59E59 Theaters Presents Country Musical HERE I GO, Beginning 5/20

 

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes Monk Parrots with the world premiere of HERE I GO, written by David Todd and conceived and directed by Luke Leonard.

HERE I GO begins performances on Tuesday, May 22 for a limited engagement through Sunday, June 3.  Press opening is Thursday, May 24 at 7:30 PM.  The performance schedule is Tuesday – Thursday at 7:30 PM; Friday at 8:30 PM; Saturday at 2:30 PM; and Sunday at 3:30 PM. There is an added performance on Saturday, June 2 at 8:30 PM. Performances are at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues). Tickets are $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). To purchase tickets, call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 or go to www.59e59.org.

HERE I GO hitches its horse to the emotional rollercoaster of classic country music. Dolly Parton’s biggest fan Lynette, a cowgirl in her 60s, has lost her husband. After mixing a final batch of her famous banana pudding, Lynette prepares to commit suicide to rejoin him. Will she go?

The cast includes Mariah Ilardi-Lowy, Joey LePage, Gates Leonard, Natalie Leonard, Michael Howell, Julie Nelson, and Jessica Pohlman.

The production designer is Luke Leonard. The lighting designer is Eric Nightengale. Sound design is by Michael Howell.

Luke Leonard (Director/Production Designer) is Producing Artistic Director of Monk Parrots.  He has written, directed, and designed fourteen shows in New York since 1997 and created three original works in 2011 for his company, Monk Parrots.  Directing credits include: David Lang and Mac Wellman’s opera, The Difficulty of Crossing a Field (nominated for eight 2010 Austin Critics’ Table Awards including “Best Opera” and ranked No. 4 on Austin Chronicle’s "Top Ten Theatrical Wonders of 2010"), and the first Italian translation of Israel Horovitz’s The Indian Wants the Bronx presented in several cities across Italy.  Current directing/designing projects include Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw for Opera Moderne at Symphony Space on May 26, 2012 and a new opera with nationally-acclaimed artists Kirk Lynn and Peter Stopschinski.  He is a recipient of a 2011 Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Swing Space Artist Residency and holds a Master of Fine Arts in Directing from The University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Brooklyn College.

David Todd’s (Playwright) plays have been performed or developed in NYC at theaters including Soho Rep, The Directors Company, HERE, NY Theater Workshop, the Ontological at St. Mark’s Church, and Nada Show World, and in regional theaters in DC, Portland, and Chicago.  His journalism has appeared in The Villager and Downtown Express, and his fiction in Crowd and The Brooklyn Rail.  Playwriting residencies include Hangar Theater (Ithaca), Classic Studio (NYC) & Chicago Dramatists.  He earned his MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU and his PhD at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  As an instructor, he has taught at colleges including SUNY Stony Brook and NYU.