CAP21 Premieres New John Pielmeier Comedy
June 1 – 17, 2006
A Developmental Production
CAP21’s fully staged developmental production of THE CLASSICS PROFESSOR, a new comedy by John Pielmeier, starts tonight (June 1) and runs through June 17 at CAP21’s THE SHOP located at 18 West 18th Street, New York City.
Into Professor Alexander’s class “Comedy in Greek Tragedy” steps Daemon, a beautiful young man who turns the good professor’s life upside-down. Alexander, who is translating and directing a college production of “The Bacchae,” suddenly finds that his own life mirrors Euripides’ play about losing one’s sanity in the throes of passion. This is a comedy about love, lust, madness, death, incest, infidelity and bubble gum.
John Pielmeier is most known as the writer of Agnes of God but has had an extensive career. He has written extensively for theatre, film, and television, winning the Humanitas Award, the Christopher Award, the Edgar Award, and several nominations for Best Screenplay and Teleplay from the Writers Guild of America. Joining Pielmeier are Clayton Phillips who is directing, lighting designer Kirk Bookman and costume designer Lynn Bowling. Pielmeier, playing the Classics professor, leads the cast which includes Elaine Anderson, Peggy Cosgrave, Bram Heidinger, Steve Liebman, and Christina Morrell.
The Classics Professor has been in development at CAP21 for the past year and will be presented in a fully-staged workshop production from June 1 to June 17. Performances are Wed/Thur/Sat at 7pm, Tues/Fri at 4pm, and Sat/Sun at 3pm. Tickets are $18 and may be purchased by calling 866-811-4111 or online by visiting www.cap21.org. Seating is limited.
Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21) was founded in 1993 by Executive Artistic Director Frank Ventura, to create new works for the theatre, to develop new talent and build new audiences. In the past 12 years, CAP21 has developed and/or presented 180 new plays and musicals by nearly 280 writers including numerous Off and Off-Off Broadway productions. These include: The Immigrant (2000), Beach Radio (2002), Killing Louise (2003), Waiting For My Man (2004), Six of One (2005), and The 60’s Project (2005). CAP21 has created an extensive new play and musical development process which culminates in workshop productions like this one. CAP21 has created a new home for its new work development process-The Shop.
