The Foundry Theatre to Present World Premiere of W. David Hancock's MASTER

The Foundry Theatre announces the world premiere of MASTER, a new play by Obie Award winning playwright W. David Hancock (The Convention of Cartography), created in collaboration with acclaimed visual artist Wardell Milan.

Directed by Taibi Magar (Underground Railroad Game), MASTER will begin previews at the Irondale Theatre Center (85 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn) on May 25, 2017 and officially open on June 5, 2017, playing a limited engagement through June 24th. Tickets go on sale on April 3rd, and are available by visiting www.thefoundrytheatre.org.

Renowned 20th century African American artist "Uncle Jimmy" has died poor and alone; his life's work - a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn called "The Illuminated Twain" - is left behind in pieces. His estranged son James Clemens Jr. struggles to eulogize his father when he is interrupted by the arrival of Uncle Jimmy's widow, Edna Finn, self-proclaimed last living descendent of Huckleberry. Written by W. David Hancock in collaboration with visual artist Wardell Milan, MASTER exists between the language of theater and the silence of art as it confronts the inadequacy of our American stories head-on, and imagines a new freedom.

MASTER will star Mikeah Jennings (The Signature Plays) as "James" and Anne O'Sullivan as "Edna".

MASTER will feature scenic design by Marsha Ginsberg (Dolphins and Sharks), costume design by Tilly Grimes (Small Mouth Sounds), lighting design by Thomas Dunn (New Work For The Desert), sound design by Mikaal Sulaiman (Underground Railroad Game), and projections by John Narun (The Tallest Tree In The Forest).

Tickets for MASTER go on sale April 3rd and a limited number of tickets are available for $15 if you purchase prior to April 30th. Beginning May 1st, all tickets will cost $35. For seniors and students, tickets are available for PRICE with a valid ID.

MASTER will have performances Monday through Friday at 8pm and Saturdays at 3pm & 8pm. PLEASE NOTE: There will be no matinee performance on Saturday, May 27th and no performance on Monday, May 29th.

As with all Foundry shows, MASTER will include audiences from The Foundry's Audience Ambassadors program, a simple program with a radical idea: to build audiences for NYC theatre that are more reflective of the city itself. The Foundry partners with leaders from low-income communities organizing for social justice, to bring groups from their member base to theatres across NYC for free. Now in its 6th year, the Audience Ambassadors Program has brought over 1400 people to the theatre, many for the first time. At each performance, Ambassador Groups are paired with artists for a post show discussion and meal.

The Foundry was established in 1994 to assemble and support a community of artists with revolutionary ideas for the theatre and the world in which it is situated. The Foundry commissions, develops, premieres and tours new theatrical works that invite audiences to visit unexplored landscapes of thought-works that employ the limitless forms that only live theatrical events can create.

Foundry productions challenge the power of live performance to provoke considerations of the social, political, and cultural discourses that inform our everyday lives. Each project explores the (im)possibilities of theatre, and The Foundry's body of work constitutes passionate argument for its limitless imaginative potential.

Simultaneously, The Foundry hosts public Dialogues and community programs that bring artists together with other community stakeholders to formulate new questions for our changing times. Dialogues sometimes seed new commissioned works and/or function as research sites in the development of new commissions.

Foundry productions have toured nationally and internationally and have been honored with 12 Obie Awards and 7 Drama Desk nominations, including three for "Unique Theatrical Experience."?The Foundry has been recognized for its hybrid programming with TCG's national Peter Zeisler Award for Innovative Practice and Dedication to Freedom of Expression and for having twice been awarded the special Ross Wetzsteon Obie "creating cutting edge work and engaging artists in some of the thorniest issues of the world we inhabit."

The Foundry is an ongoing performance of ideas, created by rigorous theatrical works, public dialogues and community programs that invite as many people as possible to consider what it means to be citizens of this world. For more information, visit thefoundrytheatre.org.

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