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THE
SEVEN
Text/Composition – Will Power
Direction/Development – Jo Bonney
Choreography – Bill T. Jones
Scenic
Design – Richard Hoover
Costume Design – Emilio Sosa
Lighting Design – David Weiner
Sound Design – Darron L West
Music Production/Additional Composition – Justin Ellington
Additional Composition – Will Hammond
Music Direction – Daryl Waters
Production Stage Management – Wendy Ouellette
Rehearsal Stage Management – Judith Schoenfeld
Company Manager – Katy Savard
Cast:
Uzo Aduba, Shawtane Monroe Bowen, Jamyl Dobson, Amber Efé, Edwin
Lee Gibson, Benton Greene, Manuel Herrera, Flaco Navaja, Tom Nelis,
Postell Pringle, Pearl Sun, and Charles Turner
Biographies
Greek/Hip-hop glossary Written specifically
for The Seven
The Making of The Seven A
conversation between playwrights Will Power and Charles L. Mee that
took place at a
New York Theatre Workshop Repeat Defenders Fireside Chat on December
13, 2005.
Order tickets:
Single tickets on sale December 15.
Call Telecharge.com at 212-239-6200 or 800-432-7250 or visit www.telecharge.com
Please call our box office at 212-460-5475 for additional information.
Our box office is open Tuesday - Saturday, 1:00pm-6:00pm.
Facility Address:
79 East 4th Street, located between Bowery and Second Avenue in the
East Village.
Prices:
Single tickets, $60.00 each.
CheapTix Sundays, $20.00 (all tickets for all Sunday evening performances
at 7:00pm; tickets must be purchased in person, in cash at the NYTW
box office).
Description:
The Seven is a hip-hop adaptation of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes,
which follows the struggles of Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons
of the cursed King Oedipus, as they fight for the throne of Thebes.
This is a story of war, family, and a cursed society unsure of how to
free itself. Writer and composer Will Power has taken this classical
tale of pre-destination versus choice and updated it with an urban idiom
to explore modern themes including poverty, race and the abuse of power.
The entire script is in rhyming verse, interwoven with such musical
styles as calypso, do-wop, R & B, funk, and blues. Director Jo Bonney
(A Soldier's Play, Fat Pig), renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones (Last
Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land and Still/Here) and a
cast of 12 join Will Power to create this complex and ambitious piece
that will make an old story come alive for a new generation.
In
2003, Will Power wowed critics and NYTW audiences with FLOW, his smart
and dynamic show. The New York Times said, "Will Power is treading
in new territory, experimenting with tools that are new to the theater.
What's most impressive is that you can see clearly through the door
it is opening to a storehouse of new possibilities." And Newsday
said, "FLOW is an electrifying show that will satisfy even those
theatergoers who don't know Nas from Nelly."
Dates:
First preview, Wednesday, January 18; opening night, Sunday, February
12; final performance, Sunday, March 12.
Performance schedule:
Tuesday at 7:00pm; Wednesday – Friday at 8:00pm; Saturday at 3:00pm
and 8:00pm; Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.
Exceptions:
Saturday, January 21, no 3:00pm performance
Saturday, January 28, no 3:00pm performance
Monday, January 30, added 8:00pm performance
Wednesday, February 1, no performance
Sunday, February 12, 5:00pm performance only (opening night)
Saturday, March 4, no 3:00pm performance
Saturday, March 11, no 3:00pm performance
AfterWords
(post-performance discussions):
to be announced
Running time:
approximately two hours with one intermission
About
the artists:
Will Power is an award-winning actor, rapper, playwright,
and educator. Viewed as a pioneer in the genre of hip-hop theater, Power
has created his own style of theatrical communication, fusing original
music, rhymed language and dynamic choreography to produce compelling
evenings of work. Produced by New York Theatre Workshop and the NYC
Hip-Hop Theater Festival, Will Power's solo show FLOW has been described
as "astounding" (CurtainUp) and "theater with the refreshing
aroma of originality" (The New York Times) while Power himself
has been called an "electrifying" (Newsday) and "dynamic
performer" (Variety). Most recently Will Power received the prestigious
2005 Joyce Award, a 2005 NYFA Fellowship, a 2004 Jury Award for Best
Theatre Performance at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival, and a 2004 Drama
Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance. Power's skills have also
been captured on television and film as a featured performer on "Last
Call with Carson Daly" and "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry"
on HBO. He was the lead male in the film Drylongso, a hit at the 1999
Sundance Film Festival and was also featured in the documentary, All
Fathers are Sons. In addition to composing the music used in all of
his theater shows, Power has composed lyrics and music that have been
heard on MTV, UPN's "Moesha," and "Kingpin" on NBC.
