'Beware of a Holy Whore' premieres at Visual Arts Theater

What once was the Chelsea West Cinema, now happily has a "second act" with the opening of the Visual Arts Theater, located on W. 23rd Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue, now operated by The School of Visual Arts. Quickly becoming an "in" destination, the theater recently played host to the GenArt Film Festival, and now it's latest occupant will be the world premiere of Fassbinder's BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE.
 
For the most part the theater remains intact, with the seats all in place, as well as the large screen (which will act as the back-drop for the play). The smell of fresh popcorn may linger in the lobby, but audiences will be in for a thrill with the latest offering for this "new" space, now christened the Visual Arts Theater.
 
The debut production comes from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) Department of Film, Video and Animation, in conjunction with Dangerous Ground Productions to present Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Beware Of A Holy Whore, an all- new staged theatrical adaptation of the 1971 film from the late visionary filmmaker. This is the World Premiere of this staged production, (the film version played last year at NYC's Film Forum). Fassbiner may be familiar to audiences for his last film, "Querelle," he died of a drug overdose shortly after its completion.
 
The entire show and exercise is about the transformation of an SVA space (the new Visual Arts Theater) into a teaching and learning environment, much like a full-scale movie production. There is a true "coming together" of all the creative forces when production, sound, wardrobe, camera, video, art, design, promotions and publicity work for a common goal. Audiences will be thrilled to see this production, very forward-thinking in its time for it's bold and controversial themes of reality and sexuality, now back for the first time on stage in the US, with a full-cast of 20 young actors. 
 
This ground-breaking production will be performed Thursday, May 15th, Friday May 16th and Saturday May 17th at 8:00PM at The Visual Arts Theater, 333 W. 23rd Street (formerly the Chelsea West Cinema).Conceived, designed, adapted and directed by Doris Mirescu, the play features a cast of 20 from SVA's Advanced Acting Class. Tickets for the play are $15 (General Admission) and ($10 (Students), and on sale now by calling (212)724-5004 do@dangerousgroundproductions.com.
 
More info: www.Bewareofaholywhore.com .  
 
Fassbinder's BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE (Warnung  vor einer heiligen Nutte) is best described as  "a multimedia adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1971 darkly comic film about the making of a film."  In the hands of Romanian director Doris Mirescu, faculty member at The School of Visual Arts and her wildly talented class of Advanced Acting students, Fassbinder's rich characterizations and deadpan blend of melodrama and pseudo-documentary style have found a thrilling new life of trash and high culture.
 
"Inaugurating the stage of the School of Visual Arts new theatre, with its criss-crossing cameras, live feed video, live music and a cast of twenty, this adaptation of Beware of a Holy Whore dramatizes a communal creative process fraught with sexual mayhem, chemical distortions and the exaltation and burden of discovering one's difference in the world," says show director Doris Mirescu.
 
DORIS MIRESCU (Director) is a Romanian born freelance director and writer, and the founder of New York-based theater company Dangerous Ground Productions. Most recent productions include Madness of Day by Maurice Blanchot and Neil LaBute's The Distance from Here, both at Tom Noonan's Paradise Factory in New York. She directed the American Premiere of Paul Solomon's Aching To Go Home at the Epic Center Theatre (Kalamazoo, Michigan) and Battle of Black and Dogs by Bernard-Marie Koltès as part of Koltès New York 2003, a festival which she also produced (Ohio Theater, New York). Additional credits include Story of Rats, her adaptation of works by French writer Georges Bataille (Chashama, New York) and the European Premiere of Les Nuits Sans Lune by French playwright Véronique Olmi (Parc de La Villette, Paris).  New York credits include: Silence of Snow (Soho Rep), Seneca's Trojan Women, Cocteau's The Handsome Hunk and Juliet Montage, a one-woman show based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (all at the Shapiro Theatre). Ms. Mirescu was three times the recipient of Etant Donnés, the French-American  Fund for the Performing Arts. She holds a Summa Cum Laude Master of Arts in French Literature from Paris-IV Sorbonne as well as an MFA in Theatre Directing from Columbia University. She is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. She is at present teaching acting and directing at The School of Visual Arts. Ms. Mirescu is currently working on Force of Evil, a piece organized around the tropes and obsessions of film noir which will be performed in the fall of 2008.
 
Chris NewMAN (Producer and Technical Supervisor) has worked on over eighty films as a production sound mixer. Those films include Tender Mercies, The World According to Garp, Philadelphia, Sophie's Choice, and Klute. He has been nominated for eight academy awards for The Godfather, The French Connection, Chorus Line, Fame, and Silence of the Lambs. Mr. Newman has won three Oscars for The Exorcist, Amadeus, and The English Patient.
 
The Cast from SVA's Advanced Acting Class Includes:
Crichton Atkinson, Katherine M. Brislin, Tonia Chavet, Marco Chierichella, Kira Davies, Patrick Flynn, Ori Gellman, David Kang, Barbara Karney, Katie Madonna Lee, Alex Ling, Michael Melcone, Francis Oberle, Peggy O'Leary, Angelica Pasquini, Luke Pendley, Rodrigo Quintero, Eric Dean Scott, William P. Smith, Paulina Von Ahlstrom, and Juliet Warren.
 
Additional production credits include: Live music/ DJ Jessica Flores; Music Consultant and Original Compositions by Michaël Attias; Lights by Jason Dirnberger; Live Camera by Richard Gartrell; Production Design by Brittany Cohn/ Greg Westby; Sound by Cory Allen; and Video consultant Joe Trammell.
 
Fassbinder's BEWARE OF A HOLY WHORE plays THURS, FRI, SAT MAY 15, 16, 17 at 8:00PM, The Visual Arts Theater, 333 West 23rd Street (between 8th and 9th ave), General Admission $15 / Students $10, Tickets and Information available by calling (212) 724-5004, and via email at do@dangerousgroundproductions.com.
 
For more information, please visit: www.Bewareofaholywhore.com.