SPRING THEATREWORKS, INC.

25 JAY STREET, STUDIO 203   BROOKLYN, NY 11201         917.213.1242         www.springtheatreworks.com

For immediate release, please.

SPRING THEATREWORKS, INC. presents

The world premiere of STEVEN GRIDLEY’S

“POST-OEDIPUS”

 A radical reworking of “The Phoenician Women” by Euripides

A new play that chronicles the events of Oedipus’ family after his fall

 

Performances begin Thursday, NOVEMBER 11 at C.S.V. – Flamboyan Theatre

Spring Theatreworks (Jeffrey Horne, Artistic Director) will present POST-OEDIPUS, a new play written by Steven Gridley.  The production is co-directed by the writer and Jacob Titus and will begin performances at the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center’s Flamboyan Theatre, 107 Suffolk Street (between Delancey and Rivington Sts.) on Thursday, November 11 at 8 p.m.  Call 212-502-8560 for reservations.

Spring is proud to produce another new play by company member Steven Gridley: POST-OEDIPUS. A radical re-working of Euripides’ play The Phoenician Women, the play chronicles the events of Oedipus’ family after the fall of Oedipus.  POST-OEDIPUS uses the structure of a photo album to unravel the mental state of the family after disaster.  Four large frames serve as “pictures” in which scenes are framed and admired by each family member as they attempt to glorify themselves in the midst of their turmoil.  The play sheds light on the chaos of the characters’ minds as it careens through time periods, acting styles, musical interjections, intensely emotional reveries and visual images, giving a new meaning to the term “family values.”  This production received workshop performances earlier this year at One Arm Red in DUMBO, Brooklyn and at HERE’s American Living Room Festival and received the following praise from Spencer Chandler of nytheatre.com: “The production managed to hit so many right notes…was very moving, entertaining and surprising.  It should get even riper with the day-to-day momentum of a longer engagement.”

Steven Gridley is a founding member of Spring Theatreworks.  His last play, SUN, STAND THOU STILL, was recently published in the Plays and Playwrights 2004 Anthology, edited by Martin Denton, after Spring’s production at Altered Stages in June 2003.  In his review, Martin Denton called the work “an amazing piece: deliberately enigmatic, deliciously complicated, quirkily surreal, irresistibly entertaining, and entirely satisfying.”  Another of Steven’s plays, ECHO’S LONGING produced by Spring in June 2002, won the 2003 Nancy Weil New Play Award.  Other plays by Mr. Gridley that have received their NY debut include: THE ALBATROSS AT SEA (also with Spring Theatreworks), LOVERS IN THE PARK, and THEME AND VARIATIONS.  Steven sits on the Board of Directors of the Off-Off Broadway Community Dish. 

         Director Jacob Titus’s previous directing credits include ANOTHER REVOLUTION with the Triborough Theatre Company, MERCHANT OF VENICE with the West End Shakespeare Company, Spring Theatreworks’ production of Steven Gridley’s SUN, STAND THOU STILL at Altered Stages, SPANKED! at the San Francisco NCTC, at L.A. Highways, at L.A. Tamarind Theatre, and at the NYC Fringe Festival ’02, Steven Gridley’s THEME AND VARIATIONS at the NYC Fringe Festival ’01 and BRILLIANT TRACES, HUMP DAY and PICTURE OF A DOG with the Found Theatre Group in NYC.  For SPANKED! he was nominated for a GLAAD media award.

         Spring Theatreworks was founded in 2000 by Artistic Director Jeffrey Horne.  Spring is a DUMBO, Brooklyn-based non-profit theatre company dedicated to fostering new and diverse voices in the American Theatre and nurturing innovative approaches to storytelling.  To date, they have produced 15 productions in NYC, 9 of which were world premieres.  They support emerging artists through productions of new plays as well as revivals of works by contemporary masters, thereby putting the new works into a specific context.  Their most recent productions were the June 2004 U.S. debut of preeminent Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse’s NIGHT SINGS ITS SONGS at The Culture Project and a July 2004 production of two new plays by Chicago playwright Brett Neveu in “BRETTFEST 2004: 2 by Neveu.”  Anita Gates of The NY Times described the performances in NIGHT SINGS ITS SONGS “uniformly excellent” and nytheatre.com called TWENTYONE by Brett Neveu “one of the finest new plays in town.” Spring’s November 2003 revival of Janusz Glowacki’s CINDERS was described by Martin Denton of nytheatre.com as “thoughtful, provocative, and arresting…boldly acted and brilliantly designed, this is theatre at its very best…surely one of the finest productions of 2003.”  Plus, Andy Propst of Backstage listed CINDERS as one of the most memorable productions of the 2003 season.  The artists currently represented by Spring Theatreworks are Karen Allen, Matthew Drennan, Steven Gridley, Jeffrey Horne, Doug Simpson, Sarah Cameron Sunde and Erin Treadway.  Spring Theatreworks is a proud member of the Off-Off Broadway Community Dish.

The cast of POST-OEDIPUS will feature Karen Allen, Brandon Bales, Andrew Bloch, Craig Bridger, Shawn B. Davis, Tara Gibson and Erin Treadway.  The production will be designed by Steven Gridley with assistance from Jenny Bonilla, lighting designed by Matt Gratz, costumes designed by Rabiah Troncelliti and film consulting by Jeremiah Zagar.  This is an approved Equity Showcase production.

            The complete performance schedule will be November 11 – 14, 18 – 21 and December 2 – 4 at 8 p.m.  Seats will be $15 each. Call 212-502-8560 for reservations.  More information and production images can be found at Spring Theatreworks’ website at www.springtheatreworks.com.

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For further information and to make press reservations please call Jeffrey Horne at 917-213-1242.

REVIEWERS are invited to attend performances beginning Thursday, November 11
 and also will be accommodated at any performance thereafter.