He also has been featured on four critically acclaimed albums "Free
Roots," "Spirit of the Roots," "Bembon," and
"Prietos" as the lead vocalist for the Omar Sosa Sextet. Power
has received two AUDELCO award nominations for his solo shows, including
the Gathering: a hip hop theater journey to the meeting places of Black
men, as well as winning the Trailblazer Award from the National Black
Theater Network for his contributions to theater.
Jo
Bonney's recent directing credits include Charles Fuller's
A Soldier's Play (Second Stage); Caryl Churchill's Top Girls (Williamstown
Theatre Festival); Christopher Shinn's On the Mountain (Playwrights
Horizons); Neil LaBute's Fat Pig (MCC); Lisa Loomer's Living Out (Second
Stage); and Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics (Arena Stage, Washington,
DC). Other credits include Universes' Slanguage (New York Theatre Workshop/Mark
Taper Forum); Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July (Signature Theatre, NYC)
(Lucille Lortel Award); Jose Rivera's Adoration of the Old Woman (La
Jolla Playhouse) and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (The Public
Theater); Eric Bogosian's Humpty Dumpty (McCarter Theater); subUrbia
(Studio Theatre, Washington, DC); FunHouse; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll;
Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead and Wake Up and Smell the
Coffee (USA/Britain); Diana Son's Stop Kiss and Anna Deavere Smith's
House Arrest (The Public Theater); Jessica Goldberg's Good Thing (The
New Group); John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Classic Stage Company);
Danny Hoch's Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop (USA/Britain).
Bonney is the recipient of a 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence
of Direction and the editor of "Extreme Exposure: An Anthology
of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century" (TCG).
Bill
T. Jones, a 1994 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, began
his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton
(SUNY), where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. After living
in Amsterdam, Mr. Jones returned to SUNY, where he became co-founder
of the American Dance Asylum in 1973. Before forming Bill T. Jones/Arnie
Zane Dance Company (then called Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company)
in 1982, Mr. Jones choreographed and performed nationally and internationally
as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane. In
addition to creating more than 50 works for his own company, Mr. Jones
has received many commissions to create dances for modern and ballet
companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lyon Opera Ballet,
and Berlin Opera Ballet. In 1995, Mr. Jones directed and performed in
a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, at Alice
Tully Hall, commissioned by Lincoln Center's Serious Fun Festival. His
collaboration with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do! premiered at New
York's City Center in 1999 as part of Lincoln Center's Great Performers
"New Visions" series. Mr. Jones' theater involvement includes
co-directing Perfect Courage with Rhodessa Jones for Festival 2000,
in 1990. In 1994, he directed Derek Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain
for The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN. In 1986, Bill T. Jones and
Arnie Zane were awarded a New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie")
Award for the Joyce Theater season, and in 1989 and 2001, Mr. Jones
was awarded two more "Bessies" for his work, D-Man in the
Waters (1989), and The Table Project and The Breathing Show (2001).
In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones "An Irreplaceable
Dance Treasure." Mr. Jones' memoirs, "Last Night on Earth,"
were published by Pantheon Books in 1995.
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