Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I am very happy to be writing to you about Theater for the New City’s world premiere of my very own work, “Tongs and Bones Shakespeare: Tempestuous Amusements, Interludes, Noises, and Drollery—Four Short Plays.”  What a strange sentence to write.  The direction is by Frank Farrell, with original music composed by Ben Masterton—and starring a fabulously talented young cast of seven.

The OFF-OFF-BROADWAY RUN OPENS SUN., 9/1 at 8pm, AND CONTINUES WED., 9/4 at 6:30pm,  FRI., 9/6 at 6:30pm, SUN., 9/8 at 8pm, WED., 9/11 at 9pm.  The venue is Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, 155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets), New York, NY 10003.

 

I hope you will consider coverage, reviewing the show, coming to see it—or simply passing the word on to a Shakespeare lover you know. The run time is approximately 90 minutes.

 

“Tongs and Bones Shakespeare,” by Bob Shuman, directed by Frank Farrell, is based on footnote, off-marquee characters in the Bard’s plays. Performed by vibrant, ethnically diverse artists, the Tempestuous Amusements, Interludes, Noises, and Drollery draw from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Tempest,” “As You Like It,” and “The Winter’s Tale.”

Tickets

$18.00; OFF-OFF-BROADWAY RUN OPENS SUN., 9/1 at 8pm, RUNS WED., 9/4 at 6:30pm,  FRI., 9/6 at 6:30pm, SUN., 9/8 at 8pm, WED., 9/11 at 9pm

For more information

Please contact me with any interview or press ticket requests.

 

Thank you.

All my best,

Bob Shuman
(he/him)
Bobjshuman@gmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press contact: Bob Shuman/Stage Voices
Bobjshuman@gmail.com

 

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director,

155 First Avenue, New York, NY 10003

 

 

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY TO PRESENT DREAM UP FESTIVAL WORLD PREMIERE OF BOB SHUMAN’S TONGS AND BONES SHAKESPEARE, DIRECTED BY FRANK FARRELL

OFF-OFF-BROADWAY RUN OPENS SUN., 9/1 at 8pm, RUNS WED., 9/4 at 6:30pm,  FRI., 9/6 at 6:30pm, SUN., 9/8 at 8pm, WED., 9/11 at 9pm

KEY ART & PHOTOS available. 

(Please credit for art: Fight Over the Breeches; Gift of Louis E. Shecter, 1972, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.)

Cast: http://stagevoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Actors-Bradey-Bunch-B-C-10-2.jpg

Tongs and Bones Shakespeare: Tempestuous Amusements, Interludes, Noises, and Drollery—Four Short Plays

New York, NY – Theater for the New City, Crystal Field (Artistic Director), FFP, and Stage Voices proudly present the Off-Off Broadway world premiere of “Tongs and Bones Shakespeare,” based on footnote, or, generally, off-marquee characters, in the Bard’s plays. The theatrical quartet, by Bob Shuman, is directed by Frank Farrell and has been selected as part of Theater for the New City’s Dream Up Festival, August 25-September 15, 2024, curated by Michael Scott-Price; Crystal Field, Executive Director.

Playing at the Community Theater in the Theater for the New City complex, the one-acts,  included as part of the Tempestuous Amusements, Interludes, Noises, and Drollery are “The Wanton Wind,” based on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”; “From a Cloven Pine,” a prequel to “The Tempest”; and “The Coxcomb’s Wedding,” inspired by “As You Like It.”  Additionally, Farrell and his actors have agreed to provide a bonus reading of one further play, “Disasters in the Sun,” drawn from “The Winter’s Tale.” The evening is introduced by a surprise guest from Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own.”

Frank Farrell has directed the one-acts with inventiveness and verve, bringing different time periods and unexpected locations and references to life. He also displays a progression of acting styles, from throughout the centuries, which include those from ancient Greek Theatre, the Delsarte System of Expression, and the filmic art in Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita.” Among others, musically, the quadruple-bill contains original work for a hallucinatory sequence and songs, by composer Ben Masterton, and recordings by the Congolese Afro-punk musicians of Kin’gongolo Kiniata, who fashion their own instruments from recycled materials, many times found on the streets.

Fitting in with the idea of Jerzy Grotowski’s Poor Theatre and Peter Brook’s Theatre of the Rough, “tongs and bones,” according to the Oxford dictionary, means “makeshift musical instruments,” used by people in public spaces “or in taverns” and it reinforces the idea of a down-to-earth Shakespeare adaptation, informal, and energized.

Created by vibrant, ethnically diverse artists, who give imaginative substance to what the quintessential dramatist had no more room for in his great plays, “Tongs and Bones Shakespeare” is not for purists, but nevertheless, takes audiences on a captivating journey into his world and heart. Find out, for example:

  • What became of the Little Indian Boy in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”?
  • How did Jaques, in “As You Like It,” lose his mirth?
  • And why did Ariel need to be freed, before meeting Prospero, in “The Tempest”?
  • Plus, more unexpected answers.

The Introduction invokes Virginia Woolf

Cast: Jennifer Kim

“The Wanton Wind”

“The Wanton Wind” portrays the secret lives of fairies, most specifically those of their King and Queen, Oberon and Titania. In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” Shakespeare reports on the couple’s disagreements and brawls, and now their entangled relationship is vividly examined and brought to life, specifically, with regard to a child, the little Indian boy, left in their care by the votaress of Titania’s order. During preparations for a festive court masque, Puck appears with unannounced visitors, from far away, unleashing riot and mayhem into the world of sprites, animals, and “moonlight revels.”

