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Undermain Theatre is pleased to announce its next show, The Black Monk by David Rabe, based on an Anton Chekhov story, will be performed April 4-May 2, 2009 at Undermain’s Dallas location in historic Deep Ellum. Previews are April 2-3. Katherine Owens will direct. Designed by John Arnone, Steve Woods and Bryan Wofford. Undermain Theatre performances are Wednesdays-Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Fridays-Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are Thurs $15, Fri $20, and Sat $25. Undermain is located at 3200 Main Street at Murray Street in Deep Ellum.  Discounts are available for seniors, students and KERA members. Call 214.747.5515 or visit www.undermain.org.

David Rabe brings Anton Chekov’s spiritual mystery to vivid life.  Tony and Obie award winning writer David Rabe is the author of such classic American contemporary plays as Stick and Bones, Hurlyburly, Streamers, In the Boom Boom Room and more. He’s also written screenplays for films such as I’m Dancing as fast as I can, The Firm and Casualties of War. Undermain returns to Rabe’s work after the acclaimed productions of Rabe’s play Goose and Tom Tom, which Rabe attended in 1991.

Kovrin, a young scholar exhausted to the point of madness by his studies decides to visit his childhood friend Tanya on her father’s garden estate. The two fall in love and plan to marry. Kovrin tells Tanya the legend of the black monk whose image has been reflected in mirages for a thousand years and who will soon return in the flesh. One day in the garden, the black monk appears to the young man and holds the key to either enlightenment or total devastation.

The cast for The Black Monk is: Bruce DuBose as Yegor Semyonitch Pesotsky; Jonathan Brooks as Andrei Vasilich Kovrin; Shannon Kearns-Simmons as Tanya; Newton Pittman as The Black Monk; Stefanie Tovar as Nadia; Richard Rollin as Orlov; Maryam Baig-Lush as Varvara Nikolaevna; Ian Sinclair as Mikhail; Parker Hornsby as Yakov; Ryan Lescalleet as ensemble. Musicians will be Ariana Cook and Reynaldo Patiño.
“The late 19th-century storyteller and the contemporary playwright become one. The graceful flow from one to the other, and from the page to the stage, is remarkable. Mr. Rabe has heightened theatrical possibilities by extending descriptive passages into dramatic scenes that catch fire…The Black Monk is a heady event… Don’t miss it.” -Alvin Klein, The New York Times

ABOUT UNDERMAIN
Undermain Theatre, founded in 1984, is a company of artists that performs new and experimental works in Texas, New York, and Europe. The theater collaborates with playwrights, supports a theater archive and operates a theater under 3200 Main Street in Dallas’ legendary Deep Ellum. Call 214-747-2417 or visit www.undermain.org for more information.
Artistic Director: Katherine Owens. Executive Producer: Bruce DuBose. Associate Producer: Suzanne Thomas.

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Undermain Theatre is pleased to announce its next show, Eurydice, a re-imagining of the classic myth of the lovers Orpheus and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, will be performed Nov. 22-Dec.13, 2008 at Undermain’s Dallas location in historic Deep Ellum. Bruce DuBose will direct.  Undermain Theatre is thrilled to take on the work of this brilliant young writer. Sarah Ruhl’s plays include The Clean House (Susan Smith Blackburn Award, 2004), Melancholy Play, Eurydice, Late: a cowboy song, Orlando, and Passion Play. She received her M.F.A. from Brown University, and is originally from Chicago. In 2003, she was the recipient of a Helen Merrill Award and a Whiting Writers’ Award.
In Eurydice, Sarah Ruhl re-imagines the classic myth of Orpheus through the eyes of its heroine. Dying too young on her wedding day, Eurydice must journey to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love. With contemporary characters, ingenious plot twists, and breathtaking visual effects, the play is a fresh look at a timeless love story.
Undermain Theatre performances are Wednesdays-Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Fridays-Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are Thurs $15, Fri $20, and Sat $25. Undermain is located at 3200 Main Street at Murray Street in Deep Ellum.  Discounts are available for seniors, students and KERA members. Call 214.747.5515 or visit www.undermain.org.
“RHAPSODICALLY BEAUTIFUL. A weird and wonderful new play – an inexpressibly moving theatrical fable about love, loss and the pleasures and pains of memory.” The New York Times

