Epic Theatre Ensemble Presents World Premiere of “Pike St.” Written & Performed by Obie Winner
Contact:
Rick Miramontez/Lily Robinson/Patrick Lazour
rick@oandmco.com / lily@oandmco.com / patrick@oandmco.com
212-695-7400
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF A PREMIERE
OFF-BROADWAY PRODUCTION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
EPIC THEATRE ENSEMBLE
PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF
“PIKE ST.”
A NEW PLAY
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
OBIE AWARD-WINNER
NILAJA SUN
ARTIST’S FIRST NEW SOLO WORK SINCE INTERNATIONAL HIT
“NO CHILD…”
PREVIEWS BEGIN NOVEMBER 10
IN THE EXPERIMENTAL THEATER
AT ABRONS ART CENTER
OPENING NIGHT SET FOR NOVEMBER 15
New York, NY (October 1, 2015) – Epic Theatre Ensemble is proud to announce the world premiere production of Pike St., Nilaja Sun’s first solo show since her international hit, the OBIE Award-winning No Child…. Pike St., written and performed by Ms. Sun and directed by Epic’s Executive Director Ron Russell, will begin performances on Tuesday, November 10, 2015 in the experimental theater at Abrons Art Center (466 Grand Street). Opening Night is set for Sunday, November 15th at 8:00 PM.
In the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge, a struggling family prepares to ride out the next big storm. Unable to move her teenaged daughter Candace—whose mysterious aneurysm has rendered her unable to move or breathe on her own—out of their crumbling tenement, Evelyn plans for more than just survival: she fights for healing and redemption. With Pike St., Nilaja Sun uses her trademark humor, political incisiveness, and virtuosity to bring to life the entirety of the Lower East Side, from decorated Puerto Rican war veteran Manny, to octogenarian downstairs neighbor Mrs. Applebaum, to Candace herself. Pike St. also marks Sun’s return home to the Abrons Arts Center, where she took her first acting class and began her extraordinary artistic journey.
Pike St. was originally commissioned by Epic Theatre Ensemble with the support from the New York State Council on the Arts.
For ticket information, performance schedule and further information, please visit PikeSt.nyc or call Abrons Art Center at (212) 598-0400
BIOS______________________________________________________________
NILAJA SUN is the solo performer and writer of the Off-Broadway smash No Child…, which had its initial run with Epic Theatre Ensemble followed by and a yearlong run at the Barrow Street Theatre.
For her creation and performance of No Child… and its subsequent national tour, Nilaja garnered 21 awards including: an Obie Award, a Helen Hayes Award a Lucille Lortel Award, and two Outer Critics Circle Awards including the John Gassner Playwriting Award for Outstanding New American Play. Theatre credits also include The Commons of Pensacola, Einstein’s Gift, Time and The Conways, Huck and Holden, and The Cook. Television/Film credits include “Madam Secretary,” “Louie,” “30 Rock,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Unforgettable,” “The International,” and “Rubicon.” As a solo performer, her projects include the critically acclaimed Blues for a Gray Sun (INTAR), La Nubia Latina, Black and Blue, Insufficient Fare, Due to the Tragic Events of…, and Mixtures. Nilaja was awarded the soloNOVA Award for Artist of the Year by terraNOVA Collective and was recently awarded a NYSCHA grant, through Epic Theatre Ensemble, to create her newest solo piece, Pike St, which will have its world premiere at the Abrons Arts Center in November. A native of the Lower East Side, she is a Princess Grace Award winner and has worked as a teaching artist in New York City for over 15 years.
Ron Russell (Director) has co-founded four theatres that continue to produce today: the nationally-acclaimed Summer Theatre Enrichment Project at El Centro de Servicios in Lorain in 1992; Swine Palace Productions in Louisiana, while receiving his MFA in Directing under the mentorship of the RSC’s Barry Kyle, from 1992-1994; UBI Rep Theatre in San Diego in 1995; and Epic Theatre Ensemble in 2001. With Epic, he has directed 12 Off-Broadway productions of new plays (including the NYC Premieres of Kate Fodor’s Hannah and Martin, Vern Thiessen’s Einstein’s Gift, and a new adaptation of Shaw’s Widowers’ Houses) as well as Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Richard III: Born With Teeth. In other public performance contexts with Epic, he has co-adapted and directed Antigone (OBIE-Award winning), Durrenmatt’s The Visit, Ibsen’s Pillars of Society (which won the International Ibsen Award in 2011), Keith Josef Adkins’ Sugar and Needles, and Dominique Morisseau’s Mend. He has also designed sound for award-winning productions of Nilaja Sun’s No Child… and Judith Thomspon’s Palace of the End. His teaching experience connected to professional theatre production includes over 50 public schools, reaching over 14,000 young people; Ron helped write the NYC Blueprint for Theatre Education and helped found the Bronx HS for Writing and Communication Arts; and his work as an educator in NYC has been recognized by citations from the Municipal Arts Society and Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg.
