The Tony Award-winning Vineyard Theatre continues its
2007-08 Season with the unique new musical The
Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island (Or, The Friends of Dr. Rushower) with
libretto and drawings by Ben Katchor and music composed by Mark Mulcahy, with
previews to begin January 25, prior to its official press opening on February
12 at Vineyard Theatre (108 East 15th Street), it has been announced by
Vineyard Theatre Artistic Director Douglas Aibel.
Bob McGrath is set to direct the ensemble cast led by
Tony-Award nominee Peter Friedman (Ragtime,
the film "The Savages") as Dr. Rushower, Bobby Steggert (110 in the Shade), Stephen Lee Anderson
(Footloose), and Tom Riis Farrell (Coram Boy). John Carrafa (Urinetown) will choreograph.
"Ben Katchor's drawings form the animated background for The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, set
in and around Manhattan
and on a tropical factory-island of exploited workers. For this unique new
musical, Mr. Katchor was inspired by the tradition of the 'picture reciter,' a
form of live entertainment from 17th-century India. Updating and exploring this
tradition, he has created original, hand-drawn still and animated sequences
which complement Mark Mulcahy's indie-rock score," explain press notes.
The cast of The Slug
Bearers of Kayrol Island includes Stephen Lee Anderson, Tom Riis Farrell,
Jody Flader, Peter Friedman, Matt Pearson, Bobby Steggert and Will Swensen.
The production features set and projections by Jim Findlay
and Jeff Sugg; costume design by Mattie Ullrich; lighting design by Russell H.
Champa; sound design by David Arnold and Brett Jarvis; choreography by John
Carrafa (Urinetown), and musical
direction by Erik James.
Ben Katchor is the recipient of a MacArthur ("Genius
Grant") Foundation Fellowship. His books include: "Cheap
Novelties," "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer: Stories,"
"The Jew of New York," and "The Beauty Supply District."
His comics and strips appear in Metropolis Magazine, The Forward, The New
Yorker, and newspapers around the country. Mr. Katchor's other awards include a
Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation MAP grant. He has been a fellow at American Academy
in Berlin, and in 2007, The Dorothy and Lewis B.
Cullman Center
for Scholars and Writers. He currently teaches at Parsons, The New School for
Design in NYC.
