SPRING THEATREWORKS, INC.
Jeffrey Horne, Executive Director
25 JAY STREET, STUDIO 203 BROOKLYN, NY 11201 917.213.1242 www.springtheatreworks.com
For immediate release, please.
SPRING THEATREWORKS, INC. presents
“URGE”
World premiere of the new American-English translation of Franz Xaver Kroetz’s ‘DER DRANG’
Performances beginning Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 8 p.m. at Spring’s Loft in DUMBO
Spring Theatreworks (Jeffrey Horne, Executive Director) is presenting URGE by Franz Xaver Kroetz, newly translated from the German by Hans Moennig and directed by Jeffrey Horne. Performances will begin Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 8 p.m. at Spring’s Performance Loft in DUMBO, Brooklyn at 25 Jay Street (between Plymouth & John Sts; F to York Street, A/C to High Street). Admission is $20. Reservations are strongly encouraged as seating is limited. Seats can be reserved by emailing name, performance choice and number of seats to urge@springtheatreworks.com. This production contains strong sexual content not suitable for children less than 18 years of age.
Spring Theatreworks commissioned Hans Moennig to create a new American-English translation of Franz Xaver Kroetz’s play DER DRANG (URGE), a fierce and brutally frank dark-comedy written in 1994. URGE is centered on Otto and Hilde, married gardeners who make a living selling flower arrangements for funerals. Hilde’s brother Fritz has just been released from prison and is staying with Otto and Hilde until he can get back on his feet. Incarcerated for chronic indecent exposure, Fritz must take drive-reducing medication to prevent him from acting on his desires in public again. So meeting Hilde’s sexually desperate assistant, Mitzi, proves quite a challenge! All the while, Otto is convinced Fritz has more problems than just his uncontrollable libido, but while trying to figure that out he manages to discover the extent of his own unruly urges instead. Kroetz is known for his ability to dissect human nature into its most fundamental components, stripping his characters down to their barest needs and desires. In essence, URGE is a study of the animalistic instincts naturally inherent in all of us. As much as we try to repress them, they still manage to find a way to the surface. Spring will be presenting URGE in their signature intimate loft space in the heart of DUMBO.
Franz Xaver Kroetz rose to prominence in German contemporary theatre in the early 1970’s as part of a group of West German writers who chose to write a genre they dubbed “critical folk plays.” These writers sought not to dramatize the traditional virtues of simple folk, but instead a more naked portrayal of the life of common man. Kroetz’s popularity in particular was derived from the fact that his plays were initially perceived as sensationally scandalous, pornographic and exotic. DER DRANG (URGE) is one of Kroetz’s later works, and is actually a re-adaptation of a shorter play he wrote in 1972 titled LIEBER FRITZ. He revisited that play in the early 90’s to create DER DRANG (URGE). He masterfully mixes universally topical themes, such as the dehumanizing effects of economic exploitation and man’s ensuing battle to remain true to his human nature in spite of modernization, with a minimalist, filmic style and elements of Brecht and the ‘theater of the absurd.’ His other popular works include Heimarbeit, Stallerhof, Mensch Meier, Das Nest and Ich bin das Volk. Kroetz was born in 1946 in Munich and currently lives with his wife and three children in Altenmarkt, Germany. He received the Bertolt-Brecht-Literaturpreis in 1995.
Director Jeffrey Horne is the Executive Director and founder of Spring Theatreworks. He previously directed their productions of Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot in 2000, Eugene Ionesco’s Frenzy For Two or More (translated by Donald Watson) in 2001 and Janusz Glowacki’s Cinders (translated by Christina Paul) in 2003. Off-Off Broadway Review called Frenzy for Two “an entertaining one-act tour de force.” 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 listed Cinders in Backstage as one of the most memorable productions of the 2003 season. Jeffrey has also served as producer or co-producer on all of Spring’s productions and has also produced with Oslo Elsewhere. Jeffrey is a graduate of Southern Methodist University’s Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas and now a 10-year resident of New York City.
Spring Theatreworks, a Brooklyn-based non-profit theatre company, was founded in 2000 and is dedicated to fostering new and diverse voices in the American theatre by nurturing innovative approaches to storytelling from home and abroad. All of Spring’s productions are conceived, created and often produced in their signature intimate loft space in DUMBO, Brooklyn. To date, they have presented 23 productions in NYC, 15 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 ARDEN: THE LAMENTABLE TRAGEDIE OF A DUMBO REAL ESTATE MOGUL in April 2007, POOR JACOB’S HAMLET, an ultra-minimalist adaptation of HAMLET in November 2006 and Steven Gridley’s STILL-LIFE (WITH RUNNER) in October 2005, which was hailed as “sensational, jolting, involving theatre.” They also notably co-produced the June 2004 U.S. debut of preeminent Norwegian playwright Jon Fosse’s NIGHT SINGS ITS SONGS with Oslo Elsewhere, directed & translated by company member Sarah Cameron Sunde at The Culture Project. In July 2004 they produced two new plays by acclaimed Chicago playwright Brett Neveu in “BRETTFEST 2004: 2 by Neveu.” Anita Gates of The NY Times described the performances in NIGHT SINGS ITS SONGS as “uniformly excellent” and nytheatre.com called TWENTYONE by Brett Neveu “one of the finest new plays in town.” The artists currently represented by Spring Theatreworks are Karen Forte, Steven Gridley, Doug Simpson, Sarah Cameron Sunde, Jacob Titus, Erin Treadway and David Wylie. The Executive Director is Jeffrey Horne and the Associate Producer is Michelle Salerno. For more information go to www.springtheatreworks.com.
The cast of URGE features Karen Forte, Tony Naumovski, Jonathan Stemmler and Erin Treadway. Opening night is Wednesday, November 28 at 8 p.m. and performances run on Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. through December 8. Admission to all performances is $20. For reservations, send an email to urge@springtheatreworks.com including name, choice of performance and number of seats. Seating is limited to 20 per performance so reservations are strongly encouraged! This production contains strong sexual content not suitable for children less than 18 years of age. More information and production images can be found at Spring Theatreworks’ website at www.springtheatreworks.com.