MIKIKO SUZUKI MACADAMS (Scenic Design) Mikiko is happy to be back to work with Epic Theater Ensemble where she designed set forMacbeth, Born with Teeth, Hold These Truths, Dispatches from (A)mended America, Her recent credits includes, Off Broadway: Cherry Smoke, Our Dad is in Atlantis (Working Theater); points of departure, Tight Embrace, Kissing Fidel (Intar Theatre); Lenin’s Embalmers, Pigeon (Ensemble Studio Theatre). Regional: In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play (Syracuse Satge); The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Oregon Shakespeare festival); It’s A Wonderful Life: a Live Radio Play(Long Wharf Theatre); The Brothers Size, The Cook, The Glass Menagerie (Seattle Repertory Theatre); Abe Lincoln in Illinois, The Year of Magical Thinking (Intiman Theatre);Topdog/Underdog, 9 Parts of Desire (Actors Theatre of Louisville); Hold These Truths (Honolulu Theatre for Youth, PlayMakers Repertory Company); Kingdom of Earth (Yale Repertory Theatre);Low (Cincinati Playhouse & Public Theatre’s Under the Raider Festival); The Mikado (Opera Theatre of St. Louis); Sunday in the park with George (Short North Stage); Its All Bueno(Cornerstone Theater Company) among others. International: Rigoletto (Biwako Hall, Otsu), Three Musketeers the Musical (Nissay Theatre, Tokyo; Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci, Die Csárdásfürstin (Nikikai Opera,Tokyo); Madame Butterfly (Aichi Triennale, Nagoya); The Club(Lylic, Tokyo); Silvester Concert (Suntory Hall, Tokyo). As an associate scenic designer, Broadway credits includes: Fiddler n the Roof, The King and I, The Bridges of Madison County, Golden Boy, That Championship Season, Women on The Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Next Fall, and Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. And Lincoln Center theater’s South Pacific US, Uk and Australian national tours. She is teaching at Rutgers University and Fordham University.
CLINT RAMOS (Costume Design) Recent designs include the Broadway productions of The Elephant Man (Booth) and Violet (Roundabout), Here Lies Love (New York and London). More than 100 New York, regional and international design credits. Honors include the 2013 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence, three Lucille Lortel Awards, the TDF Irene Sharaff Young Master Award, two American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Awards and a Helen Hayes Award.
TYLER MICOLEAU (Lighting Design). Epic Theatre Ensemble: A More Perfect Union, Widowers’ Houses. Recent Off- Broadway: First Daughters Suite, The Fortress Of Solitude (Public Theater), King Liz (2nd Stage Uptown), Iowa (Playwrights Horizons), The Invisible Hand(NYTW), The Winter’s Tale (PublicWorks), The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature). Other notable Off-Broadway: When The Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theater, Lucille Lortel Award), Blasted(Soho Rep, American Theatre Wing Hewes Award), Bug (Lucille Lortel and OBIE Awards). 2010 OBIE award for Sustained Excellence.
EPIC THEATRE ENSEMBLE creates bold work with and for diverse communities that promotes vital discourse and social change by Inspiring students to be creative and engaged citizens, presenting compelling topics that transform the way people think and collaborating with artists, students and thought leaders to produce plays about key issues. Founded in 2001, this collective of theatre makers and teaching artists established a new kind of artist-run theatre that built human bridges between school classrooms, professional stages, and civic centers. This integration of youth development, Citizen-Artist training, and the production of new and classic political plays reached its first apex in 2005 with the co-founding of the Bronx High School for Writing and Communication Arts occurring at the same time as the premiere and commercial transfer of the multi-award winning No Child… by Nilaja Sun. Epic grew rapidly over the next few years, pursuing a plan that led to deeper integration of Epic’s programming including: the 2009 Coming Up Taller Award-winning after-school program, Shakespeare Remix; an annual youth Summer Intensive, which has evolved into the Epic NEXT Arts Leadership Program; and, the festival-style New York premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play.
In 2011, Epic entered a new phase of its evolution, focusing on Epic’s growth as an industry frontrunner in transforming the lives of young people and building deep collaborations with community partners to produce bold theatrical work that re-imagines the critical role art must play in the fight for social justice.
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