Every day is opening night.

The McKittrick Hotel to Present Manhattan Premiere of Acclaimed “Ghost Quartet” This January

Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Scott Braun / Pete Sanders / Jaron Caldwell
rick@oandmco.com / scott@oandmco.com / pete@oandmco.com / jaron@oandmco.com
212-695-7400

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

 

THE McKITTRICK HOTEL,
HOME OF “SLEEP NO MORE,”
TO BRING THE ACCLAIMED
“ G H O S T   Q U A R T E T ”
TO MANHATTAN AUDIENCES
 

JANUARY 8 – 15, 2015
 

New York, NY The McKittrick Hotel (530 W 27th Street, New York, NY), home of Sleep No More, is pleased to announce that it will present the Manhattan premiere of the thrilling song cycle Ghost Quartet by Obie Award winner Dave Malloy for eight performances only beginning January 5, 2015 through January 18.  Ghost Quartet, performed by Malloy alongside Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 alums Brittain Ashford, Gelsey Bell and cellist Brent Arnold, and directed by Annie Tippe, is a vibrant theatrical presentation of the ensemble’s debut album, also called “Ghost Quartet.”   Tickets for Ghost Quartet are $45-$65 and available at events.mckittrickhotel.com/ghostquartet.

Award-winning composer Dave Malloy presents Ghost Quartet, a new song cycle about love, death, and whiskey.  A camera breaks and four friends drink in four interwoven narratives spanning seven centuries: a warped fairy tale about two sisters, a treehouse astronomer and a lazy evil bear; a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher”; a purgatorial intermezzo about Scheherazade and the ghost of Thelonious Monk; and a contemporary fable about a subway murder. Throughout these four stories, two women cross paths, sometimes as strangers, sometimes as sisters, sometimes as lovers, sometimes as mother and daughter.

Blurring the line between theater and contemporary music performance, Ghost Quartet will be staged in the round in an intimate setting within The McKittrick Hotel, with the musicians seated amongst the audience.  The piece is scored for four voices, cello, guitars, dulcimer, autoharp, piano, keyboards and percussion, and is inspired by murder ballads, doo-wop, angular bebop, Chinese folk, Islamic adhan, and the music of Bernard Herrmann and George Crumb.  Ghost Quartet premiered at The Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn in October 2014, to rave reviews.

Ghost Quartet designed by Christopher Bowser, and dramaturged by James Monaco.

The McKittrick Hotel is the home of the immersive theater experience Sleep No More, produced by EMURSIVE (Jonathan Hochwald, Arthur Karpati, and Randy Weiner, principals) in association with rebecca gold productionsEMURSIVE produces immersive theatre in extraordinary places.  For additional information, please visit: www.sleepnomore.com.

 

####

 

www.oandmco.com

www.twitter.com/oandmco

www.sleepnomore.com

 

####

 

 

ARTIST BIOS 

 

Dave Malloy is a composer/writer/performer/sound designer. He is the winner of 2 Obie Awards, the Richard Rodgers Award, and a Jonathan Larson Grant, and is the composer for Banana Bag & Bodice. His shows include Black Wizard / Blue Wizard; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812; All Hands; Three Pianos; Beardo; Beowulf – A Thousand Years of Baggage; The Sewers; Sandwich; Clown Bible; and (The 99-cent) Miss Saigon. He lives in Brooklyn.  davemalloy.com

Brittain Ashford is a Brooklyn based performer/musician. She has toured the country extensively with her band, Prairie Empire, taking pictures of cats along the way. She recently appeared as Sonya in Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812.  prairieempire.org

Gelsey Bell is a singer, songwriter, and scholar. She is a core member of thingNY and Varispeed, and has worked with numerous artists in the creation of new work, including Robert Ashley, Jonathan Bepler, Matthew Barney, Yasuko Yokoshi, Kimberly Bartosik, Rachel Chavkin, Kate Soper, Rick Burkhardt, and John King, among others. Gelsey is also an ABD doctoral candidate in Performance Studies at NYU and the Critical Acts co-editor for TDR/The Drama Review.  gelseybell.com.

Brent Arnold is a cellist and composer with a wildly unorthodox approach to his instrument, using amplification, guitar-like fingerpicking, electronics, and elements of Arabic, Persian, and African music. He composed the cello music for Louis C.K.’s tv show Louie, and has worked with Reggie Watts, Kristin Hersh, DJ/Rupture, Eyvind Kang, Modest Mouse, Jherek Bischoff, Wayne Horvitz, Simone White, Sleater-Kinney, and Filastine, among many others. Brent studied the cello with Walter Gray of the Kronos Quartet and legendary jazz violinist Michael White.  audiofriction.com

Annie Tippe is a NY-based director and performer. She was the Associate Director for the TEAM's production of Mission Drift, Australia/Hong Kong Tour (dir. Rachel Chavkin). Directing credits include Aaron/Marie (w/ Rachel Chavkin; Ars Nova's ANT Fest, Under The Radar Festival's Incoming! series, Prelude Festival), I Heard Sex Noises (ANT Fest), DEBUTANTE (Bernie Wohl Center; ANT Fest), A Quiet Sip of Coffee (Wildside Festival, Montreal), The Fall of Hotel Mudafier (SWIFT), Dinosaur Play (HERE Arts), The Collected Rules of Gifted Camp (The Brick), First Ladies Project (E. 4th Street Theater). Williamstown Theater Directing Intern 2012. Director for HERE Arts' Smith & Tinker Writers Group 2013.

Christopher Bowser is a Brooklyn-based theater artist and director dedicated to working with multidisciplinary and sociopolitical live performance. Recent directing: Pyre Cantata (Bushwick Starr and HERE Arts), a new opera by Trevor Bachman; Golden Baby: Good Point!, Sketch Comedy at Ars Nova's ANTFest; Valhalla (Secret Theatre); Invisible Art, a site-specific piece in Williamsburg, BK; Thérèse Raquin (NYU). Design: I Heard Sex Noises (dir. Annie Tippe; Ars Nova); Macbeth (dir. Tony Speciale; CSC Young Company), world premier A Four Letter Word (dir. Tony Speciale; Nottingham, England), First Ladies Project (dir. Annie Tippe; Robert Moss Theater). BFA: NYU Tisch at Playwrights Horizons Theater School.

James Harrison Monaco is a storyteller, writer, performer, and musician.  His current story and music project with composer Jerome Ellis, titled Aaron/Marie (co-directed by Rachel Chavkin and Annie Tippe), has played at Ars Nova's ANT Fest, Under The Radar Festival's Incoming! series, and Prelude Festival. He frequently collaborates with director Rachel Chavkin, who previously directed his storytelling show Reception (at HERE Arts, and The New Ohio Theatre as part of soloNOVA) and his play Up The Great And Shining Sky (at NYU). With Jerome Ellis he scored and performed in Love Machine (dir. Andrew Scoville) at Incubator Arts.  jamesharrisonmonaco.blogspot.com