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Theatre Without Boundaries!
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PRODUCTIONS — 2004-2005 New Perspectives Theatre Company Melody Brooks, Producing Artistic Director presents
Written at the height of the Argentine “Dirty War”, Visit follows the fate of Ex, who has intruded into an elderly couple’s household and their adoptive dwarf (Gasper) in order to find redemption of some kind. Traveling on a thin line between fascination and repulsion for his reticent hosts, Ex must find out the meaning of this encounter before the situation traps him in a place with no sense of time. Had the old woman (Pearl) been waiting for him all along as a prodigal son? Is the old man‘s (Lolly) sinister power and seductiveness teaching Ex about his own future? Is Ex only seeing a reflection of his own past or will he be able to build bonds strong enough to ensure him a future in the household? With a mix of the grotesque, existential anxiety, and a treacherous sense of make believe, the characters will pull the audience into the vortex of this win/win or lose/lose situation.WHO'S WHO IN THE CAST AND CREWBorn in 1944, RICARDO MONTI is a significant figure of Argentina’s independent theatre. His plays have been staged across the globe and have received every major national award available to an Argentinean dramatist, including the Konex Foundation’s prestigious Diploma of Merit in 1994. His first play, An Evening with Mr Magnus & Sons (1970) impressed the Buenos Aires audience with its intense brand of theatricality carrying politically relevant meanings to his audience. His second play, Tendencious History of the Argentine Middle Class…, began Monti’s lasting collaboration with director Jaime Kogan who directed acclaimed productions of Visit (1977), Marathon (1980) and the The Obscurity of Reason (1993). With his later plays, (South American Passion Play (1989), Hotel Columbus (2000), etc) Monti continues to reveal a conviction about the value of the theatre experience to enlighten us about our own sense of identity and history. The recent translation by Jean Graham-Jones, Reason Obscured, Nine Plays by Ricardo Monti (Bucknell University Press, 2004) makes his work finally available to English speaking audiences. JEAN GRAHAM-JONES (Translator) holds the English translation rights to Ricardo Monti's plays. Her translations, Reason Obscured: Nine Plays by Ricardo Monti, was published this May by Bucknell University Press. She has also translated works by Argentinean playwrights Marcelo Ramos and Susana Torres Molina, and is the author of Exorcising History: Argentine Theater under Dictatorship (Bucknell University Press, 2000) as well as numerous articles appearing in such journals as Theatre Research International, Theatre Survey, Theatre Journal, Gestos, Tramoya, Bulletin of the Comediantes, and Latin American Theatre Review. She currently serves as coeditor of Theatre Journal. A trained actor and director, Graham-Jones is an associate professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and Hunter College where she teaches Latin American theatre and critical/performance theory. MILTON LOAYZA (Director) is a former member of the New Perspectives Theatre Company with whom he participated as an actor in several productions including Richard III with Austin Pendleton, September 11 by Guillermo Reyes, Two Gentlemen of Verona and Miss Julie. Other New York City acting credits include roles in Waiting for Godot (Milagros Theatre), LAPA by Daniil Kharms, Antigona Furiosa by Gambaro (Martin Segal Theatre). Milton Loayza is a PhD candidate in Theatre Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center and is writing his dissertation about the work of Ricardo Monti. As a director he has explored surrealist aesthetics by staging the work of Apollinaire (The Mammaries of Tiresias) and Artaud (The Cenci). RAY A. RODRIGUEZ (Fight Director) is a Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. Currently teaching at Adelphi University, he has also taught stage combat at Harlem School of the Arts, NYU and RADA in London. Ray has studied and worked with New York Fight Ensemble and Fights4 since 1993. Fight Direction and Choreography credits include; Boise (Rattlestick Theater Company); Treasure Island, Arabian Nights (Inwood Hill Shakespeare Festival); Taming of the Shrew, Legend of Deirdre, Romeo & Juliet, MacBeth (NPT). Extremos (Extremities) & Imigrantes (Immigrants), Teatro