Thornton Wilder's THE ALCESTIAD Will Be Performed Outdoors at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park This Week

Marking the lead-up to Thornton Wilder's 125 Birthday, The Magis Theatre Company's production of Wilder's The Alcestiad- A play in three acts, which was postponed from last summer due to COVID, will now be presented this June 18-20, 2021, during the summer solstice. It will be performed outdoors at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park on Roosevelt Island, against the backdrop of Manhattan's skyline, FDR's Four Freedoms Speech, and the ruins of the smallpox hospital. This production will follow all State and City directives to keep both cast and audience members safe. This production will follow all State and City directives to keep both cast and audience members safe.

Tickets are FREE but reservations are required and can be made by visiting EventBrite.com and for more information, please visit Alcestiad.com .

One of America's most lauded playwrights, Thornton Wilder's rarely performed play, The Alcestiad, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 1955, directed by Tyrone Guthrie, and is inspired by Euripides Greek tragedy Alcestis. Wilder's third-act imagines a world after Alcestis returns from the land of the dead; her kingdom is overthrown by a tyrant and is ravaged by a plague. It deals with the power of irrational fear in society at the hands of those who would seek to intimidate others brutally, in the same way that FDR's speech urges us to strive for "Freedom from Fear." The play as a whole asks questions about the meaning of human life and its relationship to the divine.

Magis Theatre has been examining and exploring this play in workshop since 2017, long before the current pandemic struck. The Alcestiad features an ensemble cast including Jeanne Castagnaro, Russ Cusick, Margi Sharp Douglas, George Drance, Jack Fadner, Kimbirdlee Fadner, Jacqueline Lucid, Tony Macht, Rachel Benbow Murdy, Gabriel Portuondo, Mae Roney, Diego Tapia, and Jenna Wyman with music by Sara Gallassini , stage management team Jennifer M. Leary and Sheree V. Campbell and production designers are GianMarco Lo Forte and Mark Tambella . T his production will be presented outdoors at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, against the Manhattan skyline and the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital Roosevelt Island in New York City.

During the shutdown, Magis Theatre Company launched an interactive website that explores the world of Thornton Wilder's The Alcestaid. For updates on this production and more information, please visit Alcestiad.com.

"This has been a very long and trying year for all of us, and although we continued to meet online as a company, we are beyond thrilled to announce that we will be performing live this summer. We chose The Alcestiad long before the pandemic, and the plague it deals with speaks to our present reality. Performing at Four Freedoms Park reminds us that there is still work to be done on "the freedom from fear" The ruins of the Smallpox Hospital reminds us of how we have made it through all this before. This play does what theatre is supposed to do - entertain audiences while reflecting the world around us. "

Magis Theatre, director George Drance .

Thornton Wilder said of The Alcestiad, "On one level, my play recounts the life of a woman-of many women-from bewildered bride to sorely tested wife to overburdened old age. On another level, it is a wildly romantic story of gods and men, of death and hell and resurrection, of great loves and great trials, of usurpation and revenge. On another level, however, it is a comedy about a very serious matter."

FOUR FREEDOMS PARK CONSERVANCY (FFPC), a nonprofit that programs the State Park, has generously incorporated this production as part of their yearly public programming schedule. FFPC's mission is to produce and welcome public programming that aligns and supports the mission to encourage discourse around the Four Freedoms: Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

MAGIS THEATRE seeks out neglected works of the past that still have something important to say to us in our present. "The Alcestiad" is one of those pieces and was brought to Magis Theatre's attention by Irene Worth in 1997. In a world where individualism and greed have been driving forces in recent years, Thornton Wilder's work celebrates the beauty of making sacrifices for the good of others and how this kind of courageous self-giving can transform society. Alcestis learning through her pain to overcome it by understanding is a theme that is crucial for us today.

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