Epic Theatre Center Announces Passion Play Festival Offerings
Epic Theatre Ensemble has announced its plans for the Passion Play Festival, a series of events that will be offered in conjunction with its production of the New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play, which will run April 27 – May 30 at the Irondale Center. Mark Wing-Davey will direct the production.
The Festival will feature performances, play readings, panel discussions, workshops, and education programs highlighting the intersection of art, politics, sexuality, and religion, all of which are themes in Ruhl’s play.
Play readings in the Festival will include Amy Freed’s The Beard of Avon, Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour, Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, James Still’s The Velvet Rut, Jessica Litwak’s Wider Than The Sky, and Yasmine Rana’s The Fallen.
Other components of the Festival will be the previously announced ForePlay reading series from Flux Theatre; a performance by The Oberlin Obertones (April 3), an all-male a cappella group; Passion Action (March 27), a community event that will investigate the question of prayer; and a presentation of Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr. and Brandt Adams’ play-in-development Dispatches From (A)mended America (April 6).
The Festival will also include post-performance discussions which will feature, among others, James Shapiro, Kathleen Chalfant, Chris Hedges, and Andre Henry/Matt Huett from Glad Tidings Tabernacle.
Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play transports audiences first to 16th century England, where Queen Elizabeth threatens to shut down a small town’s production; then to Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler’s arrival at the famous Oberammergau Passion Play influences the lives of its cast and finally to Spearfish, South Dakota in 1984, as a local production becomes a campaign stop for a famous actor-turned-President running for re-election.
The cast will include Hale Appleman, Brendan Averett, Polly Noonan, Daniel Pearce, Alex Podulke, Keith Reddin, Godfrey L. Simmons Jr., T. Ryder Smith, Kate Turnbull, and Nicole Wiesner.
For further information, visit: www.epictheatreensemble.org. Reservations for free events in the Passion Play Festival can be made by emailing passionplaynyc@gmail.com.