Nacional, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; macBETH (Pulse Theater Ensemble), and the noted production of Marisol at University of Mass/Amherst. Acting credits include: Petrucchio in NPT’s OOBR-winning Taming of the Shrew; Macduff in Macbeth & Long John Silver in Treasure Island (Inwood Shakespeare Festival); Rodrigo in Othello and Richard III/Cassio in Shakespeare's Villians(NPT); originated Wilhelm the Jew in Duelists, The Lost Champions (Theatre 1010). LYNETTE SCOLES (Set & Lighting Designer) has designed shows in NYC for the last 3 years and in various states of the nation since 1995. Recent credits include Triumph of Love and Annie Get Your Gun for Utah Musical Theatre; Honk, Once On This Island and Great Expectations for Seaside Music Theater in Daytona Beach; Rough Crossing and Three Tall Women for Northern Stage in Vermont. Lynette was the Assistant Scenic Designer for the 2004 Actor’s Studio Drama School Repertory Season and an assistant on Tony Walton’s recent production of Where’s Charley at the Goodspeed Opera House. As a Scenic Artist, she just finished working with Big Apple Circus on Picturesque and with SMT on Beauty and the Beast. Lynette holds an MFA in Theatre Design from The Univ. of Memphis, as well as BFA’s from The Univ. of Michigan in Theatre Design & Production and Art Studies. This is Lynette’s second production with NPT, having co-designed Unrequited Love last year.
ALEXIS CASANOVAS (Ex)is grateful to make his NYC debut with NPT. He holds a BA from College of Charleston in South Carolina and an MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University. Past credits include The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Thurio) at Rutgers; Murder at the Vicarage (Lawrence Redding) at The Patchwork Playhouse, SC; West Side Story (Bernardo) at College of Charleston and an appearance on Guiding Light. He wishes to thank his family, Milton, Melody, the cast and Ricardo Monti for this wonderful opportunity.
CHARLOTTE HAMPDEN (Pearl) Off Broadway: Gunhild (John Gabriel Borkman), OOBR award; Mrs Smith (The Bald Soprano); Mother (Blood Wedding); Queen Margaret (Richard III ); Leona (More Than This, Duchess of York (Richard II). Regional: Lettice (Lettice and Lovage); Linda (Death of a Salesman); Agnes (A Delicate Balance); Annie Nations (Foxfire); Sara (The Sisters Rosensweig); Many TV, film and voiceover credits; member of The Harbor Theatre; AEA AFTRA. She is delighted to have the opportunity to work with New Perspectives Theatre Company on Ricardo Monti’s extraordinary play.
JOKSAN RAMOS (Gaspar) is a Puerto Rican born and raised actor-musician with a BA in Drama from the University of Puerto Rico and an MFA from The Actors Studio Drama School at The New School. He has worked with the Spanish Repertory Theater with ACE and OBIE award winning director René Bush. He is also part of the acting company of DAP Ensemble and works with SEA (Society of the Educational Arts). He is very proud of being in the New York premiere of Visit.
JACK WANN (Lolly) was most recently seen in the New York area in Founding Fathers at the New York Historical Society, a series of three plays for Collaborations Theatre (Equus, The Imaginary Invalid, and Yea, Though I Walk), and a Premiere Reading of Mettle Of Honor at the Laurie Beechman Theatre on 42nd Street. Outside the city, he appeared as The High Priest in New Jersey's long-running musical Passion Play and in Las Vegas in The Taming Of The Shrew as Baptista. Film credits include Jim Croce: A Documentary and the soon to be released horror film Nursie. (AEA, SAG, AFTRA) ROSELA MOSENG (Production Manager) is happy to be joining NPT once again after stage managing their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream last year. She is excited to be on the producing side for the first time. She has also stage managed for the Fringe Festival in New York City and numerous productions in her college town of Boise, Idaho. She is producing and will be making her directorial debut this coming January with the New York premiere of Leapfrog Through Time and Space by critically acclaimed playwright Philip Atlakson. SUZANNE MCKEOWN (Stage Manager) is making her SM debut with NPT. Her background includes Art Direction (photo shoots and music videos), Décor, Design and Painting (music videos, theatre, commercials). Suzanne’s next venture will be Art Director for Team 2080 Music Recordings and Film.
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