“EXHILARATING!! A luminous retelling of the Orpheus myth, lush and limpid as a dream where both author and audience swim in the magical, sometimes menacing, and always thrilling flow of the unconscious.” The New Yorker

“Touching, inventive, invigoratingly compact …Eurydice reframes the ancient myth of ill-fated love to focus not on the bereaved musician but on his bride — and on her struggle with love beyond the grave” – The San Francisco Chronicle

ABOUT UNDERMAIN
Undermain Theatre, founded in 1984, is a company of artists that performs new and experimental works in Texas, New York, and Europe. The theater collaborates with playwrights, supports a theater archive and operates a theater under 3200 Main Street in Dallas’ legendary Deep Ellum. Call 214-747-2417 or visit www.undermain.org for more information.
Artistic Director: Katherine Owens. Executive Producer: Bruce DuBose. Associate Producer: Suzanne Thomas.

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Undermain Theatre is pleased to announce a special presentation of Monkey: The Quest to the West, created and performed by Fred Curchack and Laura Jorgensen, which will be performed for two weeks only Oct. 9-18, 2008 at Undermain Theatre in historic Deep Ellum.
Monkey: The Quest to the West follows the supernatural trickster Monkey King who makes war with heaven until he is imprisoned under a mountain by Buddha. After 500 years, he is freed to protect a Buddhist monk on his perilous journey from China to India to bring back spiritual teachings. On the way, they encounter all manner of deities, demons, monsters and outrageous misadventures. This magical story has been adapted for The Beijing Opera, several kung fu movies, plays, rock operas, cartoons, anime, manga, and cult TV series in China, Japan, England, and the U.S. (”Lost Empire”).

Undermain Theatre performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Fridays-Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are Thurs $15, Fri $20, and Sat $25. Undermain is located at 3200 Main Street at Murray Street in Deep Ellum.  Discounts are available for seniors, students and KERA members. Call 214.747.5515 or visit www.undermain.org.  For press information: Lisa Taylor, 214-943-1099 or lisatmp@swbell.net. Artistic Director: Katherine Owens. Executive Producer: Bruce DuBose.  Associate Producer: Suzanne Thomas.

BIOGRAPHIES OF PERFORMERS:

Fred Curchack has created over seventy original ensemble theatre pieces and twenty-six solos.  His performances have been featured at dozens of international theatre festivals.  He has received the Gold Medal at the International Festival of Solo Theatre, the American Theatre Wing Award, Critics’ Awards in L.A., S.F., Dallas, Austin, and his work has been “Best of the Week” in Los Angeles Times, “Top Ten of the Year” in The New York Times, “Top Ten of the Decade” in The Austin Chronicle, and in the “Top Ten of All-time” in The Dallas Morning News.  He has received funding from Creative Capital, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts International, The Henson Foundation and he is a Guggenheim Fellow.  After receiving a drama degree from the High School of Performing Arts in N.Y., and a BA and MA in theater from Queens College, Curchack studied Japanese Noh with Sadayo Kita, Indian Kathakali with Krishnan Nambudiri, Balinese Topeng with Nyomen Wenten, choreography with Alwyn Nikolais, and he trained with Grotowski’s Polish Theater Lab.  He has taught theater at the United Nations International School, N.Y.; Sonoma State University, California; and he is currently Professor of Art and Performance at The University of Texas at Dallas.  This is his sixth theatrical collaboration with Laura.

