La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club has announced that the New York premiere of Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws by Tennessee Williams and directed by Jonathan Warman, will begin performances Thursday, October 27, at 10pm, at The Club at La MaMa, (74A E 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery). Direct from a sold-out run at the 2011 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, produced by Creative Concept Productions, Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws will play October 27-November 13, 2011.
Society matrons and street hustlers intent on enjoying a cocktail-laden lunch break into song-and-dance numbers as apocalypse approaches. The production features John Waters phenomenon Mink Stole, as society lady Madge, together with Everett Quinton, a core member of Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company, as a lecherous and prophetic restaurant manager. Erin Markey (NIGHT MOTHER with Cole Escola and Kenny Mellman, Jeffery and Cole Casserole, and her solo musical, Puppy Love: A Stripper's Tail), who made a sensation last season in the New York premiere of Williams's Green Eyes, plays a pregnant waitress who serves up a side dish of attitude.
The remainder of the cast of Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws is Regina Bartkoff (Love, Medea, Struck/Break); Joseph Keckler (Stuck Elevator at the Sundance Theater Lab, John Moran's experimental opera Saori's Birthday, You Will Experience Silence, Jobz, Human Jukebox, A Voice and Nothing More); Max Steele (You Will Experience Silence, Jeffery and Cole Casserole); and Charles Schick (The Strangest Kind of Romance, Back Bog Beast Bait , Humanity at The Living Theatre, Love, Medea).
Mink Stole's career as an actor began nearly 45 years ago, when she was introduced to John Waters in Provincetown in the summer of 1966. She has since appeared in 13 films directed by Mr. Waters, creating such roles as Connie Marble in Pink Flamingos, Taffy Davenport in Female Trouble, and Dottie Hinkle in Serial Mom. Among her non-John Waters roles, she has played Natasha Lyonne's mom in Jamie Babbit's But I'm a Cheerleader, and a bible-addled death row inmate in Steve Balderson's Stuck! In last year's All About Evil, directed by Joshua Grannell, she was Evelyn, the too-talkative librarian, and this year she continued her recurring role as Aunt Helen in installments Four and Five of the popular Eating Out film series by Q. Alan Brocka. On stage, Mink was lucky to have the chance to work on two shows with the late, great Charles Ludlam, Love's Tangles Web, and Secret Lives of the Sexists. She worked with the legendary Cockettes in the early 1970s. More recently, she appeared as Autolycus in the L.A. Women's Shakespeare Company's production of The Winter's Tale, a role which led her to her new passion, music. With her Wonderful Band (West Coast and East Coast editions) for the last few years she has been performing a cabaret act, Do Re MiNK, and her Christmas show. She is currently working on her first CD.
Everett Quinton has recently appeared in The Witch of Edmonton at Red Bull Theater, as Florence Wexler in Devil Boys from Beyond at New World Stages, as Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C., and as Jacob Marley in The McCarter Theatre's A Christmas Carol. Everett is also a member of Cleveland State University's Summer Stages where he appeared as Madam Rosepettle in O Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad. Everett previously appeared at Red Bull Theater in Women Beward Women (2008 Callaway Award, Best Actor). Everett was a member of The Ridiculous Theatrical Company and served as its Artistic Director from 1987-1997. He has appeared in Charles Ludlam's Medea, The Secret Lives of the Sexists, Salammbo, Galas, The Artificial Jungle and the original production of The Mystery of Irma Vep (Obie and Drama Desk Award). He was also seen in Georg Osterman's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Brother Truckers (Bessie Award); Richard and Michael Simon's Murder at Minsing Manor (Drama League Award); as well as in his own plays: Carmen, Linda, Movieland, A Tale of Two Cities (Obie Award), and Call Me Sarah Bernhardt. Everett has directed revivals of Charles Ludlam's Big Hotel, Camille, Der Ring Gott Farblonjet and How to Write a Play. He also directed Brother Truckers (in New York, London and as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Carmen, Sebastian Stewart's Under the Kerosene Moon, as well as The Beaux Stratagem at the Yale Rep and Treasure Island at the Omaha Theatre for Young People. Film and TV credits include Natural Born Killers, Big Business, Deadly Illusion, Forever Lulu, "Miami Vice" and "Law & Order."
Director Jonathan Warman's New York theatre credits include Andru's Head at NeoNeo Theatre (new musical, featuring Brooke Elliott from Lifetime's "Drop Dead Diva"), J. Stephen Brantley's Struck / Break (Emerging Artists Theatre), American Fabulous (NeoNeo Theatre). International credits: Dreams Reoccurring (Clubul CFR, Iasi, Romania and Nu Festival, Timisoara, Romania), Break (Dublin Gay Theatre Festival). Regional: Murray Mednick's Heads (Omaha Magic Theatre), The Strangest Kind of Romance (2009 Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival, with national tour). Notable assistant credits: Stage Directors & Choreographers Society 50th Anniversary Gala (Assistant to SDC Board President Karen Azenberg), Three Sisters (La MaMa ETC, dir. Richard Schechner), Rosencrantz si Guildenstern sunt Morti (Teatru National Vasile Alecsandri, Iasi, Romania, dir. Ovidiu Lazar). He has served as Artistic Director of NeoNeo Theatre Company and Literary Manager for Access Theater, and is conceiver of White City, a new musical with music and lyrics by Pete Townshend of The Who, currently in development.
Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws has choreography by Liz Piccoli (Erotic Broadway, Crazy Sexy Disco) and original music by Trystan Trazon (www.myspace.com/trystantrazon).
The scenic design for Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws is by Jonathan Collins (Greenwood, Awesome Allie, associate set designer for Lysistrata Jones and Everyday Rapture); costume design is by Karl Ruckdeschel (Vital Theatre's The Country Wife, associate costume designer on Rock of Ages and Avenue Q); lighting design is by Yuriy Nayer (The Mire, Colored People's Time, assistant designer on The Shaggs and The Night Watcher).
The stage manager is Allison Carroll; dramaturg is Thomas Keith; assistant director is Jonathan Chang; production consultant is Adam Weinstock.
La MaMa's 50th season has been titled "Homecomings" as it will be comprised of more 40 productions by a wide array of artists whose work has been performed at La MaMa through the years, along with resident and international companies, and emerging artists who will make La MaMa their 'home' for the first time.
La MaMa is a remarkable arts institution with a world-wide reputation for producing cutting-edge work in theater, dance, performance art, and music. Founded in 1961 by theater pioneer and legend, Ellen Stewart, La MaMa has produced and presented more than 3,000 theatrical productions to date and is a vital part of the fabric of cultural life in New York City and around the world.
La MaMa provides a supportive home for artists and takes risks on unknown work. Artists such as Sam Shepard, Lanford Wilson, Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Harvey Fierstein, Blue Man Group, David and Amy Sedaris, -and others whose names you haven't heard of yet - began their careers at La MaMa.
International artists introduced to America by La MaMa include Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Kazuo Ohno and, more recently, the acclaimed Belarus Free Theatre.La MaMa has been honored with more than 30 OBIE Awards, dozens of Drama Desk and Bessie Awards, and, in 2006, Ellen Stewart was recognized with a special TONY Award for "Excellence in the Theatre."
Now the Cats With Jewelled Claws plays Thursday through Saturday at 10pm, with a Sunday performance at 5:30pm, at The Club at La MaMa, 74A East Fourth Street at Second Avenue. General admission tickets are $18; student/senior tickets are $13. For tickets and information, visit
lamama.org or phone 212-475-7710.
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