Photos: First Look at New York Euripides Summer Festival's BACCHAE

Aiming to produce all of Euripides’ extant plays chronologically, New York Euripides Summer Festival is presenting what many consider to be Euripides’ magnum opus, BACCHAE. Produced by American Thymele Theatre (ATT) and directed by Lorca Peress, the production marks the final play by Euripides for the 14 year old annual festival. All performances are free with advance reservation at https://americanthymeletheatre.yolasite.com/news.php. 

See photos below!

In BACCHAE, Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, arrives in Thebes to avenge the slander, which has been repeated by his mortal relatives, that he is not the son of Zeus. In response, he intends to introduce Dionysian rites into the city, and he intends to demonstrate to the king, Pentheus, and to Thebes that he was indeed born a god.

"Euripides' text is gut-wrenching, melodic, and sprinkled with humorous bits," notes  Euripides Summer Festival artistic director Stephen Diacrussi. "BACCHAE tackles issues that continue to plague us today, including hubris, obsession, fanaticism, religious fervor, righteousness and envy. Through dream states and nightmares, Dionysus controls the Bacchants and the town of Thebes. We step into this fantastical world where the earth bleeds milk and what one sees is not what exists. Dionysus may be the original trickster. Contemporary percussive music with eastern influences create the heartbeat of this dramatic production replete with fantastical costuming and modern dance."

Remaining performances of BACCHAE are:
• Monday, June 26 at 8:00pm at Actors' Temple Theatre 339 (West 47th Street).
• Tuesday, June 27 at 8:00pm at AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street).
• Wednesday, June 28 at 3:00pm at AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street). 
• Wednesday, June 28 at 8:00pm at AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street). 
• Thursday, June 29 at 8:00 at AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street). 
• Friday, June 30 at 8:00 at Marilyn Monroe Theatre (115 East 15th Street).

BACCHAE stars Stephen Diacrussi, Marlene Hoffman, Elizabeth Rose, Qi Zhang, Meg Oikawa, Alisa Mironova, Arinze Okwusah, Danielle Kogan, Jody Bardin, Ted Birke, Justin Knapp, Jake Tammara, Brody Rogers, Elijah Lawrence, Amandeep Singh, Sofi Lambert and Michael Ruggiere. The production team includes Itala Aguilera (costumes and props), Kostas Kouris (original music), Jennifer Chin (Choreography), Melanie Ashby (Stage Manager), and Maya Jacob (chief production assistant).

Adhering to its aspiration in producing free Greek theater for all, ATT launched the ongoing New York Euripides Summer Festival in 2009. They have presented critically-acclaimed productions of Euripides’ Rhesus (2009), Alcestis (2010), Medea (2011), Children of Hercules (2012), Hippolytus (2013), Andromache (2014), Hecuba (2015), Cyclops (2016), The Madness of Hercules (2017), Suppliants (2018), Iphigenia among the Taurians and Daughters of Troy (2019), and, during the pandemic, the pioneering, digital productions of Helen (screened at Columbia University) and Electra (2020), Phoenician Maidens and Iphigenia at Aulis (2021). Before the pandemic, all New York Euripides Summer Festival productions premiered at the East River Park Amphitheatre (demolished in 2021) and were extended to other outdoor stages that included the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, Richard Rodgers Amphitheater,Jackie Robinson Bandshell, Almira Kennedy Coursey Amphitheater and, off-Broadway, at Theatre 500, 777 Theatre and the Stage II Theatre, in addition to indoor venues including the Chernuchin Theatre, Marilyn Monroe Theatre, Theatre 54, Glicker-Milstein Theatre, and Minor Latham Playhouse. 

Lorca Peress is a freelance theatre, opera and musical theatre director, and the founder and artistic director of MultiStages in NYC. She is an advocate for women in theatre and an equity diversity activist. Peress is a Union member of SAG-AFTRA, AEA, and SDC; a member of The National Theatre Conference, Women in Arts and Media Coalition, NYWA (New York Women Agenda), and the League of Professional Theatre Women (past co-president 2011-14). She identifies as a multicultural woman with a Puerto Rican, Sephardic Iraqi and Polish background. Peress has directed new works at Joe's Pub at The Public Theatre, The Acorn at Theatre Row, HERE, International NY Fringe Festival at the Soho Playhouse, Hudson Guild Theatre, Theatre for the New City, NJ Repertory, La MaMa, Repertorio Español, Urban Stages, and others. She directed a special music event for the Lincoln Bicentennial at Riverside Church with Ruby Dee and Sam Waterston, and a concert of the Aids Quilt Song Book at Cooper Union. She has directed university theatre for NYU Tisch, Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, and operas at Queens College for the Aaron Copland School of Music and Drama/Dance Depts. 

American Thymele Theatre (ATT) was founded in 1993 with a mission of preserving the dissemination and prominence of Hellenic culture in America. By producing plays with timeless Greek themes free-of-charge to the public, ATT has presented a unique spectrum of such works. George Kelly’s The Show-Off marked the company’s initial production, a bilingual adaptation performed at the Kraine Theater. In 1995, ATT inaugurated its Angelos Vlachos Comedy Festival, spanning for ten years, with Vlachos’ The Grocer’s Daughter, which premiered at the Frederick Loewe Theatre in New York before touring to Boston and Philadelphia in 1996, and New Jersey and Connecticut in 1997. ATT returned to Philadelphia to premiere two more Vlachos comedies for the festival, My Sober Husband and Mr. Floret’s Wife that also induced further touring. The Grocer’s Daughter had its English-language premiere in Baltimore in 1999, followed by extended tours throughout New York. ATT mounted a revival of Maxwell Anderson’s Barefoot in Athens at the Olympic Theatre in New York. It has brought a variety of never-before-staged Greek theater rarities to American audiences in many nearby and distant cities and was chosen by the Cultural Olympiad Committee in presenting its popular production of The Grocer’s Daughter as part of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. ATT premiered The Needy Barrister in St. Louis, Missouri, presented along with its acclaimed production of The Grocer’s Daughter which had now become a touring favorite. This particular repertory was brought to Phoenix, Arizona and, returning to New York, ATT staged a production of Nikos Kazantzakis’ Kouros for New York City public schools. The company presented The Petrakis Universe for the New York Public Library, under a grant from the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation that led to an encore staging at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.

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