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 Pleasantville, NY - The Insights & Revelations Performance Series, in residence at the Rosenthal JCC at 600 Bear Ridge Road in Pleasantville, NY, announces a special inside look at Aquila Theatre’s stage adaptation of Catch-22, starring John Lavelle (Broadway’s The Graduate).
On an off night from its New York City Premiere engagement, the Aquila Theatre company will offer excerpted performances of scenes from this exciting new stage adaptation, and discuss the making of this exciting New York premiere. The production is directed by Aquila’s artistic director, Peter Meineck, a Katonah resident, who will lead the discussion. Afterward, the artists will join the audience in the lobby for a champagne and dessert reception.
The program will take place on Sunday, December 7th at 7:00 p.m.
Joseph Heller's Catch-22 is a modern American classic. The term itself has entered the language as a description of a ridiculously cyclical situation. The book was first published in 1961 and immediately caused a huge furor in the literary world. Catch-22 tackles huge things with rich metaphors, boldly drawn characters and near-impossible situations. It is a work of great theatricality with superb language and a sense of dark surrealism. Heller dares to examine the very philosophy of war and what it does to the humans that fight them.
Peter Meineck on the casting of John Lavelle as Yossarian: "Yossarian is one of the most iconic and elusive roles in American literature. Paul Newman spent a year studying the role, never to play it, Richard Dreyfus signed on for a pilot that was never made. Jack Lemmon, Eli Wallach, Anthony Quinn and Ben Gazzara all lobbied for the role that famously went to Alan Arkin for the 1972 Mike Nichols film. Brooklyn born John Lavelle inherently understands Heller's biting, absurdist satire (Heller hailed from Coney Island) and will bring a new intensity, verve and clarity to Yossarian. As modern day Milo Minderbinders play havoc with the stock market and contemporary Colonel Cathcarts place the lives of our troops at risk for political gain this is the moment for CATCH-22 to be seen on stage. We are all greatly looking forward to seeing Yossarian live again."
Anna Becker, Producer of the Insights & Revelations Performance Series stated: “CATCH-22 will mark the first time that The Insights & Revelations Performance Series has presented a program about a show that is currently running off-Broadway, and we are delighted. The Series aims to show audiences a wide variety of work in all phases of development - being able to present excerpts from a show that is already on its feet and hear from the artists about the process of creating, rehearsing and performing it will add a new dimension to the experiences that the Series offers.”
The Insights & Revelations Performance Series is a 2007 Best of Westchester winner for Best New Performance Series and is known for bringing award-winning off-Broadway companies such as Classic Stage Company, the New Group, the Atlantic Theater Company, the Barrow Group, and Symphony Space to Westchester, as well as presenting a wide range of professional artists in live presentations and exhibits.
PERFORMANCE AND TICKET INFORMATION
CATCH-22
Sunday, December 7, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
At the Rosenthal JCC Theatre, 600 Bear Ridge Road, Pleasantville
A discussion and reception with the artists follows the program.
Tickets are $25.
To purchase tickets by phone call 212-868-4444, or order online at www.smarttix.com. All performances take place at the Rosenthal JCC, 600 Bear Ridge Road, Pleasantville, NY 10570.
Visit the Series web site for more information on this show and the 2008/2009 season: www.TheDeepEndProductions.org.
Upcoming Presentation: The Monthly Nut, a new monologue written & performed by James Braly (Life In A Marital Institution). February 28, 2009.
The Aquila Theatre Company was founded in London in 1991 by Peter Meineck and has been based in New York City since 1999. Aquila's mission is to bring the greatest theatrical works to the greatest number. Aquila presents a regular season of plays in New York, at international festivals, and tours to approximately seventy American towns and cities a year. Aquila also provides access to excellent theatre for people in under-served rural and inner city communities.
The Aquila performance approach is a technique developed by Peter Meineck that combines text and physical action based in a theory of theatrical unity. The technique is aimed to create an aesthetic environment where the performer can create and recreate a role in a consistently changing theatrical atmosphere.
Peter Meineck (Aquila’s Artistic Director and Director of Catch-22) was born in Melton Mowbray, England and grew up in London. He studied at University College London and founded Aquila in 1991. He now lives in Katonah, New York with his family. He has worked extensively in the London Theatre and directed and/or produced over 40 productions in New York, London, Holland, Germany, Greece, Scotland, Canada, Bermuda, and the United States in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, the ancient Stadium at Delphi, Lincoln Center, and the White House.
Peter has published several volumes of translations of Greek plays including Aeschylus’ Oresteia which won the Lewis Galantiere Award for Literary Translation from the American Translators Association, Sophocles’ Theban Plays (with Paul Woodruff) and Philoctetes and Ajax and Aristophanes’ Clouds, Wasps & Birds. He has also written several literary adaptations for the stage including The Man Who Would Be King, Canterbury Tales, The Invisible Man, and Catch-22. Peter is a regular performing arts contributor to the humanities Journal Arion and has published several scholarly articles of Greek drama and Shakespeare.
Peter holds a clinical professorship in Classics and Ancient Studies at New York University where he teaches Greek literature and mythology. He has held teaching posts at Princeton and USC and was a fellow at the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies. He also acts as a mythological advisor, most recently to Will Smith on I am Legend.
John Lavelle (Yossarian) starred on Broadway in The Graduate. Off Broadway credits include The Merchant of Venice and The Jew of Malta (TFANA), Burleigh Grimes (New World Stages), Rope (Drama Department), and Spatter Pattern (Playwrights). Regional credits include On the Razzle (Williamstown), Bell Book and Candle (Old Globe), Much Ado About Nothing (La Jolla) and The Merchant of Venice (Royal Shakespeare Company). Film/TV: The Taking of Pelham 123, National Lampoon's Dirty Movie, Can Openers, Porcelain and Diamonds, Frozen Impact, The Sandpiper, August, “Black Donelley's”, “Law and Order,” “Guiding Light,” “All My Children,” and “Sixteen to Life.”
THE DEEP END PRODUCTIONS was founded by its producer, Anna Becker, and is dedicated to presenting world-class, professional artists in an intimate setting. Provocative and inspiring material and audience access to the artistic process are central to The Deep End’s mission. Previous presentations include Symphony Space’s Thalia Follies: A Political Cabaret, The New Group’s A Spalding Gray Matter, The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s The Tempest, and Classic Stage Company’s open rehearsals of The Merchant of Venice with Ron Leibman and Richard III with Michael Cumpsty. Anna Becker has produced for theatre, television and film for more than 20 years. She served as Theatre Program Director for the New York State Council on the Arts, and as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts, Theatre Communications Group, AT&T Foundation, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Theater Fund. Becker created and produced the Insights & Revelations Performance Series at the Northern Westchester Center for the Arts and most recently produced Life in a Marital Institution at 59E59 Theaters and its off-Broadway transfer to SoHo Playhouse.
THE ROSENTHAL JCC is a Jewish Community Center (JCC) where individuals grow, explore, and connect to the community around them. We offer recreational, educational, cultural and social services for all ages. Our main campus is in Pleasantville, NY, and we have a branch serving the Yorktown, NY, area. Call for more information about our Jewish learning and celebrations, early childhood programs, summer camps, after-school activities, sport leagues, cultural programs, and social services such as early intervention and referrals or counseling.
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