PIECE BY PIECE PRODUCTIONS, RISING PHOENIX REPERTORY, RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER
ANNOUNCE THAT
3C
OPENS TONIGHT, THURSDAY, JUNE 21
WORLD PREMIERE WRITTEN BY DAVID ADJMI
DIRECTED BY JACKSON GAY
CHOREOGRAPHED BY DENEY TERRIO
PLAYS AT RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER
TALKBACKS ANNOUNCED FOR JUNE 22 AND JUNE 27
piece by piece productions, Rising Phoenix Repertory, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater have announced that the world premiere of 3C, written by David Adjmi and directed by Jackson Gay, opens tonight Thursday, June 21 at 7pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place.
The war in Vietnam is over and Brad, an ex-serviceman, lands in L.A. to start a new life. When he winds up trashed in Connie and Linda’s kitchen after a wild night of partying, the three strike a deal for an arrangement that has hilarious and devastating consequences for everyone. Or are they non-consequences? Inspired by 1970s sitcoms, 1950s existentialist comedy, Chekhov, and Disco anthems, 3C is a terrifying yet amusing look at a culture that likes to amuse itself, even as it teeters on the brink of ruin.
The cast of 3C is Kate Buddeke (Bug, Gypsy with Bernadette Peters, Death of a Salesman with Brian Dennehy), Bill Buell (Equus, The History Boys, Picasso at the Lapin Agile), Hannah Cabell (A Man for All Seasons at Roundabout, Compulsion at Public Theater), Eddie Cahill (“CSI: New York,” “Friends”), Anna Chlumsky (HBO’s “Veep,” My Girl, Unconditional at Public Theater/LAByrinth), and Jake Silbermann (“As the World Turns”).
The scenic design for 3C is by John McDermott; the costume design is by Oana Botez Ban; the lighting design is by Tyler Micoleau; the sound design is by Matt Tierney. Choreography is by Deney Terrio.
3C brings together the three companies who produced the 2009 hit Slipping, written by Daniel Talbott, and joins together piece by piece productions and Rising Phoenix Repertory who last collaborated on David Adjmi’s hit play Elective Affinities.
After performance talkbacks have been announced for Friday, June 22 with choreographer Deney Terrio and members of the company; and for Wednesday, June 27 with Leslie Savan and director Jackson Gay on media and cultural perspectives related to 3C.
(Leslie Savan blogs for The Nation about media and politics. A three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist for her Village Voice column about advertising, Savan is the author of Slam Dunks and No Brainers: Pop Language in Your Life, the Media, and, Like…Whatever and The Sponsored Life: Ads, TV, and American Culture. She has been widely published, including in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, New York, Mother Jones, and Huffington Post. She has appeared frequently on TV and radio, and is very happy to be a talking head in Helvetica, a film about the font.)
David Adjmi has been awarded a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, the Whiting Writers’ Award, the Kesselring Prize for Drama, the Steinberg Playwright Award (the “Mimi”), and the Bush Artists Fellowship. His most recent play, the acclaimed Elective Affinities, premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company and received its New York premiere in 2011 in a coproduction between piece by piece productions, Rising Phoenix Repertory, and Soho Rep that starred Zoe Caldwell.
His hit play Stunning was developed at New York Theatre Workshop and MTC; was published in the September 2008 issue of American Theatre; and premiered at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, where it was nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards including the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. It was subsequently produced at Lincoln Center Theatre’s LCT3 in July 2009 (Time Out New York Top 10 of the year). TCG recently published a collection of his work entitled Stunning and Other Plays and he is currently at work on an as-yet-untitled memoir for HarperCollins.
