Waterwell Dives Into AMERICAS OFF BROADWAY At 59E59 Theaters With The World Premiere Of #9, Previews Begin 6/5

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) is proud to welcome NYC’s own Waterwell to the Americas Off Broadway festival with the NYC premiere of #9, devised by Waterwell and directed by Tom Ridgely with music composed by Lauren Cregor and Waterwell and choreography by Monica Bill Barnes.  #9 begins previews on Friday, June 5 for a
limited engagement through Sunday, June 28.  Opening Night is Thursday, June 11 at 8:30 PM.  The performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:30 PM, Wednesday - Saturday at 8:30 PM; Sunday at 3:30 and 7:30 PM. Please note there is no performance on Sunday, June 14 at 3:30 PM. The regular ticket price is $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members).  Sundays at 7:30 PM are only $9.   Tickets are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at www.ticketcentral.com.  For more information visit www.59E59.org.

Brilliant innovations allow people to give and get information, share opinions and express feelings in ways that were unimaginable six years ago. In some ways this is great progress. In other ways it is massive regression.  #9 explores these web 2.0 technologies and how they transform identities and relationships. Music, movement and text combine to convey the experiences of four friends in a strange, bewildering world of cyber-immersion.

From the Drama Desk nominated creators of The|King|Operetta comes a dizzying new music theater piece about the technological tools we use - and how they use us. Waterwell dives into a strange, bewildering world of digital immersion where the virtual is more real than reality.

The cast of #9 includes Hanna Cheek (Marco Millions), Matt Dellapina (The Civilians), David Ryan Smith (Passing Strange) and Kevin Towley (Shockheaded Peter at Little Shubert).

The design team includes Nick Benacerraf (set), Thom Weaver (lights), Elizabeth Payne (costumes) and Dustin O’Neill (video).

Waterwell (Creator) is a New York-based company of artists dedicated to the collaborative creation of new works for the theater. Founded in 2002, it has since created nine original plays, four cabarets, and a staged reading that have been nominated for three New York Innovative Theatre Awards, a Drama Desk, and a New York Magazine Culture Award. Its evolving body of work also encompasses adaptations of classic texts, solo shows, and performance pieces. For each venture the actors, writers, directors, composers, musicians, and designers work collectively to build the piece from the ground up.

Employing research, improvisation, and source texts, the ensemble devises each drop over an extended rehearsal period. The resulting mixture of drama and vaudeville uses music and comedy as access points to address larger issues of power, class, and race.

Tom Ridgely (writer/director) is a Waterwell co-founder and has directed Life In Pink, Sweetness & Light, The Persians…a comedy about war with five songs, Marco Millions (based on lies) [Drama Desk Nomination] and The|King|Operetta. Other NYC credits: Unrelated People (Buggé) at the Wild Project; Centralia: Uncle and Au Bon Panic (Higgins, Rhoderick & Scott) at the PIT; The Engagement (Gatewood) at UCB; The Apple Sisters (Gatewood, Johnson & Lowe) [ECNY Award, Best Musical Comedy Act] at various; The Play About The Coach (Fallis) at the Tank, Philly Fringe and Out of the Loop Festival; and Paradigm (Reese) at Gotham City. Also for Waterwell: Lost in Yemen, or The Bizarre Bazaar (writer/actor), Fuenteovejuna (writer/actor), and Stuck (writer/actor).

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