Christopher Larkin (who starred as Young Bruce Lee in last year's reading of the Broadway-bound musical Bruce Lee: Journey to the West), Rory Lipede, and Jon-Michael Reese will star in Harrison David Rivers' WHEN LAST WE FLEW, premiering in the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, with performances from August 18th-August 29th. A funny and touching look at life in small town America, WHEN LAST WE FLEW has been developed at Lincoln Center, New York Theatre Workshop, and most recently the Sundance Theater Lab, and will be directed by Colette Robert (Work at Ars Nova, Released at The Culture Project) and produced by DRD Theatricals/Anthony Francavilla, Eric Louie, and Carreon Productions, with support from Old Vic New Voices.
Before we were human. We were birds. And. We. Were. Magnificent! Inspired by Tony Kushner's Angels in America, WHEN LAST WE FLEW is a moving and often humorous look at life in small town America from a contemporary teenage perspective. After stealing his local library's only (and unread) copy of Angels in America, misfit teenager Paul locks himself in the bathroom and begins reading the landmark play. He soon finds that his life and the lives of those around him in his small Kansas suburb are about to take flight, and over the course of a seemingly ordinary day, extraordinary things start to happen...
Joining Larkin, Lipede and Reese in the cast will be film/TV actor Wade Allain-Marcus (Gossip Girl, Burn Notice, MTV's American Mall), Broadway's Karen Pittman (Passing Strange), and Tamela Aldridge. Playwright Rivers is no stranger to FringeNYC, his play And She Said, He Said, I Said Yes had a sold out run in last year's festival at HERE Arts Center (and was also presented at Joe's Pub this past April), and his play Fell was at Fringe in 2008. His work has also been developed and produced at Atlantic Theater, Second Stage, Ars Nova, Dixon Place, 3LD, and The American Airlines Theater. The creative team for WHEN LAST WE FLEW also features Anika Chapin (casting) Anne Goelz (scenic design), KJ Hardy (lighting design), Julia Meinwald (sound design), Sven Nelson (prop design), and Jessica Pabst (costume design).
WHEN LAST WE FLEW has also partnered with an innovative new online fundraising venture called RocketHub, which allows audiences to not only have a say in what work gets produced, but also have a vested interest long before they walk into the theater. By using RocketHub the production is building a community of supporters to not only help present the upcoming FringeNYC production, but to join the production's journey after the festival. In the last month and for the next month leading up to the Fringe premiere, a variety of interactive content has been and will be uploaded to RocketHub (such as video interviews with the creative team and cast, rehearsal footage etc). WHEN WE LAST FLEW is the first theater project to partner with RocketHub, and the profile can be viewed at: http://rockethub.com/projects/129-when-last-we-flew-make-it-fly
WHEN LAST WE FLEW will run at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street between Hudson and Bleecker), with performances on Thursday 8/18 at 4:45pm, Tuesday 8/24 at 2pm, Wednesday 8/25 at 8pm, Friday 8/27 at 9:45pm, and Sunday 8/29 at 2:30pm. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at www.FringeNYC.org or by phone at 866.468.7619 beginning July 23rd. For more information on please visit www.WhenLastWeFlew.com