His play Marie Antoinette, which was developed at Sundance, the Public, and the Goodman Theatre, will receive a world premiere co-production between Yale Rep and A.R.T./Harvard in 2012 (dir. Rebecca Taichman). 3C was developed at Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb. The Evildoers was developed at the Royal Court Theatre (UK), and the Sundance Theatre Lab; it premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre (Hartford Courant and New Haven Advocate Top 10 of 2008). Other plays include Caligula (Soho Rep Studio Series), Strange Attractors (Empty Space) and Woody Allen’s Fall Project. David is currently under commission by Lincoln Center Theatre, Berkeley Rep, and the Royal Court. He is the recipient of the Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a McKnight Advancement Grant, the Marian Seldes-Garson Kanin Award, a Jerome Fellowship, a Royal Court International Residency, Jon Robin Baitz’s Ovid Grant for New Writing, a NYTW/Dartmouth Residency, the Lecomte du Nouy Award, the Cherry Lane Mentor Project Fellowship (w. Craig Lucas), an Atlantic Center for the Arts residency (w. Paula Vogel), a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, and multiple fellowships from The MacDowell Colony. David has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, The Mellon Foundation, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the McKnight Foundation. He has taught workshops and classes at the Yale School of Drama, Southampton Writers Conference, University of Rochester, Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and the Primary Stages School of Theatre. David is a member of New Dramatists, MCC Playwrights Coalition, and Rising Phoenix Rep. He is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and the Juilliard School.
Jackson Gay. Upcoming: Yale Drama Series presentation of Shannon Murdoch’s New Light Shine (Yale Rep); The Danger of Bleeding Brown by Enrique Urueta (Latino Mix-Fest Atlantic Theater); Fallow by Ken Lin (People’s Light & Theatre Company); Red (Alley Theatre); The Christmas Windows of 1937 by Cheri Magid (Book/Lyrics) with music by Evan Palazzo and The Hot Sardines (Sarah Lawrence College). Recent credits include: Ken Lin’s Fallow (Ojai Playwrights Conference); And When We Awoke There Was Light And Light by Laura Jacqmin (Cape Cod Theater Project); Lisa Dillman’s American Wee-Pie (2011 PlayPenn); A Little Journey (The Mint); Sam Mark’s Light Years to the Delling Shore (2011 Sundance Theater Institute at Banff, Canada); Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County and Kenneth Lin’s Intelligence-Slave (Alley Theatre); David Adjmi’s 3C for Superlab (Playwrights Horizons/ Clubbed Thumb); Jennifer Maisel’s Out of Orbit (2010 Sundance Theater Institute at Mass MoCA); Raising Jo by Charlotte Miller (PlayPenn 2010); One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Deborah Zoe Laufer’s End Days (People’s Light & Theatre Company); Punk Princess at NYMF (book/lyrics Yasmine Lever/ music Stew and Heidi Rodewald/ featuring Our Lady J and Justin Bond); Lucy Thurber’s Scarcity for Atlantic Theater Company, where she previously directed Kia Corthron’s Master Disaster and Rolin Jones’ The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, which was selected as a 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist; Jason Grote’s Box Americana (2008 Eugene O’Neill Playwright’s Conference); Len, Asleep in Vinyl by Carly Mensch (Second Stage/Juilliard); Workshop presentations of David Adjmi’s Marie Antoinette for the Goodman Theater, Sundance in Residence at the Public Theater, and the JAW/West Festival; 10 things to do before I die, by Zakiyyah Alexander (Second Stage Uptown); Collaboration with lighting designer Jennifer Tipton on The Glass Menagerie for the Guggenheim Museum’s Works & Process; Best Production Connecticut Critic’s Award The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow at the Yale Rep. Producer with Yarn Films and founder of the production company Dear Jane. Current projects include The Christmas Windows of 1937 by Cheri Magid (Book/Lyrics) with music by Evan Palazzo and The Hot Sardines. Jackson is currently on faculty at the New York Film Academy and Primary Stages ESPA School of Theater. She is the recipient of the Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship at Manhattan Theatre Club, the Williamstown Theater Festival Directing Fellowship and the Drama League’s New Directors/New Works Fellowship. 2008 University of the Arts Silver Star Distinguished Alumni Award. MFA Directing Yale School of Drama. Jackson is from Sugar Land, Texas.
