| La MaMa to present world premiere of CLASS DISMISSED, written by Robert Lyons and directed by Daniel Irizarry | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 10:47 am EST 02/18/25 | |
|
|
|
| La MaMa to present world premiere of CLASS DISMISSED, written by Robert Lyons and directed by Daniel Irizarry Off-Broadway previews begin April 18, Opens April 21, Runs through May 4 Irizarry/Lyons past hit show, My Onliness, to be performed in Romania at 2025 Sibiu International Theatre Festival June 20 & 21 New York, NY – La MaMa proudly presents the world premiere of Soho Think Tank and One-Eighth Theater's CLASS DISMISSED, written by Robert Lyons and directed by Daniel Irizarry, with original compositions by Rhys Tivey. CLASS DISMISSED runs Off-Broadway April 18 – May 4, 2025 in a limited engagement at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre, located at 66 East 4th Street in New York City. Previews begin April 18 for an April 21 opening. Your favorite professor slides into dementia; while his two grad-students hallucinate a post-capitalist manifesto; and his nemesis - the Other-Lit-Professor - performs love poems inspired by her affair in a prestigious artist colony. Anticipate your (consensual) participation as we peel yuca, improvise dances, make butter, and invite the audience onstage to eat (bread), drink (Puerto Rican rum), write on the set (with chalk), and swap books (that they brought to the show). With live music, sing-alongs, and a different guest artist at each performance. This is the grad school you wish you went to! Robert Lyons says, "This is the third collaboration between Daniel and I. So far the shows have been performed in New York, Cuba, South Korea, Poland, and soon in Romania. We plan on many more to come!" The cast includes Pepper Binkley, Yaraní del Valle Piñero, Daniel Irizarry and Rhys Tivey. The production team includes Deb O (Set & Costume Design), Robin A. Ediger-Seto (Light Design), Florian Staab (Sound Design) and Emily Hart (Production Stage Manager). Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm. Special opening night show on Monday, April 21 at 7pm. There will be a livestreamed performance on Saturday, April 26 at 9am. Tickets are $35 and $25 for students and seniors (includes fees). For more info and to purchase tickets visit https://www.lamama.org/class-dismissed. CLASS DISMISSED Goes Global! The April 26 9am performance will be livestreamed to Turkey and South Korea in a collaboration with CultureHub (NYC), Seoul Institute of The Arts (SK) and Bilkent University (TR). This educational cultural exchange will connect NYC students with their international peers - as viewers and participants during the performance, followed by a post-show conversation between the students, teachers, and artists. CultureHub is a global art and technology community that fuels artist mobility, creates opportunities for cultural exchange, and broadens human understanding through the convergence of art, technology, and education. About the history of CLASS DISMISSED: CLASS DISMISSED was originally workshopped under the title Ultra Left Violence in New Ohio Theatre's Ice Factory 2023. That workshop, directed by Irizarry, was the final presentation at New Ohio Theatre, ending its 30-year run as an indispensable pillar of the NYC indie theatre community. Read more about Irizarry & Lyons' collaboration in the American Theatre interview: "One Last Ice Factory Chill". Although the workshop was not open to the press, they wrote about it anyway! The New York Times called it "Thrillingly, even touchingly, weird." Front Row Center called it "An unconventional, exhilarating theatrical experience!" Transitions called it "A manic collage of theoretical debate, poetic reflection and random acts of mayhem… In both its ideas and its anarchic form it pushes for a paradigm shift." CLASS DISMISSED was further developed, under Irizarry's direction, in residencies at Mercury Store (Brooklyn), NACL (Catskills), and with the support of Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). About My Onliness in Romania: My Onliness is a cabaret/fable about a Mad King's desperate attempt to impress a mysterious petitioner. Is this a glimpse of our dystopian future? Or just the structure of human consciousness? Directed by Daniel Irizarry, with text and lyrics from Witkacy by Robert Lyons. Performances at the 2025 Sibiu International Theatre Festival (https://www.sibfest.ro/?locale=en) on June 20 and 21 at the Gong Theatre. About Daniel Irizarry and Robert Lyons' collaborative history: CLASS DISMISSED is