Theater News

James Lee Taylor to star as Nikola Tesla in Sanja Bestic-directed Tesla

The new off-Braodway play will begin its run at Theatre 80 this month.

Bethany Rickwald
New York City

Poster for <i>Tesla</i>
Poster for Tesla

James Lee Taylor, Jack Dimich, Tom Cappadona, Adam Pagdon, Samantha Slater, Luka Mijatovic, Anthony Guerino, Alessandro Colla, and Maria Riboli have been selected to star in Sheri Graubert’s new off-Broadway play, Tesla, which begins performances May 23 and will run through June 8 at Theatre 80. Prominent Serbian-American Director Sanja Bestic helms the production.

Tesla, which is backed by the Serbian government, president of United Nations general assembly, President/Founder of Tesla Science Foundation, Nikola Tesla Club, and Nikola Tesla Inventors Club, provides a window into famed scientist Nikola Tesla’s final days in a New York hotel room while torn over the destruction and devastation occurring in his homeland. The play will also explore the risks Nikola Tesla took in the scientific realm and his relationship with Thomas Edison.

Nikola Tesla was an inventor, engineer, and physicist who is known today for inventing the rotating magnetic field and the production and distribution of electrical energy based on the use of alternate currents. His animosity with one-time employer Thomas Edison has been well-documented.

Sanja Bestic cofounded The Local Theatre NYC, a nonprofit multicultural interdisciplinary art gallery, and has directed many plays, including The Tiger, Want & Need, and The Doll. Following Tesla, Bestic plans to make a documentary about the inventor’s mysterious life.

For more information and tickets to Tesla, click here.