment from the lost corpus of classical Greek plays from Sophocles and Euripides and weave them into three full dramatic evenings. Tickets are $30.

Monday, August 10, 2015 at 7pm
PHAETON by MAC WELLMAN

Monday, August 17, 2015 at 7pm
REQUIEM FOR THE DEAD by CHARLES L. MEE

Monday, August 24, 2015 at 7pm
PROTESILAUS by ELLEN MCLAUGHLIN

Other GREEK FESTIVAL Events include:

ORESTEIA

Inspired by Aeschylus

Conceived and Directed by Jonathan Vandenberg

In association with Ashes Company

Aeschylus authored the oldest extant drama. The Oresteia, the only surviving trilogy of Ancient Greek tragedy, is an inexorable exploration of human nature. It exists at a threshold between old and new worlds. In this nearly wordless production, Aeschylus' trilogy becomes the catalyst for a future tragic form. A distinctive theatrical language of gesture, image, and sound emerges.

with Samuel Caraballo, Robert Grimm, Adam Kampouris, Ioanna Katsarou, Tanner Lamanuzzi, Lauren Maykut, Nathaniel Peart, Caitlin Pereiras, Adam Roper, Kristina Siapkara

· August 20 at 8 pm; August 21 at 8 pm; August 22 at 8 pm, August 23 at 3 pm

· August 27 at 8 pm; August 28 at 8 pm; August 29 at 8 pm, August 30 at 3 pm

Tickets are $30.

SEMINARS & SYMPOSIA

Classical Greek scholar Helene Foley, Professor of Classical Studies at Barnard College, curates a series of seminars & post-show symposia devoted to each of these dramatic presentations.

· Tuesday, August 25 at 7 pm

· Saturday, September 19 & 26, following the 3pm matinees of IPHIGENIA IN AULIS

Tickets are free.

CSC is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for contemporary audiences. For more than 45 years, CSC has been a home for New York's finest established and emerging artists to grapple with the great works of the world's repertory that speak directly to the issues of today. CSC serves an average of 35,000 audience members annually, including more than 4,000 students through its nationally-recognized education programs. Recent productions include: Marlowe's Doctor Faustus starring Chris Noth, Shakespeare's Hamlet starring Peter Sarsgaard; Turgenev's A Month in the Country with Peter Dinklage and Taylor Schilling; Rodgers & Hammerstein's Allegro; Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle with Christopher Lloyd, and Galileo with F. Murray Abraham; Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion with Melissa Errico, Judy Kuhn and Ryan Silverman; Chekhov's Ivanov with Ethan Hawke, The Cherry Orchard with Dianne Wiest and John Turturro, Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard, Uncle Vanya with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Denis O'Hare and Peter Sarsgaard, and The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; David Ives' The Heir Apparent, Venus in Fur with Nina Arianda (Broadway transfer 2011/2012, Tony Award nom., Best Play), The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater, and New Jerusalem with Richard Easton; Unnatural Acts, conceived by Tony Speciale; Anne Carson's An Oresteia; and Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin, A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth, and Richard III, Richard II and Hamlet with Michael Cumpsty. CSC productions have been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theatre awards: Obie, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.

For further information on Classic Stage Company, call (212) 352-3101, visit the theatre in person at 136 East 13th Street, or go to www.classicstage.org.

ANNE WASHBURN. Her plays include include Mr. Burns, The Internationalist, A Devil At Noon, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, The Small and a transadaptation of Euripides' Orestes. Her work has been produced by 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Folger, London's Gate Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, NYC's Soho Rep, DC's Studio Theater, Two River Theater Company, NYC's Vineyard, and Woolly Mammoth. Awards include a Guggenheim, a NYFA Fellowship, a Time Warner Fellowship, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. She is an associated artist with The Civilians, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, and is an alumna of New Dramatists and 13P. Currently commissioned by MTC, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, and Yale Rep.

RACHEL CHAVKIN is an Obie Award-winning, Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominated director, writer, dramaturg, and the Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based experimental ensemble, the TEAM (www.theteamplays.org), now in its 10th year. Selected projects: Dave Malloy's Preludes (World Premiere - LCT3), The TEAM's RoosevElvis (PS122's COIL festival, Upcoming Touring includes: the Royal Court, Walker Art Center, A.R.T.), Bess Wohl's Small Mouth Sounds (World Premiere - Ars Nova), Dave Malloy's Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (World Premiere - Ars Nova; Kazino - commercial transfer, New York Times, Time Out New York and New York Post Critics' Picks); British artist Chris Thorpe's Confirmation (World Premiere - Warwick Arts Centre and Battersea Arts Centre, 2014 Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award, Top 10 Shows at the Edinburgh Fringe - American Theatre); Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (Northern Stage, UK national tour); Meg Miroshnik's The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep); Marco Ramirez's The Royale (The Old Globe); and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, including his extravaganza The Lily's Revenge (World Premiere (Act II) - HERE). NYTW Usual Suspect, Artistic Associate at London's Gate Theatre and Classic Stage Company, alum of Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab, Drama League Directors Project, Women's Project Director's Lab, and New Georges Affiliate Artist. She has also taught extensively at NYU, Pace, and other colleges. B.F.A. NYU, M.F.A. Columbia. Upcoming: Anne Washburn's new transadaptation of Euripedes' Iphigenia in Aulis (CSC), Anais Mitchel's new folk-opera Hadestown (NYTW), the regional premiere of Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (American Repertory Theater), and multiple projects with the TEAM.

