OLD WICKED SONGS Opens Tonight at 1st Stage

1st Stage, Tysons Corner's award winning professional theater, announces tonight's April 10 opening of Old Wicked Songs by playwright Jon Marans. Michael Chamberlin directs the production at 1st Stage.

Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1996 and winner of the L.A. Drama Logue Award, Old Wicked Songs has played to massive acclaim for audiences in Europe and across the United States. 1st Stage brings this highly celebrated production to Tysons Corner for the first time. Set in Austria in the mid-1980s, Old Wicked Songs explores passion, music, forgiveness, and renewal through they eyes of generationally divided Professor Mashkan and his new American student, Stephen Hoffman. One rigidly uptight and handicapped by anxiety, the other, eccentric, volatile, and mysterious, these characters catalyze within each other exceptional highs and devastating lows that will leave them both changed forever. Music, humor, and history weave intricately though this story, revealing truths that lead the characters and their audience on a tightly winding path until the very end. Live piano music fills the space contributing an additional element of talent and tension to the atmosphere.

The 1st Stage production of Old Wicked Songs features Phil Hosford as Professor Josef Mashkan and Aaron Bliden as American piano prodigy, Stephen Hoffman under the direction of Michael Chamberlin.

The design team includes: scenic and costume design by Kathryn Kawecki, lighting design by Brian Allard, sound design by Kenny Neal, and prop design by Deb Crerie and Kay Rzasa. The production is stage managed by Hannah Martin with Musical Direction by Walter McCoy.

Now in its seventh season, 1st Stage Theatre is an award winning professional theatre in the heart of Tysons Corner, Virginia. The company serves as a cultural hub for the Tysons community producing first-rate theatrical productions as well as hosting professional musicians, orchestras, and visual artists, and providing educational opportunities for the community.

1st Stage has been nominated for nine Helen Hayes Awards in 2015. The theater also strives to give emerging talent - actors, playwrights, directors, and technical crew - a home to build their professional careers.

In September of 2014, Alex Levy began serving as the company's new Artistic Director. Levy comes to 1st Stage from Los Angeles, California where he ran the Watts Village Theatre Company and was a resident director at The Road Theatre in North Hollywood and Savage Players in Echo Park. Previously Levy served as Artistic Director of Ballybeg Theatre in New York City and Pegasus Players in Chicago.

Old Wicked Songs will run at 1st Stage from April 10 through May 3 with show times as follows: Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2 pm and 8 pm, and Sundays at 2pm and 7pm. General admission tickets are $28. Senior (65+) tickets are $23. Student and military tickets are $15. Group discounts are available. Tickets can be purchased online at www.1ststagetysons.org or by calling the 1st Stage box office at 703-854-1856. The run time is 2 hours with one 15- minute intermission.

Old Wicked Songs is the fourth of five productions in 1st Stage's seventh season. Following Old Wicked Songs by Jon Marans, directed by Michael Chamberlin will be The Good Counselor by Kathryn Grant and directed by Alex Levy (May 29 - June 21). For more information, visit 1st Stage online at www.1ststagetysons.org or follow the theater on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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