Brave New World Rep Premieres Charles L. Mee's THE IMMORTALS in Brooklyn Tonight

Brooklyn's acclaimed Brave New World Repertory Theatre will present the world premiere of THE IMMORTALS, a trilogy of one-act plays by legendary Brooklyn playwright Charles L. Mee, presented over three weeks, tonight, May 11, through May 26 at Glasshouse, a unique art/performance space in Williamsburg, including five free performances open to the public.

THE IMMORTALS imagines the lives of iconic artists Matisse, Van Gogh and Picasso, masterfully creating a literary collage of their words and those of their contemporaries. A two-time Obie award-winner, Mee brings to vivid life their common nonconformity with the great humor, insight and genuine respect of a writer whose plays are their own inimitable genre. With tongue in cheek, Mee affectionately sends up Sondeim's Sunday in the Park with George and countless other plays and biopics that exploit the cliché of the artist's struggles with poverty, self-absorption, and the muse.

"It's incredibly exciting for Brave New World Rep (BNW) to be the first company to bring THE IMMORTALS to life," says Claire Beckman, BNW's producing artistic director and co-founder. "Chuck Mee has been a dear friend to BNW, having championed our work since he saw To Kill a Mockingbird in 2005. Chuck's work is unlike any other playwright's; he samples from historical texts, illuminates figures from history and then generously shares his prolific body of work, copyright-free on his website. I see so much of him in the characters of the painters, who were compelled to create art in new forms and genres, regardless of being understood or mainstream."

Glasshouse is a perfect venue for these plays about artists, says Beckman. "Williamsburg is home to thousands of painters and sculptors, so presenting these plays at Glasshouse, the art-life-lab of artists Lital Dotan & Eyal Perry, continues our immersive mission. They are dedicated to hosting artistic practices that are based on performance, participation and time-based art."

IF YOU GO:

Brave New World Presents the World Premiere of
THE IMMORTALS by Charles L. Mee

May 11 at 7:00pm Matisse & Picasso (FREE Preview)
May 12 at 7:00pm Matisse, Van Gogh & Picasso (Opening Night BNW Members only)
May 21 & 22 at 7:00pm Matisse & Van Gogh FREE TO THE PUBLIC by reservation
May 25 & 26 at 8:00pm Picasso and Van Gogh FREE TO THE PUBLIC by reservation

At Glasshouse Art/Life/Lab in Williamsburg, 246 Union Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Directions: L (Lorimer), G (Broadway), M & J (Hewes)

For tickets, visit bravenewworld.org for reservations and more information.

Cast of THE IMMORTALS:

Dan Sturges as Matisse
Oliver Wadsworth* as Van Gogh
Juan Carlos Pinedo as Picasso
with: Ann Flanigan, Craig A. Grant, Eric Gravez, Anita Hollander*, Melissa Joyner, MichaelLongo, Catherine Mancuso, John Edmond Morgan*, Michael Moss, Al-nisa Petty, Stacey Rae-Allen, Eleanor Ruth*, Caroline Ryburn*, Nathalie Thomas, Ian Whitt and Amanda Gookin on cello.

PRODUCTION TEAM:

Produced by Claire Beckman
Production Stage Manager: Brittany Giles-Jones*
Choreography: Chelsea Gregory and Traci Tolmaire
Costume Design: Martina Nevermann and Lucy Gwathmey
Lighting: Jason Fok
Projection Design: Lital Dotan
Production Design: John Morgan

Charles L. Mee - Playwright. Recently performed in NYC: The Glory of the World at BAM in 2016 and Big Love at the Signature Theatre in 2015. His plays, available at charlesmee.org have also been performed at New York Theatre Workshop, The Public, Lincoln Center, the Humana Festival, Steppenwolf, American Repertory Theatre, and in Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Vienna, Istanbul. Among other awards, he is the recipient of the Award of Merit in drama from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Jackie Alexander - Director, Matisse's Self Portrait: actor, writer, director, whose debut film, Joy, was honored with a Best Feature Film Award by The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. A produced Off-Broadway playwright, his debut novel, Our Daily Bread, was published by Turner publishing in 2012.

Rebecca Martinez - Director, Van Gogh's Sunflowers: actor, director, choreographer whose work focuses on audience connectivity. Co-Curator of Working Theater Directors Salon, a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, INTAR's Unit52, and the SDCF Observership Class. Awards include the Lilla Jewel Award for Women Artists.

Claire Beckman - Director, Picasso's Masterpiece: producing artistic director/co-founder of BNW. Directing includes: Street Scene, (named #22 of 25 top stage plays of 2013 by L Magazine,) The Crucible (NY Magazine Critic's Pick,) The Tempest, To Kill a Mockingbird, Off Broadway: includes title role in Bella Belle of Byelorussia directed by Christopher Ashley for WPA. Films include The Door in the Floor starring Jeff Bridges and The Thing About My Folks starring Peter Falk. More at clairebeckman.com

Over the past eleven years in Brooklyn, Brave New World Rep has carved out a site-specific niche presenting re-envisioned classics and works by Brooklyn playwrights. Recent work includes free performances of Elmer Rice's Street Scene, in which the company closed off a street in Park Slope and used a tenement building and the adjacent street as the stage, and Orson Welles' Moby Dick-Rehearsed, presented on a barge in Red Hook The company earned its reputation of delivering unexpectedly immersive works to communities all around Brooklyn, beginning with its 2005 production of To Kill a Mockingbird, presented on the front porches and sidewalks of a tree-lined Ditmas Park street. Other work includes On The Waterfront on a Brooklyn barge that toured the waterfronts of New York Bay, The Tempest on the beach and boardwalk in Coney Island, and The Crucible by lantern light for two weeks at The Old Stone House in Park Slope. Based in Brooklyn, Brave New World Repertory has been a featured favorite of Celebrate Brooklyn at the Prospect Park band shell, presenting acclaimed productions of Fahrenheit 451, The Great White Hope and Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, based on Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

* Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association

To post a comment, you must register and login.