The American Vicarious to Present SHOOTING CELEBRITIES

the american vicarious will present the world premiere of Shooting Celebrities by John Ransom Phillips, a multidisciplinary artist equally celebrated for his painting and writing. Directed by Founding Artistic Director Christopher McElroen, the production stars Julia Watt as Mary Lincoln, wife of President Abraham Lincoln, and Gene Gillette (To Kill a Mockingbird) as Mathew Brady, America's first celebrity photographer. Performances begin April 21 at The Flea Theater (20 Thomas St, Manhattan), with an opening set for April 28, for a limited run through May 22. Tickets are now on sale at www.theamericanvicarious.org.

Mathew Brady's camera, it was claimed, made all who sat before it famous. In Shooting Celebrities, a limited audience is seated in the round in Brady's celebrity-makers studio where they meet a cast of iconic Americans. Memorialized under the focus of Brady's lens, they guide the audience through multiple perspectives of the American self. But it is the principal visitor, Mary Lincoln, who combats expectation and grief while seeking to achieve, at long last, an honest portrait of her true self, and thus rewriting American history, which has branded her the overdressed crazy widow of America's Greatest President.

McElroen commented, "The struggle of individualism versus collectivism rests at the heart of John Ransom Phillips' Shooting Celebrities. The piece uses the long lens of history, pitting Mary Lincoln against photographer Mathew Brady, in an almost irreverent fashion. It is a highly visual yet rather intimate exploration of American identity: the authority possessed by a few to label the individual, versus the power of the individual to define themself.

Shooting Celebrities is the first collaboration between multidisciplinary artist John Ransom Phillips and director Christopher McElroen.

The creative team for Shooting Celebrities includes Neal Wilkinson (Scenic Design), Elivia Bovenzi (Costume Designer), Lucrecia Briceno (Lighting Design), Andy Evan Cohen (Sound Designer), Eamonn Farrell (Video Design), Sheila Burgel (Music Curation), Kyra Bowie (Production Stage Manager), and Erica Laird (Producer).

Thirty-two performances of Shooting Celebrities will take place April 21 - May 22, 2022, at The Flea Theater, located at 20 Thomas St in Manhattan. The performance schedule is Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7pm and Saturdays & Sundays at 3pm. Critics are welcome as of April 23 for an opening on April 28. Tickets, priced at $35, can be purchased online at www.theamericanvicarious.org. The anticipated running time is 85 minutes with no intermission.

The american vicarious' programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

About the Artists

John Ransom Phillips (playwright) is a multidisciplinary artist who has been working in the art world for decades. He lives and works in New York but has spent significant periods of time in Belgium, Egypt, Italy, and Judea. After receiving his BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute and PhD at the University of Chicago, the California-born Phillips began his tenure as both a professional artist and professor, teaching the history of culture at the University of Chicago. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley and Reed College, Portland. Over the years, Phillips has developed a direct yet spiritual approach in self-expression, which underpins his art. Working across various media - painting, film, theatre, and prose - he engages history. From Renaissance painter Pinturicchio to photographer Mathew Brady to Chairman Mao's wife, Jiang Ching, Phillips explores their dreams, and for many, their secret wishes and desires. He has spent his life learning to see the larger connections between images and ideas interpreted within the legacy of symbolism. Drawing on memory and lived emotions that have followed him throughout his career, strong connections to past lives, their spirituality and energy guide his work. Phillips has written nine books. Among them, Ransoming Mathew Brady, and Bed as Autobiography. His latest book, Sleeping Presidents was published in 2021. His paintings have been exhibited worldwide. His recent series, Lives of Artists showed both with the Boca Raton Museum of Art and BlackBook Presents, New York. Theatre works by Phillips include Eve & Adam, Fatherless Sons, Mrs. Mao, and his most current work, Shooting Celebrities.

Christopher McElroen (Director) is the Founding Artistic Director of the american vicarious. Most recently, Christopher directed Debate: Baldwin -V- Buckley, a staging of the historic clash between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley Jr, Negative Liberty/Positive Liberty and Static Apnea (2020), two socially distanced performance installation at The Invisible Dog, Brooklyn. He developed and directed Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation in collaboration with four-time Grammy Award nominee, Gerald Clayton, which will be presented at Harlem Stage in May 2022. Christopher received a 2013 Helen Hayes Award for his direction of the world premiere stage adaptation of Ralph Ellison's iconic novel Invisible Man. Alongside visual artist Paul Chan and Creative Time, Christopher co-produced and directed Waiting for Godot in New Orleans, a yearlong community development through the arts initiative in post-Katrina New Orleans. The archives from the production have been acquired into the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). Christopher had the honor of directing the world-premiere of 51st (dream) State, the final work of poet, musician and activist Sekou Sundiata. 51st (dream) State was a multimedia exploration of American empire that premiered in New York at The Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. Christopher co-founded the Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH) where from 1999 - 2009 he oversaw 41 productions yielding 18 AUDELCO Awards, 6 OBIE Awards, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, and a Drama Desk Award.

Gene Gillette (Actor, Camera, Mathew Brady) Broadway: To Kill a Mockingbird. Broadway National Tours: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and War Horse both for The National Theatre. Regional: Macbeth with Frances McDormand at Berkeley Rep, Claudius in Hamlet and the World Premiere of Gertrude and Claudius both at Orlando Shakes, Pale in Burn This at Shakespeare Santa Cruz and, most recently, co-creator of Hymn to Liberty at The Philippi Theatre Festival in Kavala, Greece. TV: The Punisher, Elementary, The Blacklist, The Good Wife, Instinct and Quantico.

Julia Watt (Actress, Chair, Mary Lincoln) New York credits include: the american vicarious; A.R.T./New York, The Public Theater/Under the Radar Festival; La Mama ETC; Invisible Dog Arts Center; WNYC Greene Space; New York Shakespeare Exchange; New Ohio Theatre; Iati Theater; Guild Hall. Regional Credits include: Huntington Theatre (Boston); Court Theatre (Chicago); Studio Theatre (DC); A Noise Within (LA); PCPA Theaterfest (CA). As a company member for three seasons at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, she appeared in 15 productions with favorite roles in Titus Andronicus, Noises Off and Miss Julie. Her work as a resident artist with the box collective includes co-directing Hurricane Sleep; 116: A Shakespeare Play; Wild Horses. International credits include devising and performing Static Apnea at the Performance Arcade in Wellington, NZ & the Deep Anatomy Festival in Auckland, NZ. TV/Film: Alpha House, Amy Makes Three, Brewsie & Willie, Waiting Here. MFA: Alabama Shakespeare Festival. BA in Theatre: University of Southern California.

About the american vicarious

the american vicarious, under Artistic Director Christopher McElroen and Producing Director Erica Laird, was formally incorporated in 2018 and is committed to producing creative content across disciplinary boundaries that aspires to reflect on America's ideals and realities, and that which unites and divides its people. Recent projects include NY Times Critic's Pick STATIC APNEA (2020), Jaymes Jorsling's (A)loft Modulation, Gerald Clayton's concert installation Piedmont Blues: A Search for Salvation, and Sherief Elkatsha's documentary film Rhythm of the Nile.

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