La MaMa E.T.C. in association with The Magis Theatre Company will present Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition, Kalidasa's 5th century classic, for a limited engagement from February 11-28, 2010, at The Ellen Stewart Theatre (The Annex) at La MaMa, 74A East 4th Street. The production features the music of Rudresh Mahanthappa and a script adapted by The Magis Theatre Company. George Drance is the director.
An epic of love, fidelity, courageous faith, hope in spite of despair, and memory, Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition was written by India's master poet Kalidasa. Bringing this 1,500 year work back to the stage provides Magic Theatre Company with a lavish opportunity to engage some of the most beautiful traditions of the past and some of the most exciting innovations of the present. Working with classical Indian techniques of storytelling, and contemporary music by the award-winning Rudresh Mahanthappa, Magis will transport its audiences to a world big enough to hold a fairy-tale and real enough to provide insights of ourselves.... where lush forests sing, heavenly "apsaras" fly, curses give way to blessings, and promises once forgotten are ultimately honored. The rich poetry of the work, when first introduced to the west in the 18th century, created a sensation that ushered in the age of Romanticism, and has influenced artists from Goethe, to Coleridge, to Schubert, to our own Thornton Wilder.
Performances are Thursday through Saturdays at 7:30 PM, and Sundays at 2:30 PM. The production is presented in two acts with one 15-minute intermission. Tickets are $18 (general admission), and $13 (students and seniors). Tickets may be purchased at the La MaMa box office, by phone at 212/475-7710, or online at (www.lamama.org).
The Magis Theatre's ensemble includes (in alphabetical order): George Drance, Josey Flyte, Casey Groves, Erika Iverson, Jarde Jacobs, Walker Lewis, Wendy Mapes, Soneela Nankani, Sajeev Pillai, Margi Sharp, Colista Turner and Taylor Valentine.
The production credits are: George Drance, director; Nicole Brodeur, assistant director; Gian Marco Lo Forte, set design; Cathy Shaw, costume design; Federico Restrepo, lighting design; Saju George; movement advisor; and Stephanie Brookover, stage manager.
The E.T.C./Magis production of Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition is conceived and staged by George Drance, Artistic Director and co-founder of The Magis Theatre Company, who has performed and directed in more than 20 countries. He has served as Artistic Director of Theatre YETU in Kenya and served as artistic associate for Teatro la Fragua in Honduras. He has acted in productions in New York, Boston, and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club's Great Jones Repertory. He has been a guest artists and lecturer at Columbia University, Cornell University, Marymount Manhattan, Hebrew Union and Boston College. He has been on the faculties of the Marist International Center in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Red Cloud Indian School on the Oglala Sioux Reservation. He is presently Artist-in-Residence and teacher of Acting at Fordham University.
The Magis Theatre Company (www.magistheatre.org) was formed in the fall of 2003 when several alumni of Columbia's MFA Acting program were seeking a way to continue the rigorous and specific kinds of training they received in graduate school. At the same time, the president of Notre Dame High School asked Artistic Director George Drance to assist with the after-school drama program in exchange for use of the school's gym/auditorium for weekly training and rehearsal sessions; when the program began volunteer core members of Magis began teaching the students. From this relationship, an ensemble of actors and teaching artists was born. They were soon joined by others who shared their desire for actor-driven physically based theatre. Since then, Magis has staged four productions, including the critically acclaimed adaptation of C.S. Lewis' novel, The Great Divorce, an adaptation that has since been used by several theatre companies across the country, and is currently being performed by the Taproot Theatre in Seattle. Magis members have presented its specific work methods at the Voice Foundation's Annual Symposium, the Austrian Voice Institute, New York State Theatre Education Association and the New York Public Library for Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. In the fall of 2007, it began the Magis Student Actor Training Institute, sponsoring students from all over New York City in its after school program.
