TNC's 2016 Dream Up Festival to Present ABOUT CLARENCE AND ME

Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival Presents
"About Clarence and Me"
A Story About Race, Love and Music Performed on the Bench of a Grand Piano

While the world becomes more globalized and intersectional, there are still generational boundaries that can affect communication between individuals. In "About Clarence and Me," a play written by Walter Jones with an original piano score by Scott Hiltzik, these problems are addressed and explored through an unlikely relationship between a retired African-American man, Clarence, and a young white piano tutor, Sam. This relationship begins as business but soon blossoms into a lifelong friendship, with both individuals communicating and learning from one another in ways they could never have foreseen. Walter Jones will direct.

The play begins when struggling pianist Sam finds himself giving lessons to the elderly Clarence, a retired black man seeking to learn the instrument in order to play Christmas songs for his family. From rocky beginnings, the two soon form a relationship that challenges the traditional ideas of the mentor-student trope. While Clarence is determined to become Sam's best student and respects and follows his musical expertise, Sam finds himself looking to Clarence's many years of experience for advice on his floundering love-life and visions of career and success. Intersectional themes of race and love and the ways we view them as we grow and mature are present throughout, coming to life through a relationship forged on the bench of a grand piano.

Walter Jones is a New York writer and director with a 40 year long career in theater, film, and television. His play "Jazznite" was performed at the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Institute. He was a writer on Bud Yorkin's sitcom "What's Happening?" and a term writer for Norman Lear.

The play is underscored by an original piano composition by Scott Hiltzik. Hiltzik is a Grammy-nominated composer and his music has been performed by numerous orchestras both statewide and internationally. The Sydney Symphony performed his work at the Sydney Opera House. Hiltzik has composed the score for three musical plays, "About Clarence and Me" being the fourth to add to this growing list. He is a passionate educator, and is currently working on a series of educational CDs for beginning piano and jazz students. www.scotthiltzik.com

WHERE AND WHEN:
August 28 at 2:00 PM, August 29 at 9:00 PM, August 30 at 9:00 PM, August 31 at 6:30 PM, September 3 at 5:00 PM, September 4 at 5:00 PM, September 6 at 9:00 PM.
Community Theater, Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. (at East 10th Street)
Presented by Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) as part of the Dream Up Festival 2016.
Ticket Price: $18.00
Box office: (212) 254-1109, www.dreamupfestival.org
Runs for 1:30. Reviewers are invited to all performances.

The seventh annual Dream Up Festival (www.dreamupfestival.org) is dedicated to new works. Presented by Theater for the New City, the Festival will run from August 28 to September 18, 2016 and will feature a variety of original dramas, comedies, musicals, adaptations and experimental plays. The Festival celebrates the arts in a time when cultural and arts funding is in sharp decline due to a number of social and market forces. Now an East Village tradition, it challenges the audience to reflect on the innovative and imaginative ways that they interact with the theater.

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