the third collaboration between writer Robert Lyons and director/performer Daniel Irizarry. Their second collaboration - My Onliness - has been invited to the prestigious Sibiu International Theatre Festival in Romania in June 2025, immediately following CLASS DISMISSED's La MaMa world premiere. My Onliness is a fable/cabaret/circus about a Mad King's desperate attempt to impress a mysterious petitioner. Is this a glimpse of our dystopian future? Or just the structure of human consciousness? My Onliness is presented with fully integrated American Sign Language performed by two Deaf "Mediums" of the royal court. Laced with songs of torture, truth, and tenderness, this is sexy, visceral, dark buffoonery, and a homage to Stanislaw Witkacy and his theories of "pure theatre." Critics and audiences alike loved the show. The New Yorker called it "A hallucinatory nursery rhyme for adults… one long wheeeee from its rollercoaster start to its sudden, operatic finish." The New York Times said, "Just take in the voluptuous strangeness of it all. For theater lovers ravenous for the downtown-peculiar, "My Onliness" is savory sustenance. A welcome gust of weird." TheaterMania said it was "The most singularly insane show in New York right now! The kind of show that converts casual theatergoers into true believers in off-off-Broadway." The HOLA Awards nominated Irizarry for Best Performance by a Lead Actor. In their first collaboration, Lyons' text Yovo was commissioned by Irizarry's One-Eighth Theater while in residency at New Ohio Theatre in 2018. It was directed and performed by Irizarry, has since been translated into Spanish and American Sign Language, and has been performed by Irizarry in NYC, Poland, Cuba and South Korea. Both My Onliness and Yovo are included in My Onliness and Others, a collection of Lyons' plays recently published by Mercer Street Books. Robert Lyons (Writer) is a NYC playwright who writes dark, satirical comedies, literary adaptations, and experimental performance texts. He has had more than twenty New York City premieres, most recently: My Onliness ("A welcome gust of weird!" - New York Times). His recent performance text, YOVO, has been performed in NYC, Poland, Cuba, and South Korea. A collection of his plays, My Onliness and Others, was recently published by Mercer Street Books. He was also Artistic Director of the legendary Ohio/New Ohio Theatre (NYC). https://www.robertclyons.com Daniel Irizarry (Director/Performer) is a Puerto Rican-born international experimental theatre director, actor/performer, and educator based in NYC and Boston. His work embraces highly stylized and visceral acting, pataphysics, a profound celebration of GERMS, and a communion with the audience through consent. The New Yorker said, "Rabelaisian director Daniel Irizarry, a capering theatrical creature with a goat's appetite for heights." He is the Artistic Director of One-Eighth Theater; celebrated for his productions of The Maids by Jose Rivera (New York Times Critics Pick), and UBU by Adam Szymkowicz (Time Out NY Critics Pick). He is also a full-time lecturer at MIT Music & Theater Arts program. https://www.one-eighththeater.com About La MaMa La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 63rd Season, The "La MaMa Beyond Season," expands our efforts to develop creative methods and tools for greater access to the arts. Pop up performances and installations will be happening in parks, neighborhood community centers, as well as online. By going beyond La MaMa's physical campus, new audiences and artists from different contexts are welcomed into the creative process. La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently a 2023 New York Drama Critics' Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, Robert De Niro, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Cole Escola, Bridget Everett, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Charles Ludlam, Tom Eyen, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Meredith Monk, David and Amy Sedaris, Stephanie Hsu, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O'Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa's vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961. |
|
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | "ALL OUT: COMEDY ABOUT LIFE" TO OPEN ON BROADWAY NEXT SEASON FROM THE PRODUCERS OF "ALL IN: COMEDY ABOUT LOVE" - Official_Press_Release 10:49 am EST 02/18/25 |
| Next: | WSJ weighs in on Trump's Kennedy Center takeover... - MockingbirdGirl 08:43 am EST 02/18/25 |
| Thread: | |
Time to render: 0.011038 seconds.