Laura Jorgensen has performed in Craig Lucas’ Blue Window, Reckless, Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest, Christopher Durang’s Laughing Wild, Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance and Three Tall Women, Terrence McNally’s A Perfect Ganesh, G.B. Shaw’s Heartbreak House, Alan Bennet’s Talking Heads, and Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca. She created roles in the world premieres of John O’Keefe’s Glamour and Queer Theory. She was an original member of Western Union Theater Company at Cinnabar Theater.  While living in Budapest, she worked with The English Theater Company and directed its production of Our Country’s Good.  Recently, she performed in Porchlight Theatre’s production of Oscar Wilde’s, The Ideal Husband. She has created and performed five shows with Fred, including The Mental Traveler, Golden Buddha Beach, Sexual Myth-Stories, An American Dream Play.

ABOUT UNDERMAIN
Undermain Theatre, founded in 1984, is a company of artists that performs new and experimental works in Texas, New York, and Europe. The theater collaborates with playwrights, supports a theater archive and operates a theater under 3200 Main Street in Dallas’ legendary Deep Ellum. Call 214-747-2417 or visit www.undermain.org for more information.

Artistic Director: Katherine Owens. Executive Producer: Bruce DuBose. Associate Producer: Suzanne Thomas.

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Undermain Theatre, through special arrangement with Wixen Music Publishing, is pleased to announce the return of its production of Neil Young’s Greendale to Dallas after performances at this summer’s Ice Factory presented by Soho Think Tank at the Ohio Theatre in New York City.  Neil Young’s Greendale, which was adapted for the stage by Bruce DuBose, will be performed Sept. 10-Oct. 4 at Undermain’s Dallas location in historic Deep Ellum.
Neil Young’s Greendale, the rock opera by the legendary singer – songwriter was adapted for the stage by Undermain Theatre and opened in Dallas this Spring before going to New York City this Summer. This song cycle has been compared to Thornton Wilder’s Our Town and Sherwood Anderson’s Winesberg Ohio as a portrait of the changing face of small town America.   Performed with a live band and sung by an ensemble cast, Greendale explores the lives of three generations of the Green family through themes ranging from corruption to mass media consolidation to environmentalism.

The production is performed by a live band composed of lead guitarist Kenny Withrow of New Bohemians. Paul Semrad of Course of Empire on bass, and Grammy winning drummer Alan Emert, of Brave Combo. Undermain Theatre’s artistic Director Katherine Owens directs.

The cast is Bruce DuBose, Newton Pittman, Shannon Kearns-Simmons, Stefanie Tovar, Ian Sinclair, Jonathan Brooks, Marjorie Hayes, Richard Rollin, Ashley Randall. Designers are Giva Taylor and Rhonda Gorman, costumes; Steve Woods, lighting; and Robert Winn, set.

Undermain Theatre performances are Wednesdays-Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. and Fridays-Saturdays at 8:15 p.m. Tickets are Wed and Thurs $15, Fri $20, and Sat $25. Undermain is located at 3200 Main Street at Murray Street in Deep Ellum.  Discounts are available for seniors, students and KERA members. Call 214.747.5515 or visit www.undermain.org.  For press information: Lisa Taylor, 214-943-1099 or lisatmp@swbell.net.

“…Greendale is an overwhelming experience, musically and theatrically.”-Lawson Taitte, The Dallas Morning News

“As presented by the Undermain Theatre, Neil Young’s Greendale is a hellacious piece of rock ‘n’ roll… This baby kicks; you’re not likely to hear a livelier performance in any area theater.”-Jerome Weeks, KERA 90.1 FM

“Undermain Theatre’s performance of Neil Young’s Greendale takes the rock opera close to its source: the sonic undercurrent in every small town… becoming a strange intersection of American dreams, sonic highways, and melodic bridges reminiscent of Wilder’s “Our Town.”- Cheryl Anderson, Edge Dallas

“The dense, driving sound goes right through the audience and makes for a terrific night of music and theater.” -Martha Heimberg, Turtle Creek News