James Clements' THE DIANA TAPES To Receive NYC Premiere At HERE

What Will the Neighbors Say will present the New York Premiere of James Clements' THE DIANA TAPES, directed by Wednesday Sue Derrico (HVMLET for She NYC Arts Festival) at HERE(145 6th Avenue), May 24-June 10. Performances will run Tuesday through Saturday at 7pm, with matinee performances on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets ($25/$15 for under 30 & seniors) are available for purchase in advance at www.thedianatapes.com. The performance will run approximately 70 minutes, with no intermission. This production is part of SubletSeries@HERE, a curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.

The Diana Tapes presents the true story of one of the greatest media scandals in British history - the publication of Andrew Morton's book about Princess Diana, which ended her marriage and shook the monarchy to its core. Based on the real transcripts from the Princess' tapes, the show moves between Morton's office, the sitting room where the Princess recorded her darkest secrets onto cassettes, and the dingy West London cafe where one of her best friends surreptitiously handed them over. The subterfuge and deception are brought to a scorching climax that changed celebrity, privacy, and the Windsor family forever. The question remains: who was the victim, and who the victor The production gives voice to a woman so often defined by images and archetypes, and instead presents her complex and multifaceted reality. It exemplifies the mission of WWTNS to present new angles on misrepresented stories.

The Diana Tapes was workshopped at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it was featured in the Daily Mail, The Evening Times and the Scotsman , in addition to STV and BBC Radio, and was shortlisted for the Holden Street Theatre Award. Subsequent workshop runs in Providence, New York and Toronto were met with acclaim, with critics calling the production "intricate and compelling," ( BroadwayWorld) "entrancing," ( Motif) "tense and provocative," ( The Providence Journal) and "timely and relevant" ( Mooney on Theatre ) .

JAMES CLEMENTS (Playwright) is an interdisciplinary theatre maker and actor based between New York and Scotland. His techniques merge voice, movement and text to create socio-cultural dialogues on stage and between creatives. Clements has worked with a diverse range of artists, including Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kate Whoriskey, and the Talking Band, and has appeared at venues including La MaMa, IRT, and WOW Café Theatre. Clements has been on the creative team for projects at Lincoln Center LCT3, The Public Theatre, and the American Theatre of Actors, and his original plays have been performed in cities across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. He is an affiliated instructor for Drama at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and Co-Artistic Director of What Will the Neighbors Say a new theatre company with a mission to provoke questions through untold stories. In 2015, Clements received a grant from Donn Russell of the Peg Sandvoort Foundation for the development of new work.

WEDNESDAY SUE DERRICO (Director) is a director, performer, producer, and arts manager based in New York. Recent credits include co-directing HVMLET, an original adaptation for the She NYC Arts Festival, producing Sophie Amieva's Medusa at Happy Lucky No.1, and producing/casting/art directing the independent feature film Santamaria directed by Alex Cherney. Derrico has appeared and created at venues including the Park Avenue Armory, IRT Theatre, the Connelly Theater, and WOW Café Theatre. Derrico, who is the Co-Founding Artistic Director of Production Company Experimental Bitch Presents (www.experimentalbitchpresents.com), dedicates her life to personal, political art and establishing platforms for diverse creators from all walks of life.

WHAT WILL THE NEIGHBORS SAY is a new theatre company based in New York City with a mission to provoke questions through untold stories. WWTNS creates theatre that examines historical, social, political and economic narratives that have been disregarded, misrepresented, or otherwise untold in order to provoke discourse in our audience and community. WWTNS maintains a consistent commitment to diversity, arts education, community outreach, and artistic experimentation. www.wwtns.org

HERE builds a community that nurtures career artists as they create innovative hybrid live performance in theatre, dance, music, puppetry, media and visual art. Their artist residencies support the singular vision of the lead artist through commissions, long-term development, and production support. H ERE 's programs and performances promote relationships among local, national, and International Artists. HERE's space is a destination for audiences who are passionate about ground-breaking contemporary work and the creative process behind it. www.here.org

Photo: What Will the Neighbors Say? Co-Artistic Directors James Clements, Jorge Morales Picó, Ana Cristina Schuler, and Sam Hood Adrain Photo credit: Pablo Calderón-Santiago

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