Due to continuous sold out performances, long lines around street corner blocks and strong critical acclaim, The Amoralists will be moving their celebrated play, The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side, to Off-Broadway. The show's Off-Broadway run will begin on September 10th and run through October 5th at Theatre 80 St. Marks, the former home of The Pearl Theatre Company, located at 80 St. Marks Place between 1st and 2nd Avenues in NYC. The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side is written and directed by Derek Ahonen.
Performances take place on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays at 7:30pm, and Sundays at 5pm. Tickets are $40 and $25 for both students and seniors and can be purchased online at www.TheaterMania.com or by calling 212-352-3101. Warning: Explicit sexual content and utopian ideals - no one under 17 will be admitted. Running time is 2 hours and 45 minutes including two intermissions. For more information visit www.TheAmoralists.com.
An extraordinary gathering of young idealists live as a modern day urban tribe above a vegan restaurant in NYC. Billy, Dawn, Dear and Wyatt are an extended sexual family battling their fears and addictions in order to live their utopian dream. The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side is a celebration of love and the search for human grandness.
CRITICAL ACCLAIM FOR THE PIED PIPERS OF THE LOWER EAST SIDE:
"Ahonen has written full, complex characters, and the committed cast approaches them with sincerity and heart. This is exciting work, fresh and refreshing: The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side makes you want to follow the Amoralists wherever they go next." ~ TimeOut NY, Adam Feldman (4 out of 5 stars)
"The Pied Pipers is fast, funny, raucous, and in your face. All are outstanding. Considerably smart and complex. I'll certainly follow The Amoralists work from now on." ~ The New York Post, Elisabeth Vincentelli
"Rendered with brassy verve by the troupe the Amoralists...deservedly extended at Performance Space 122...exhilarating." ~ The New York Times, Andy Webster
"A nearly three-hour dose of high-energy Steppenwolf-style realism. The young company's deep commitment and contagious exuberance brings to mind the vitality that distinguished the early Off-Off Broadway work of artists like Sam Shepard only a generation ago." ~ The New Yorker, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
"Invigorating, refreshing and subversively uproarious...an exhilarating emotional ride." ~ Variety, Steven Suskin
"The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side is the most exciting theatre I've seen in quite a while; its adventurousness, its fearlessness, and its wide-ranging embrace of a potpourri of important and challenging subjects mark it as something special. A raw, potent, visceral work that means what it says and says what it means." ~ NYTheatre.com, Martin Denton
"The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side manages to entertain, educate and titillate." ~ Back Stage, Jerry Portwood
The Amoralists is a theatre company that produces work with no moral judgment by new and emerging playwrights. Dedicated to an honest expression of the American condition, their actor-driven ensemble explores complex characters of moral ambiguity. They seek to initiate a dialogue between artists and audience, and put theatre at the heart of our community. Rollicking, rebellious and raw, their work will go home with you...Boom!
Derek Ahonen is the resident playwright of The Amoralists Theatre Company. His plays with The Amoralists include Amerissiah, The Hey You Monster Part One: Pokin The Bears In A Zoo and Part Two: Bring Us The Head Of Your Daughter (both published by United Stages) and While Chasing The Fantastic. Martin Denton of NYTheatre.com says "His talent as a playwright is very impressive... in the manner of Sam Shepard or Tracy Letts (though laced throughout with Ahonen's trademark social consciousness, which distinguishes this young playwright from his antecedents)" and Leonard Jacobs of Back Stage goes on to say "Ahonen doesn't disappoint." Ahonen's directing credits include Amerissiah and The Hey You Monster Part One: Pokin The Bears In A Zoo.
The cast includes James Kautz as Billy, Nick Lawson as Evan, Sarah Lemp as Dear, Charles Meola as Donovan, Mandy Moore as Dawn and Matthew Pilieci as Wyatt.
The design/production team consists of Meghan Ritchie (Executive Producer), Al Schatz (Set Design), Jeremy Pape (Lighting Design), Ricky Lang (Costume Design), Bart Lucas (Sound Design), Han Mautz (Fight Choreography), Matt Fraley (Assistant Director) and Judy Merrick (Stage Manager).
The Amoralists were formed in November 2006 by actors James Kautz, Matthew Pilieci and playwright Derek Ahonen, on a car ride to Las Vegas. With a goal of winning $50,000 to start their company they lost $5,000 and founded it regardless. Through its first two seasons The Amoralists produced five original full-length plays. The Amoralists' plays have been published by United Stages and read at Barnes and Noble.
