OBIE-winning theater company Hoi Polloi (Three Pianos, Shadows) presents Quiet, Comfort, a newly-commissioned text by Japanese phenomenon playwright Toshiki Okada.
For the piece, director Alec Duffy fashions a dream world in which the audience joins the actors on a giant bed that fills the entire stage of JACK for a piece about travel, first-world privilege and the danger of a life lived alone. With choreography by Stacy Grossfield, Hoi Polloi offers a mysterious experience that aims for the subconscious.
Performances run tonight, August 11, through August 27 (Open for review beginning August 13). Tickets: $18 (previews: $15), in advance at www.jackny.org. Performances will run at JACK, located at 505 ½ Waverly Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238. Take the C or G train to Clinton-Washington.
Playwright:
Toshiki Okada
English translation by Aya Ogawa
Director:
Alec Duffy
Performers:
Julian Rozzell, Jr. (August 11 - 20), Stacey
Karen Robinson (August 23 - 27) and Lelia Goldoni
Choreography: Stacy Grossfield
Set Design:
Amy Rubin
Lighting Design:
Amith Chandrashaker
Costume Design:
Dede Ayite
Sound Design: Steven Leffue
PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE:
Thursday, August 11 at 8 pm (Preview - $15 tix)
Friday, August 12 at 8 pm (Preview - $15 tix)
Saturday, August 13 at 8 pm
Wednesday, August 17 at 8 pm
Thursday, August 18 at 8 pm
Friday, August 19 at 8 pm
Saturday, August 20 at 8 pm
Tuesday, August 23 at 8 pm
Wednesday, August 24 at 8 pm
Thursday, August 25 at 8 pm
Friday, August 26 at 8 pm
Saturday, August 27 at 8 pm
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Hoi Polloi is an OBIE-winning
New York-based collaborative theater company formed in 2007 by director
Alec Duffy. The company creates original work that strives to explore how we, as Americans, come together and how we fall apart. Hoi Polloi is also dedicated to collaborating with the most imaginative of today's playwrights and of interpreting older work. Recent work includes, at JACK, Republic, Beckett Solos and Shadows, and at the Incubator Arts Project, All Hands,Three Pianos and The less we talk.
Alec Duffy (Director) is an OBIE-winning theater-maker and founder of the theater company Hoi Polloi and of the performance venue JACK. Recent directorial work includes Our Planet, Shadows, Baal, All Hands, and The less we talk and Murder in the Cathedral. He was one of three creator/performers of Three Pianos. Duffy is a Drama League Directing Fellow. He studied at
Duke University and at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq.
Toshiki Okada (Playwright) is a Japanese playwright and director, who, in 1997, founded the theater company chelfitsch to present world premieres of his work. He is known for his use of hyper-colloquial language in his plays and, as a director, for his unique choreography. In 2005, he won the prestigious Kishida Prize for Drama (the Japanese version of the Tony Award) for his play, Five Days in March. As the representative of his country, he took part in Stuecke'06 International Literature Project and in December of the same year, he presented Enjoy at New National Theatre, Tokyo. In 2007, his collection of two novels, The End of the Special Time We Were Allowed, was published, and was awarded the Kenzaburo Oe Prize. In recent years, Okada has drawn the attention of not only the theater world and the contemporary dance scene, but also the fine arts and literary worlds. His work has been presented internationally at the Nam June Paik Art Center (Seoul), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago), Kunsten Festival des Arts (Brussels), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), and Festival d'Automne (Paris). His stories and plays have been translated into many languages and published abroad. In 2009, his piece Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and The Farewell Speechpremiered in Berlin, in co-production with Hebbel Am Ufer (Berlin). As Okada continues touring new work with his company chelfitsch, his work is increasingly produced in English-language versions by American companies, including Pig Iron Theater Company, PlayCo and Witness Relocation. His play, The Sonic Life of a Giant Tortoise, was produced by PlayCo at JACK in June 2014.
Julian Rozzell, Jr. (Actor: August 13 - 20) Rozzell's
New York acting credits include (at
The Public Theater) Stew and
Heidi Rodewald's The Total Bent and
Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home From the Wars, directed by
Jo Bonney. His collaborations with Duffy include Murder in the Cathedral (The Church of St. Joseph, Brooklyn), Baal (JACK), Shadows (The Collapsable Hole), andOur Planet (Japan Society). Regional theater: The Piano Lessonat The Arden Theater, and No Exit with Imago Theater Company. Television: recurring role on "Boardwalk Empire" as Harlan opposite
Steve Buscemi, "Law and Order," "The Breaks" and "Person of Interest."
Stacey
Karen Robinson (Actor: August 23 - 17) is an actress and writer. Theatre credits includeThe Fizzles at JACK with Piehole, and appearances at HERE, PS 122, and Perseverance Theatre. Performances of her solo show Quiet Frenzy include: JACK, the Wild Project and Dixon Place. Quiet Frenzy is published in solo/black/woman (
Northwestern University Press, 2013). She has also appeared in numerous NY workshops and staged readings, including performances with Rising Circle, New Georges, the Classical Theatre of Harlem,
New Dramatists, INTAR,
The Public Theater, the Women's Project and the Lark. She studied in the Actor Training Program of the Juilliard School and received a BA from Brown University in Afro-American Studies.
Lelia Goldoni (Actor) is best known for co-starring in
John Cassavetes' groundbreaking film Shadows (1959) and playing the best friend of
Ellen Burstyn's character in
Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974). She appeared in a number of motion pictures and television shows starting in the late-1940s, including uncredited cameo roles in
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's House of Strangers (1949),
John Huston's We Were Strangers (1949) and The Italian Job (1969). She costarred on the episode "Fair Exchange" of the British television series Danger Man (1964) with Patrick MacGoohan. In 2010, she appeared in the miniseries The Pacific as Dora Basilone.
Quiet, Comfort is supported by the Japan Foundation through the Performing Arts JAPAN program and is made possible in part by the Puffin Foundation and by the
New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor
Andrew Cuomo and the
New York State Legislature.
JACK's programming is made possible by the
New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Councilmember Laurie Cumbo, by the
New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor
Andrew Cuomo and the
New York State Legislature, by The DuBose and
Dorothy Heyward Memorial Fund, the Mental Insight Foundation and by The
Nathan Cummings Foundation.
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