Deney Terrio is one of the original pioneers of the disco dance era and the coach and choreographer who taught John Travolta how to dance for the motion picture Saturday Night Fever. He was hand selected and given the challenge of transforming Barbarino (Travolta’s TV character on “Welcome Back Kotter”) into Valentino. The dance routines that Deney created and taught Travolta have become timeless classics and his “Finger Point” has become the single most recognizable dance pose in history. Deney utilized his talents to become the host of the television musical variety show “Dance Fever.” The show’s format was the first competitive dance show to utilize celebrity judges and award a weekly winner. “Dance Fever” is credited with being the show that inspired and helped bring “Dancing with the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance” and others into the recent limelight. Currently, Deney can be heard on his nationally broadcast show “Saturday Night Dance Party” that airs every Saturday evening on Sirius XM Satellite Radio’s 70’s on 7. Deney tours nationally with his live show The Deney Terrio Dance Party and beginning in 2012, Deney can be seen hosting Time Life Music’s latest infomercial “We Love the Night Life” which will be broadcast to millions of TV viewers throughout the United States and Canada. www.thedeneyterriodanceparty.com
Kate Buddeke has performed Off-Broadway in Bug, The Paris Commune and Mill Fire. On Broadway she was seen in: Superior Donuts, A Streetcar Named Desire, Gypsy (with Bernadette Peters), Death of A Salesman (with Brian Dennehy) and Carousel. In Chicago, she is a proud ensemble member of American Blues Theater. She has appeared in many Chicago area shows including: The North Plan, The New Electric Ballroom, Bug, Rantoul & Die, Tobacco Road. She has a couple of Joseph Jefferson Awards and has sung the National Anthem, solo, twice at Wrigley Field. Her TV and Film credits include: “The Sopranos”, “Law & Order C.I.”, “The Flight of the Conchords”, Payback, The Northern Kingdom, The Last New Yorker, Choking Man.
Bill Buell has appeared on Broadway in Equus, The History Boys, Inherit the Wind, Urinetown, 42nd Street, Titanic, Tommy, Taking Steps, Big River, Annie, Once a Catholic, The First, Welcome to the Club, The Miser, and Anna Karenina. His Off-Broadway credits include The Fourth Sister, Eight Days Backwards (Vineyard Theatre); Andorra, Waste (Theatre for a New Audience); Bad Habits, Aristocrats (Manhattan Theatre Club); Queens Boulevard (Signature Theatre Company); Kin, On the Bum, Violet-concert (Playwrights Horizons); Picasso at the Lapine Agile, The Common Pursuit, The Mysteries, and The False Servant (Classic Stage Company). With The Public’s Shakespeare in the Park: Tartuffe, The Winter’s Tale, and Twelfth Night. His Yale Rep appearances include Much Ado About Nothing and last season’s The Master Builder. Film and television credits include Across the Universe, Spy Game, Welcome to the Dollhouse, The Love Letter, Requiem for a Dream, Quiz Show, Palindromes, Kinsey, Dark Water, The Box; “Boardwalk Empire,” “30 Rock,” “Blue Bloods,” “The Bronx Is Burning,” “John Adams,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, “The Jamie Kennedy Experience,” “Law & Order,” “Ed,” “100 Centre Street,” and “Cosby.”
Hannah Cabell. Broadway credits include A Man for All Seasons (Roundabout). Off-Broadway: Compulsion (The Public Theater), Zero Hour (13P), Pumpgirl, (Manhattan Theatre Club), Jane Eyre (The Acting Company), Millicent Scowlworthy (SPF), Gentleman Caller (Clubbed Thumb), and Mark Smith (13P). Regional and international credits include As You Like It (Continuum Company, Florence); world premieres of Compulsion (Yale Repertory Theater and Berkeley Repertory Theater; BACCA nom), and Sarah Ruhl’s adaptation of Three Sisters (Cincinnati Playhouse); Lewis Black’s Slight Hitch (NY Stage & Film); world premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Berkeley Rep; BACCA nom); Sedition and Mary’s Wedding (Westport Country Playhouse). Television and Interactive include “Law & Order: CI,” “Homefront”, “Grand Theft Auto.” She received an MFA from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts Graduate Acting and is a recent recipient of the Annenberg Fellowship for the Arts.
