SITI Company Presents Under Construction

Acclaimed director Anne Bogart and seven-time Obie winning Siti Company are pleased to bring to New York Charles Mee's play, Under Construction - a collage of today's America inspired by the twentieth-century painter Norman Rockwell and avant-garde installation artist Jason Rhoades. Under Construction premiered in 2009 at the Humana Festival/Actors Theatre of Louisville, where it was praised by Time magazine as "a witty, sometimes mystifying, often riveting mishmash of classic Americana and anarchic performance art." The NY premiere will take place at Dance Theater Workshop, from April 21 through May 7, 2011.

Under Construction dissects the formation of present-day America. Neither Rockwell nor Rhoades is a character in the play. Instead, Mee uses their art and utterly opposed sensibilities as a jumping-off point to talk about who we are, how we live, and what we want. Rockwell's images of small-town life conjure up thoughts of an America that was simpler and more innocent than the one we inhabit today - one that, perhaps, never existed. Jason Rhoades' installations are huge and messy; non-representational but highly evocative; unafraid to offend and impossible to ignore.

Juxtaposing the fifties and the present, the play retraces the historical move from Rockwell to Rhoades while offering a portrait of a nation that is constantly reinventing itself - or permanently "under construction." A meta-collection of scenes from America, it interpolates image and ideas of past generations - from Rockwell's nostalgic Thanksgiving dinner and barbershop scenes to 1950s lessons in etiquette dating - with blogging and postmodern art. Throughout the play, actors build rickety constructions out of found objects to create a physical artistic installation piece which by the end incorporates all the props on stage.
Under Construction is the third installment of the American Museum Cycle, a collection of four plays inspired by American artists. It follows bobrauschenbergamerica, which looked at the world through the eyes of abstract expressionist Robert Rauschenberg, and Hotel Cassiopeia, which explored the mind of Joseph Cornell.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION (2009)
New York Premiere
Written by Charles Mee
Directed by Anne Bogart
Created and performed by Siti Company

Previews: April 21, 22
Regular Run: April 23-May 7
All performances are at 7:30PM

Pre-show talks with Anne Bogart and Charles L. Mee on April 25th, 26th, 27th, and May 2nd at 6:30PM

Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, NYC
Tickets: $35/$25 students. Previews: $30/$20 students
CREDITS

Scenic Designer Neil Patel
Costume Designer James Schuette
Lighting/Video Designer Brian H Scott
Sound Designer Darron L West
Properties Designer
Mark Walston
Stage Manager Kristofer Longley-Postema

CAST

With Akiko Aizawa, J.Ed Araiza, Leon Ingulsrud, Ellen Lauren, Tom Nelis, Barney
O'Hanlon, Makela Spielman, Samuel Stricklen, Stephen Duff Webber

For more information, call 212.924.0077 or visit www.siti.org

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Anne Bogart (Director) is the Artistic Director of Siti Company, which she founded with Japanese director Tadashi Suzuki in 1992. She is a Professor at Columbia University where she runs the Graduate Directing Program. Works with SITI include American Document (2010) with the Martha Graham Dance Company; Antigone; Freshwater; Under Construction; Who Do You Think You Are; Radio Macbeth; Hotel Cassiopeia; Death and the Ploughman; La Dispute; Score; bobrauschenbergamerica; Room; War of the Worlds; Cabin Pressure; War of the Worlds-The Radio Play; Alice's Adventures; Culture of Desire; Bob; Going, Going, Gone; Small Lives/Big Dreams; The Medium; Noel Coward's Hay Fever and Private Lives; August Strindberg's Miss Julie; and Charles Mee's Orestes. She is the author of three books: A Director Prepares, The Viewpoints Book and And Then, You Act.

Charles L. Mee (Playwright) is the only playwright member of Siti Company, for whom he has written Orestes 2.0, bobrauschenbergamerica, Hotel Cassiopeia, soot and spit (the musical), and Under Construction. He has also written Vienna: Lusthaus, A Perfect Wedding, and a number of other plays in addition to his work inspired by Greek plays: Big Love, True Love, Trojan Women A Love Story and others. His plays have been performed at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music, American Repertory Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, the Humana Festival, Steppenwolf, and other places in the United States as well as in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna, Istanbul and elsewhere. Among other awards, he is the recipient of the lifetime achievement award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His complete works are available on the Internet at www.charlesmee.org. His work is made possible by the support of Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Richard B. Fisher.

Siti Company was founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater in the United States through an emphasis on international cultural exchange and collaboration. Originally envisioned as a summer institute in Saratoga Springs, New York, SITI has expanded to encompass a year-round program based in New York City with a summer season in Saratoga. Siti Company's three ongoing components are the creation of new work, the training of young theater artists, and a commitment to international collaboration. A seven-time Obie winner, the company is known nationally and internationally as a top-level artistic collective that generates groundbreaking theater while training artists from around the world.

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