THE BENGSONS. Married duo The Bengsons blend soaring vocals, frenetic rhythms and rousing all join hands choruses to create new hybrid indie rock/art/theater performances. Their Americana-influenced brand of Indie Rock has received accolades from fans and critics alike. The Bengsons have appeared at such venues as Joe's Pub (NYC), NYU's Skirball Center (NYC), 92YTribeca (NYC), MASS MoCA (North Adams, MA), FlynnSpace (Burlington, VT), Z Space (San Francisco), On The Boards (Seattle), Artists Rep Theater (Portland, OR), Know Theater (Cincinnati, OH), and the Market Theater (Johannesburg, South Africa). As activists and teachers, The Bengsons have worked everywhere from the prestigious halls of Williams College to NYC's spec-ed public schools, from the hills of Tennessee to the Cambodian immigrant communities of Massachusetts. They have taught and worked internationally at the Market Theater Lab (Johannesburg, ZA), the Tijuana Christian Orphanage (Tijuana, Mexico), and ASAPROSA (Santa Ana, El Salvador).

SONYA TAYEH received a B.S. in Dance from Wayne State University. She has been awarded the Detroit Arts Council Achievement Award, Dance Magazine's "25 to Watch" and Inked Magazine's "Best Choreography Award". Sonya's choreography stage credits include: The Last Goodbye (Williamstown Theatre), Spring Awakening (San Jose Repertory Theater), The Endurance to Move, Battles, and The Root of Me (Tayeh Dance Company). She also completed a 3 year residency with the Los Angeles Ballet. Sonya directed and choreographed Miley Cyrus' Gypsy Heart Tour as well as her performances on the "American Music Awards." In addition, she directed and choreographed performances for Florence and The Machine on "The Voice," "X Factor," and the Brit Awards. Sonya also choreographed for Kylie Minogue and Madonna on their most recent world tours and is the executive choreographer for the electronic music group Steed Lord. Television credits include: "X Factor," "The Voice," "American Idol," the American Music Awards and E! Network's "Opening Act." Tayeh is also a reoccurring choreographer and judge on the FOX hit, "So You Think You Can Dance." Her passion for teaching youth still stands strong. She teaches for many performing arts school around the globe. Tayeh also teaches exclusively for the hottest new convention 24 Seven Dance Convention.

MAC WELLMAN. Recent work includes Muazzez at The Chocolate Factory as part of the 2014 PS 122 COIL Festival; 3 2's; or AFAR at Dixon Place in October 2011. His books of poetry include Miniature (2002), Strange Elegies (2006), Split the Stick (2012) from Roof Books, and Left Glove (2011), from Solid Objects Press. His novel Linda Perdido won the 2011 FC2 Catherine Doctorow Prize for Innovative Fiction. He is a Distinguished Professor of Playwriting at Brooklyn College.

CHARLES L. MEE has written Big Love, True Love and First Love; bobrauschenbergamerica and Hotel Cassiopeia; Orestes 2.0, Trojan Women: A Love Story; and Summertime and Wintertime, among other plays-all of them available on the Internet at www.charlesmee.org and as a free iPhone app. His plays have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Repertory Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, the Public Theatre, Lincoln Center, the Humana Festival, Steppenwolf, and other places in the United States as well as in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Brussels, Vienna, Istanbul and elsewhere. Among other awards, he is the recipient of the gold medal for lifetime achievement in drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and of the Richard B. Fisher Award. He is also the author of a number of books of history, and the former editor-in-chief of Horizon magazine, a magazine of history, art, literature, and the fine arts. His work is made possible by the support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Richard B. Fisher.

ELLEN MCLAUGHLIN. Her plays have received numerous national and international productions. They include Days and Nights Within, A Narrow Bed, Infinity's House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, The Trojan Women, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus, Ajax in Iraq, Kissing the Floor, Septimus and Clarissa, and Penelope. Producers include: the Public Theater, The National Actors' Theater and New York Theater Workshop in NYC, Actors' Theater of Louisville, The Actors' Gang L.A., Classic Stage Co., N.Y., The Intiman Theater, Seattle, Almeida Theater, London, The Mark Taper Forum, L.A., The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Getty Villa, California., and The Guthrie Theater, Minnesota, among other venues. Grants and awards include: Great American Play Contest, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the NEA, the Writer's Award from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the Berilla Kerr Award for playwrighting. T.C.G./Fox Residency Grant -- for Ajax in Iraq, written for the A.R.T. Institute.

She has taught playwriting at Barnard College since 1995. Other teaching posts include Breadloaf School of English, Yale Drama School and Princeton University, among others. Ms. McLaughlin is also an actor. She is most well known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, appearing in every U.S. production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run

PROFESSOR HELENE FOLEY is a Professor of Classical Studies at Barnard College. She graduated from Swarthmore College (1964), received an MAT in English (1966) and an MA in Classics (1967) from Yale University and a PHD in Classical Philology from Harvard University (1975). She moved from Stanford University to Barnard in 1979. She has also taught as a visiting professor at Dartmouth, New York University, and Berkeley. She has served as president of the American Philological Association in 1998 and was Sather Professor of Classics at Berkeley in Spring 2008. She is the author of Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides, Cornell University Press, 1985; The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Princeton University Press, 1994; Women in the Classical World: Image and Text, co-authored with Elaine Fantham, Natalie Kampen, Sarah Pomeroy, and Alan Shapiro, Oxford University Press, 1994; Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (Martin Classical Lectures 1995), Princeton University Press, 2001. She is editor of Reflections of Women in Antiquity, Gordon and Breach, 1981 and a co-editor of Visualizing the Tragic, Oxford University Press, 2007. Professor Foley is currently working on completing a book from her Sather Classical lectures on the U. S. reception of Greek tragedy, a co-edited volume on the global reception of Sophocles' Antigone, and a book on Euripides' Hecuba.

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