Eddie Cahill launched his acting career in Nicky Silver’s Off-Broadway production of The Altruists in 2000. He then gained recognition on “Friends” and “Felicity” before landing his most career-defining role as homicide detective Don Flack in the long-running series “CSI: NY”. His film credits include Miracle, Lords of Dogtown, and The Narrows. Eddie was last seen Off-Broadway in the one-act play“I Need a Quote” in celebration of Atlantic Theater’s 25th Anniversary Season.
Anna Chlumsky‘s New York stage credits include: Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Westside Theatre); So Help Me God (Mint Theatre Company); Unconditional (LAByrinth Theater Company); The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (DR2); Darwin in Malibu (Bay Street Theatre); The Butcherhouse Chronicles (Summer Play Festival); Balm in Gilead (Barefoot Theater Company – Member); Half Life (Flea Theater/Fringe Festival); Iphigeneia at Aulis (TimeSpace Productions); Measure for Measure (Astoria Performing Arts Center); No Alarms: Headfullofradio (Veritas Productions); and The Trojan Women (Veritas Productions). Her film credits include: In The Loop, The Pill, Bert & Arnie’s Guide To Friendship, The Good Guy, Blood Car, My Girl 1 & 2, Gold Diggers, the Glamour Reel Short, Wait, My Sweet Misery, and Eavesdrop. Her TV credits include: “White Collar”, “Covert Affairs”, “Cupid”, “30 Rock”, “Law & Order”, Twelve Men of Christmas, 3 Weeks 3 Kids, and the new HBO series, “Veep.”
Jake Silbermann is a native New Yorker. Shortly after graduating from Syracuse University he joined the cast of CBS’s “As the World Turns” where he created the role of Noah Mayer (half of one of daytime television’s most popular couples). Other television work includes “The Good Wife,” “Gossip Girl” and “Guiding Light.” Theatre credits include world premieres of Phaedra Backwards (McCarter Theatre) and Derby Day (Camisade Theatre Company) as well as Dracula (Little Shubert Theatre) alongside George Hearn. He is also the writer and co-producer of the award-winning short film Stuffer.
piece by piece productions is a not for profit producing organization that was started in 1999 by Wendy vanden Heuvel. Its mission is to produce film and theatre that is socially, politically, and spiritually relevant to our times. piece by piece supports the development of theatre/film artists and their original work through workshops, readings, and the productions of new plays/documentaries. Productions have included: Medea directed by Deborah Warner with Fiona Shaw, The Tricky Part by Martin Moran, Too Much Memory by Keith Reddin and Meg Gibson, co- produced with Rising Phoenix Repertory at The 4th Street Theatre, Ode to the Man Who Kneels by Richard Maxwell, in association with the NY City Players, The Walworth Farce and Mister Man by Enda Walsh, Mabou Mines Dollhouse, and Brief Encounter and The Red Shoes by Emma Rice, in association with St Ann’s Warehouse, Slipping and Yosemite by Daniel Talbott and underneathmybed by Florencia Lozano in association with Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, My Name is Rachel Corrie in association with the Royal Court Theatre, Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov and Seagull in association with Brian Mertes and Melissa Kievman at Lake Lucille and Lucia, and Peter and Wendy (2011) (Mabou Mines), Elective Affinities in association with Soho Rep and Rising Phoenix Rep. Other productions soon to be produced: Obskena by Tina Shepard (Talking Band), La Divina (Mabou Mines, St Anns Warehouse) Oysters, Orgasms & Ovums by Raina Von Waldenburg (La Mama). Films: The Rest I Make Up: Documenting Irene by Michelle Memran (a documentary about the life and work of the playwright Irene Fornes.
