The Russian Arts Theater and Studio's THE MASTER AND MARGARITA Begins Tonight

The Russian Arts Theater and Studio (TRATS) continues its 2016/17 season with The Master and Margarita, based on Mikhail Bulgakov's extraordinary novel. A new adaptation written and directed by renowned Muscovite director Aleksey Burago, this production features long-time TRATS collaborators and actors, including Charles Anderson, Michael Donaldson, Toni Goldman, Perikles Mandinga, Luisa Menzen, Ariel Polanco, Ingrid Wheately, Christopher Zach, and Di Zhu.

The production will take place at the West End Theater, located inside the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew at 263 W86th Street (Off Broadway).

Preview performances will begin at 8PM tonight, July 19th to July 21st, 2016. The Master and Margarita will run from July 22nd to August 28th, 2016, Tuesdays through Sundays at 8PM.

All seats $25.00. Tickets can be purchased online at www.masterandmargarita.eventbrite.com. Patrons wishing to purchase tickets at the box office may do so after July 1st, 2016. For more ticketing questions, please call 718-457-1073.

Written in secrecy during the darkest period of Stalin's reign, The Master and Margarita is part love story, part phantasmagoria, and part biting satire. On a hot spring day, The Devil pays a visit to Moscow. His retinue includes a naked witch, a fanged assassin, a vodka swigging black cat, and a slew of other dazzling characters who soon wreak havoc among the cultural elite. But The Devil's mission quickly becomes entangled with the fate of the Master - a writer who has turned his back on his former life and taken refuge in a lunatic asylum - and his past lover, Margarita, who decides to sell her soul to save him.

Artistic Director Aleksey Burago brings his distinct style to The Master and Margarita. His lastest production of Avenue of Wonder epitomizes the Burago aesthetic: elegant and dream-like, at times eccentrically chaotic, and oftentimes extremely physical. "I wanted to stage The Master and Margarita because we are still living in a world where good people are quitely destroyed by routine, bureaucracy and corruption. Now more than ever, I believe we all have a secret longing for some kind of magic in our lives, " said Burago.

Burago is a former protege of Russian stage director Pyotr Fomenko and famous for his work in Russia, most notably at the Hermitage Theater and Aleksandrinka Theater (Beyond Recognition), Moscow TV (Queen of Spades), Youth Theater (The Emperor's New Clothes, Stoned), Interatelier Theater (Fandor and Liz), and The Baltic House Theater (Camille). Among his productions in New York are Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, The Seagull, The Bear, My Uncle Chekhov, Avenue of Wonder, and Lady with a Lapdog, with Jokes and a Happy Ending. Burago is currently on faculty at the HB Studio and is also the Director-in-Residence at Bilkent Universtiy in Ankara, Turkey.

Please note The Master and Margarita is not suitable for children under the ages of 10. For more information, please visit www.russiantheater.org.

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