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Sylvia Milo's THE OTHER MOZART Brings Music Prodigy Off-Broadway This Fall

By: Oct. 15, 2015
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Sylvia Milo's award-winning THE OTHER MOZART, directed by Isaac James Byrne, is the true, untold story of Nannerl Mozart, the sister of Amadeus -- a prodigy, keyboard virtuoso and composer, who performed throughout Europe with her brother to equal acclaim, but her work and her story faded away, lost to history. THE OTHER MOZART will play a limited engagement at Off-Broadway's The Players Theatre (115 MacDougal Street, NYC -- Third floor - no elevator). Performances begin Wednesday, October 14 and continue every Wednesday and Saturday in October, and Friday and Saturday in November, through Saturday, November 21.

On Monday, September 21, 2015 the play was nominated for eight New York Innovative Theatre Awards: Outstanding Solo Performance - Sylvia Milo, Outstanding Director - Isaac Byrne, Outstanding Costume Design - Magdalena Dabrowska & Miodrag Guberinic, Outstanding Set Design - Anna Sroka, Outstanding Sound Design - Nathan Davis, Outstanding Original Music - Phyllis Chen & Nathan Davis, Outstanding Original Full-length script - Sylvia Milo and Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play. The Other Mozartreceived awards in Outstanding Solo Performance and Outstanding Original Music.

"Imagine an eleven-year-old girl, performing the most difficult sonatas and concertos of the greatest composers, on the harpsichord or fortepiano, with precision, with incredible lightness, with impeccable taste. It was a source of wonder to many." - Augsburger Intelligenz, May 19, 1763

The one-woman drama is set in and on a magnificent 18-foot dress, created to fill and spill over the entire stage. THE OTHER MOZART is based on facts, stories and lines pulled directly from the Mozart family's humorous and heartbreaking letters.

With the opulent beauty of the dress and hair design, the sweet smell of perfume and the clouds of dusting powder rising from the stage, THE OTHER MOZART is a multi-sensual experience that transports the audience into a world of outsized beauty and delight -- but also of overwhelming restrictions and prejudice where, finally, this other Mozart tells her story. Period style movement creates a world of opulence and elegance through articulate delicacy of expressive balletic gestures, reverent court bows, and fan language.

Along with music composed by her famous brother and Marianna Martines (a female composer who inspired Nannerl), the play features original music by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen -- featured composers of the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, BAM and the International Contemporary Ensemble - for the instruments Nannerl knew intimately such as clavichords, music boxes and bells, as well as teacups, fans, and other ordinary objects that might have captured her imagination.

THE OTHER MOZART was developed at the Piccolo Spoleto festival and at the Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC as part of the All For One Festival. It was presented at the Berkshire and New Orleans Fringe festivals, at Toronto University and in Munich at the Pasinger Fabrik. The play repeatedly returned to Austria in 2014 at the invitation of the Mozarteum Foundation and Mozarteum University in Salzburg. The play had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run at the HERE Arts Center in New York City and continues touring internationally. The Other Mozart was nominated for the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design in a Play and the 2015 Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Solo Performance.

The production features music composed by Nathan Davis and Phyllis Chen (of Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival and the International Contemporary Ensemble) with additional music by Marianna Martinesand Wolfgang A. Mozart. Sound design by Nathan Davis. Period style movement directed by Janice Orlandi. Costume design by Magdalena Dabrowska(dress) and Miodrag Guberinic (pannier / corset sculpture), with dress concept by Anna Sroka and hair design by Courtney Bednarowski. Lighting design by Joshua Rose. Name is the stage manager.

THE OTHER MOZART plays the following schedule through Saturday, November 21: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays at 3 p.m. - in October and Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. - in November. Tickets are $45-$65 and are now available online at www.OvatonTix.com or by calling 866-811-4111. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater's box office ½ hour prior to performance. Running Time: 75 minutes. Visit www.TheOtherMozart.com for more.

BIOGRAPHIES:

SYLVIA MILO (Playwright, Creator, Performer) Originally from Poland, based in NYC, Sylvia is an actress, playwright and producer. Her solo play, The Other Mozart, had a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run at HERE Arts Center in NYC, and is currently touring in the US and in Europe. She played Bob Dylan in the OBIE Award-winning The West Village Fragments - by Peculiar Works; Ophelia in The Ophelia Landscape - with Mira Furlan at the Mark Morris Center; Hamlet in Hamlet - an all-female version of the play, which she adapted and directed herself; she has performed at La Mama, Cherry Lane, Ontological-Hysteric, Theatre For the New City, Dixon Place and The Ohio Theatre. As a member of the Bats at the Flea Theater she starred in Seating Arrangements - co-written by Sylvia, directed by Eric Pold of Gob Squad. Sylvia is also a violinist (playing acoustic and electric violins - Irving Plaza, The Knitting Factory, CBGB's, Joe's Pub) and has composed scores for dance and theater (Merce Cunningham Studio, La Mama). Sylvia is a graduate of New York University, with extensive training at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute (assistant to Robert Castle), Michael Chekhov, Stella Adler, Lucid Body and Actors Movement Studio, and The Grotowski Institute in Poland.

ISAAC JAMES BYRNE (Director) In New York City, Isaac has directed the premieres of "Green", "To Nineveh" (both at American Place Theatre), "Something True" (Samuel French Short Play Festival), and co-directed "I Used To Write On Walls" (Gene Frankel Theater), "Diane and The Jessica" (The OHIO Theatre as part of SHORT LOVE), and the staged reading of "Miss Lily Gets Boned" (The LARK)-all by Bekah Brunstetter, "Many Worlds" by William Borden (The Red Room), "Arms and the Octopus" by Casey Wimpee (The OHIO Theater as part of fuckplays), "Fresh Kills" by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder (at 59E59), "Inter Course" by Brandon Koebernick (American Place Theatre), "Playoff Picture" by Paul John Desena (American Place Theatre), and "The New Normal" by Donnetta Lavinia Grays (June Havoc). He has also directed "True West" by Sam Sheperd for Curious Frog Company which was performed in an East Village Apt. He developed and directed Desiree Burch's solo show "52 Man Pick Up" (Joe's Pub, Ars Nova, Edinburg Fringe Festival-Scotland, OHIO Theatre, 59E59, NY Int. Fringe). "To Nineveh" was nominated for 9 NY IT Awards and won 6 including Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Production, and Outstanding Original Full Length. A founding member of Working Man's Clothes Productions, where he served as Artistic Director for four years, Isaac is currently serving as the Artistic Director for the newly formed THEATRE 4 the PEOPLE. With T4TP he has directed its inaugural co-production with Bryant Park, "A Grimm Reality" and "The Shakespeare Project." In his "spare" time, Isaac teaches at NYFA.



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