Founded in 1999 by Artistic Director Daniel Talbott, New York Innovative Theater Award winning company Rising Phoenix Repertory began by producing an ongoing reading series of new plays and has continued to add workshops, festivals, and highly praised productions of new plays. Recent productions include the acclaimed, sold-out Off-Broadway runs of Slipping, produced with piece by piece Productions and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, and Too Much Memory (also with piece by piece Productions) which transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop’s Fourth Street Theatre after winning the FringeNYC award for Outstanding Play in 2008. Inspired by Joe Cino and his Caffe Cino—one of the original birthplaces of Off-Off-Broadway theatre and early home to such writers as Doric Wilson, John Guare, Sam Shepard, and Lanford Wilson, the company has commissioned playwrights to write new, full-length plays to be fully produced in one week at the Seventh Street Small Stage in a year and a half long series running through June 2012. Other recent productions include Ceremony, Afterclap, Birthday and Don’t Pet the Zookeeper (Seventh Street Small Stage); 365 Days/365 Plays (Jimmy’s No. 43 and The Public Theater); What Happened When(HERE Arts Center); Fall Forward(part of the Sitelines/River to River festival produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council); The Telling Trilogy (including The Ride, 2006 NYIT Award Nominee – Outstanding Original Short Script- Crystal Skillman), Rules of the Universe(Winner, 2007 NYIT Awards for Outstanding Original Short Script – Daniel Reitz and Director – Daniel Talbott), and Three Sisters (both at the Seventh Street Small Stage); Gift by Mark Schultz and Ponies by Mike Batistick (FringeNYC). For more information visit www.RisingPhoenixRep.org.
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is a multi-award-winning organization and recipient of the 2007 Ross Wetzsteon Memorial OBIE Award, recognizing Rattlestick for their work and mission: developing and producing innovative new plays. Rattlestick has produced over forty-five world premieres in the past fifteen years. Now in their 16th Season, Rattlestick has introduced new writers and received critical acclaim for its innovative work. Rattlestick’s Advisory Board participates in The Emerging Playwrights Project, which matches a new playwright with an established artist for an experienced eye and creative support. Playwright and artist mentors have included Edward Albee, Jon Robin Baitz, Zoe Caldwell, Arthur Kopit, Craig Lucas, Joe Mantello, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman and Adam Rapp. Previous plays include, among others: Two Boys in a Bed, Message to Michael, Carpool, Volunteer Man (OBIE Award), A Trip to the Beach, Ascendancy, Stuck, Vick’s Boy, The Messenger, Saved or Destroyed (OBIE Award), Neil’s Garden, Faster, The Last Sunday in June (GLAAD Award-nomination), St. Crispin’s Day, Where We’re Born, Five Flights, Boise, Finer Noble Gases, The Pavilion (Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Play of 2005) God Hates The Irish: The Ballad of Armless Johnny (Drama Desk Award nomination), Miss Julie, Acts of Mercy: passion-play, Cagelove, It Goes Without Saying, Dark Matters, Stay, American Sligo, War, Steve & Idi, Lady (Drama Desk Award nomination), Geometry of Fire, That Pretty Pretty; Or, The Rape Play, The Amish Project, Slipping, Killers and Other Family, Post No Bills and The Aliens (OBIE Award).
3C plays Monday through Friday at 7pm and Saturday at 2pm and 7pm through Saturday, July 14. There will be no performance on Wednesday, July 4. Tickets are $55 and may be purchased by visiting www.ticketcentral.com; by phoning 212-279-4200; or in person at 416 West 42 Street. Box office hours are Monday through Sunday 12pm-8pm. For more information about 3C, visit www.3Ctheplay.com.