EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE starring Kelli Rae Powell
Source: Theatre.comNew York Theatre Workshop to Stage Burkett, Sontag, Quentin Crisp Bio-Play for 2000-2001 Season
By Randy Gener
NEW YORK -- New York Theatre Workshop, the downtown hit machine that gave Broadway Rent and Dirty Blonde, has announced plans to produce a Ronnie Burkett puppet performance piece, Susan Sontag's only play, and a bio-play about Quentin Crisp.
HOW DOES THIS AFFECT ME? An eclectic 2000-2001 season is in store for the New York Theatre Workshop.
First up is Street of Blood. Written and performed by Ronnie Burkett, the piece is part of the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater. His troupe, Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes, comes from Canada, and this new work has been described as a "prairie gothic epic that confronts issues of contemporary bloodlust, including the contaminated blood supply scandal, adoption, religion, AIDS, and celebrity worship."
Previews begin Aug. 25. Opening night is Sept. 7. The run closes October 16.
Next is Susan Sontag's Alice in Bed. The New York premiere, which will be directed by Dutch master Ivo van Hove, begins previews Oct. 25. The opening is sometime early November. It will star Joan MacIntosh and Jorre Vandenbussche.
The first play by the distinguished writer, Alice in Bed focuses on the invalid sister of William and Henry James. The play starts out as an exploration of a woman who, though no less gifted than her famous brothers, was forced to labor under a cloud of anonymity. Soon we've moved into a wild fantasy based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. A tea party ensues with Emily Dickinson, Margaret Fuller and other gifted women of the age substituting for the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse.
Alice In Bed was performed at the American Repertory Theatre April 11 to May 5, 1996. It was directed by Bob McGrath. The play was also directed in a German production by Robert Wilson.
Then, Tim Fountain's Resident Alien will be directed by Mike Bradwell, for a production that begins previews in early January 2001.
Bette Bourne plays Quentin Crisp in the American premiere of the London hit about the life and work of the world's most famous sissy. A fully authorized dramatization of Crisp's ruminations on life, love, the 20th century, and topics as diverse as Princess Diana, Oprah Winfrey and oral sex.
There are other shows that New York Theatre Workshop is still considering for production during the upcoming season, according to artistic director Jim Nicola.
One show likely to be produced is director Karin Coonrod's adaptation of several short stories by Flannery O'Connor. Everything That Rises Must Converge. O'Connor is the famous Southern writer known for her gritty, surreal short stories of rural life. Ledlie Borgerhoff and Kelli Rae Powell are the actors attached to the project, which Coonrod has workshopped at Utah's Sundance Theatre Lab.
Coonrod, director of the Public Theater's Henry VI, recently staged The Life and Death of King John for Theatre for a New Audience. She was the artistic director of the Arden Theatre Company where she made a name for herself as an interpreter of classical work with her own highly charged vocabulary. She also directed Christopher Durang and Albert Innaurato's comic folderol The Idiots Karamazov at Boston's American Conservatory Theatre.
Also in consideration are two new musicals from Paul Scott Goodman, who created Bright Lights Big City a musical adaptation of Jay McInerney’s quintessential 1980s novel. Goodman's two shows are called Don Juan Rock Star and Rooms.
Directed by Michael Grief, Bright Lights Big City opened Feb. 24, 1999 at New York Theatre Workshop. In addition to writing the show, Goodman appeared in the cast.
Finally, New York Theatre Workshop is considering Up Against the Wind, Michael Develle Winn's story about a young black rapper's struggle to realize a dream. Directed by Rosemary Andress, with music by Jonathan Sanborn, the show has been seen in readings with features Stephen Anderson, Olabumni Banjo, Kevin Daniels, Hazelle Goodman, Toi Perkins, and the voice voice of Anthony Mackie as Tupac Shakur.
For more information, please call NYTW at (212) 780-9037. New York Theater Workshop islocated at 79 and 83 East Fourth Street in the East Village. {:-)-:}