| Tony Speciale to Direct Industry Reading of Michael Weller's BUYER BEWARE | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 05:48 pm EST 02/12/19 | |
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| Tony Speciale to Direct Industry Reading of Michael Weller’s New Play, BUYER BEWARE or How Lenny Bruce Found a Safe Space (and lost it again) Written by Academy Award-Nominee Michael Weller, the provocative new play examines the ferocious and transgressive voice of legendary comedian Lenny Bruce. BUYER BEWARE or How Lenny Bruce Found a Safe Space (and lost it again) By Michael Weller Directed by Tony Speciale February 26, 2019 at 2:30pm and 6:00pm HERE (145 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan) rsvp@theviciouscircle.org The Vicious Circle (Jerry Marsini, Meredith Lynsey Schade and Tony Speciale, Founders) will present two private industry readings of Academy Award-nominee Michael Weller’s new play, BUYER BEWARE or How Lenny Bruce Found a Safe Space (and lost it again), directed by Tony Speciale. Casting to be announced. BUYER BEWARE tells the story of Ron Avakian, an underperforming legacy student, who discovers the work of Lenny Bruce in his university's archives and is blown away by Bruce's ferocious and transgressive voice. Bruce’s humor is so much a revelation to Ron, that he plans a "tribute" performance to honor the legendary comic. Instead, he provokes a campus protest, administrative panic, and escalating missteps that threaten the institution by putting a critical endowment in jeopardy. BUYER BEWARE was commissioned by the playwright’s alma mater as part of his Brandeis Creative Arts Award in 2016-17. It was designed as a tribute to Lenny Bruce, whose papers the university acquired, and whose provocative humor inspired the piece. Its planned premiere in November 2017 instead provoked an outcry by some students that the play not be performed on campus and the production was subsequently canceled. Stimulated by the surprising life-imitating-art turn of events at Brandeis, Weller has since retooled and deepened the play. The readings of BUYER BEWARE will be held on Tuesday, February 26 that 2:30pm and 6:00pm at HERE, located at 145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10013. For more information on the play or to make a reservation, call (929) 264-7085 or email rsvp@theviciouscircle.org. Michael Weller (Playwright) earned a degree in music composition from Brandeis University and a Diploma in Drama, from University of Manchester, UK. Lived/wrote in London for seven years, then returned to U.S.A. and has lived here since. 40 plus plays produced including Moonchildren, Loose Ends, Spoils of War, and 50 Words and the musical Doctor Zhivago. His most recent play, Jericho, premiered in January 2018 and was presented by Attic Theatre Company. Screenplays: Hair, Ragtime, Lost Angels. TV: "Once & Again," and "Spoils of War." Weller's work has received an Academy Award nomination, an N.A.A.C.P. Outstanding Contribution Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant and a Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays Award. Tony Speciale (Director) conceived, coauthored and directed the world premiere of Plastic Theatre’s Unnatural Acts (Classic Stage Company—Drama Desk Award nomination, GLAAD Media Award nomination). Tony served as Artistic Director of Abingdon Theatre Company from 2015-2018 and as Associate Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company (CSC) from 2008-2012. Off-Broadway: James Lecesne’s The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey (Dixon Place, Westside Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream featuring Bebe Neuwirth, Christina Ricci, Steven Skybell and Taylor Mac (CSC) and The Boy Who Danced On Air by Tim Rosser and Charlie Sohne (Abingdon). Regional: The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey (National Tour), Barry Manilow’s Harmony (Alliance, Ahmanson) and Romeo and Juliet (Actors Theatre of Louisville). Tony has developed new work at The Goodman Theatre's New Stages Festival, Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor, Sundance Theatre Lab at Mass MoCA and The Public Theatre's Under the Radar Festival. tonyspeciale.com About The Vicious Circle The Vicious Circle was founded in 2010 to create, develop and produce new, ensemble-based works. Past projects have included producing the international Gun Control Theatre Action Week festival of plays with NoPassport, the development of the play Locust Song by Jerry Marsini, Unnatural Acts by Plastic Theatre (Classic Stage Company), and Soulographie: Our Genocides, a series of 17 plays written by Erik Ehn on human rights issues – the latter of which was produced across the nation over the course of two years, culminating in a two-week marathon at La MaMa in November 2012. |
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