Francesca Capetta to Be Special Guest At Hofstra University
Francesca Capetta will be performing her sold-out Carnegie Hall solo show as special guest at Hofstra University on Sunday September 18th, 2018, celebrating her Italian roots. Also Mickela Malozzi, host of the four-time Emmy Award winning program 'Bare Feet' will be performing in the show.
Cynthia Von Buhler's Immersive THE GIRL WHO HANDCUFFED HOUDINI To Premiere Off-Broadway
New York audiences will be transported back to 1926 to experience a world of mysterious speakeasies, backstage intrigue, and hotel room affairs as they unravel the untimely death of legendary illusionist Harry Houdini in The Girl Who Handcuffed Harry Houdini, the new immersive theatrical production from playwright and director Cynthia von Buhler and her production company, Speakeasy Dollhouse.
Chris Green's AMERICAN WEATHER Closes HERE's 25th Anniversary Season
HERE (Kristin Marting, Founding Artistic Director, and Kim Whitener, Executive Director) is proud to close their 25th anniversary season with the commissioned world premiere of American Weather, a new work by director and designer Chris Green, a member of the HERE Artist Residency Program since 2016. With a bittersweet verve, American Weather is a visceral work of material performance inspired by daily life in America.
BWW Review: The Sweet & Sinister Wonders of the Illuminati Ball
Walking into the lobby, we were immediately engrossed in a lavish and slightly anachronistic atmosphere. Vintage brass and the chatterings of splendidly-adorned socialites filled the soundscape. My guest and I allowed ourselves to be absorbed into a crowd of masked-revelers being escorted into an unknown area, by unknown forces. Most of the night was a game of simply discovering what to do next.
BWW REVIEW: Dirt [Contained] Explores the Pain of Freedom in Fernando Arrabal's GARDEN OF DELIGHTS
Early in Dirt [Contained]'s production of GARDEN OF DELIGHTS, a caller on a radio show asks Lais (Tana Sirois), the successful but tormented actress at the center of Fernando Arrabal's 1960s play, if she was was really an orphan. When Lais responds in the affirmative, the caller expresses sympathy for her presumed suffering.Lais' response provides the audience what it needs to appreciate (if not exactly to enjoy) what follows, even if Andre Breton, Antonin Artaud, the Theatre of Cruelty, the Panic Movement, and surrealism in general are literary terra incognito (as they were to me, a former English doctoral candidate specializing in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). But a little knowledge helps one to appreciate just how ambitious and complex a project this is. (I'm told Ferdando Arrabal, now in his 80s, made a special trip to America to see Dirt [Contained] perform his play. Having seen this extraordinary cast, led by the at once luminous and ferocious Tana Sirois, I can see why.)
It may be my bias as a former academic, but the more one brings to GARDEN OF DELIGHTS, the more one gets out of it. My reading of and about Arrabal since the show has retroactively increased my respect for and pleasure in the play. Nathan Gorelick's characterization of Arrabal's work in the journal Discourse is apt: '[His] theater is a wild, brutal, cacophonous and joyously provocative world. In his violence, Arrabal is related to Sade and Artaud. Yet he is doubtless the only writer to have pushed derision as far as he did. Deeply political and merrily playful, his work is the syndrome of our century of barbed wire and Gulags, a manner of finding reprieve.'
Francesca Capetta Sings Dean Martin: A Centennial Celebration this July
This performance celebrates the 100th birthday of Italian-American entertainer Dean Martin. The show, written and performed by Francesca Capetta, features Tony Award-winner Liliane Montevecchi (Broadway: Nine {Tony and Drama Desk Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical}, Grand Hotel {Tony Nomination}, Le Plume de Ma Tante. Irma la Douce, Gigi, Hello Dolly!) and cabaret singer Stacy Sullivan (It's a good day-A tribute to Miss Peggy Lee, On the Air, Since you've asked). Music Director: Ian Herman.
BWW Review: Cynthia Von Buhler Illuminates the Obscure in the Lavish, Erotic, Yet Playful 'Illuminati Ball'
The Illuminati Ball is indeed spectacular, though without divulging details I am sworn to keep secret, I cannot do justice to an experience which began on a rainy Saturday evening at 6PM on the Upper East Side---where a luxury limousine bus picked up 30 formally-attired 'candidates' for the Illuminati, and seven or so hours later, deposited what seemed like old friends to the same location---after a sumptuous eight-course meal by Erin Orr, craft cocktails by mixologist Bootleg Greg, and limitless red wine.
BWW Review: Blurring Boundaries in Search of Truth, Cynthia von Buhler Brings 'Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Bloody Beginning' to the Weylin
Cynthia von Buhler's Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Bloody Beginning grew out of the artist's lifelong fascination with the mysterious death of her Italian immigrant grandfather, Frank Spano, in 1935. Originally conceived as a one-night event, Speakeasy Dollhouse took on a life of its own and since 2011 has become one of New York's most innovative theatrical experiences, spawning other immersive plays including Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic and The Brothers Booth.
Held in historic venues that transport audience members back in time (like Edwin Booth's former Gramercy Park mansion and the Liberty Theater in Times Square), von Buhler's productions are sensuous and visual triumphs which reflect her background in the fine arts. The Bloody Beginning made its Brooklyn debut on July 22 at the Weylin, formerly the stunning Williamsburgh Savings Bank, across the street from the legendary Peter Luger steakhouse.
Tickets on Sale thru July 2014 for SPEAKEASY DOLLHOUSE: THE BROTHERS BOOTH at The Players Club
Stageworks Media presents Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Brothers Booth -- an immersive, time-traveling theatrical experience created by Cynthia von Buhler and directed by Wes Grantom (Eager to Lose at Ars Nova). Ms. von Buhler's Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Bloody Beginning has, over the past two years, become one of the city's most unique, interactive, and surreal theatrical experiences. Once again, Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Brothers Booth brings Ms. von Buhler's unique brand of historic fiction investigation to the legends of John Wilkes and Edwin Booth. Speakeasy Dollhouse: The Brothers Booth is performed monthly on Saturday evenings (usually the first Saturday of the month) at The Players Club (16 Gramercy Park South).