“The Wanton Wind” Cast:

Meghan Covington (Titania), Mychal Leverage (Oberon), James Dryden (Indian Boy), Jennifer Kim (Puck), Noni Alley (Fairy), Alejandro Flores (Visitors)

“From a Cloven Pine”

The great sorrows of the powerful Algerian witch Sycorax are revealed and enacted in “From a Cloven Pine,” a one-act based on “The Tempest.” Before Prospero landed on the mysterious enchanted island, there was a previous magician who lived there. Banished from her own home after becoming involved in the civil strife of her nation, she was then abandoned to the elements and fate (by sailors while pregnant). In an attempt to help her survive, a spirit, Ariel, offers rehabilitative efforts, only to realize the limits of what can be offered.

“From a Cloven Pine” Cast:

Emily Ross (Sycorax), Noni Alley (Ariel), Mychal Leverage (Sailor). Alejandro Flores (Sailor), Jennifer Kim (Spirit), James Dryden (Spirit)

“The Coxcomb’s Wedding”

The audience is invited to the union of Audrey, a country wench, and the jester Touchstone, in the Forest of Arden. Is he sincere or not? Is he too immature or privileged, as a courtier, to marry? Some might even espouse the belief that he has been sent to infiltrate the country community and report back to his lord, Duke Frederick. Considerations such as these plague the discernment and adjudication of Jaques, a second fool under allegiance to the banished Duke Senior, in the short play “The Coxcomb’s Wedding,” based on “As You Like It.” His decision, influenced by his own tumultuous past and conflicted conclusions, will expose the naked truth.

“The Coxcomb’s Wedding” Cast:

Alejandro Flores (Duke Senior), James Dryden (Jaques), Meghan Covington (Audrey, Forester), Emily Ross (Forester), Jennifer Kim (Rosalind), Mychal Leverage (Touchstone), Noni Alley (Martext)

“Disasters in the Sun”

Farrell and his cast have agreed to  an additional format, for the Dream Up Festival at Theater for the New City, by giving a reading of a further one-act play by Shuman, based on Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale.” Two Sicilian diplomatic envoys, and their servant, journey to the ancient Delphic Oracle to ascertain the truth behind the fidelity of the king’s wife. When they reach Greece, one in their party is involved in a serious riding accident, yet despite the setback, the characters intend to press on, lost in an unfamiliar Greek world populated by mythic creatures, both monstrous and divine.

“Disasters in the Sun” Cast:

Meghan Covington (Stranger), Mychal Leverage (Dion), Noni Alley (Cleomines), Jennifer Kim (Vassilios), Alejandro Flores (Apollo), James Dryden (Shepherd), Emily Ross (Reader of the Stage Directions)

Bob Shuman (Playwright & Co-Producer) earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU/Tisch and is the owner of Marit Literary Agency and the Theatre Web site Stage Voices (www.stagevoices.com). He is also a playwright, a senior editor with experience in mainstream publishing, a college professor, and a recipient of Hunter College’s Zarkower Award for excellence in playwriting. His dramatic work has appeared in four anthologies from Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, which includes a volume of monologues for kids. He co-edited “Acts of War: Iraq and Afghanistan in Seven Plays” (Northwestern University Press) and has written for the Eugene O’Neill Society and judged work for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards. Co-author, with fashion florist Michael George, of “Simply Elegant Flowers,” Shuman is a past fellow of the Lark Theatre Company, and his work has been given readings with the Amoralists, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Second Stage, and the WPA, among others. Productions and readings of his plays have been presented at New York University, Ursinus College, Hunter College, and University of Mount Saint Vincent. He has also spearheaded three monologue events at the Drama Book Shop, where he was a featured author, and he ran such an evening at the Cornelia Street Cafe. He attended the Sewanee Writers Conference in Tenn., and his musical compositions for “As You Like It” and “Twelfth Night” have been heard at Ursinus College. Additionally, Shuman has acted in college productions and in local theatre in NJ and GA. He has seen productions of every Shakespeare play, many of which he has reviewed for his site, and has interviewed industry notables such as playwright Albert Innaurato (in his last “talk” before his death), Natalia Kaliada (Belarus Free Theatre), and Mia Yoo (La MaMa), among others. The actor Liv Ullmann answered several of his questions for “The Guardian” (UK). In 2021, one of the projects he represented as a literary agent was optioned by HBO, and he currently teaches courses on Eastern European Literature and Environmental writers.

Frank Farrell (Co-Producer & Director) recently returned to his hometown New York City and directed “Walt Kelly’s Songs of the Pogo” as part of the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival. An actor in Chicago for 40 years, he received three Joseph Jefferson acting nominations, and directed and produced plays for the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Temporary Theatre, Shakespeare’s Herd, Steppenwolf Theater, Raven Theatre, Equity Library Theater Chicago, the North Lakeside Players, and Theatre-Hikes. Frank has formed seven theater companies, including the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Chicago’s first year-round Shakespeare performance ensemble, Theatre-Hikes in Chicago and, in Grand Haven, Michigan, the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company.  In New York City, for First Flight, his new performance group, he wrote, directed, and produced “Forgotten Soldiers from Our Forgotten War.”  Also for First Flight, he coordinated several stage readings of Maxwell Anderson’s plays in New York City, New Jersey, and Chicago, and he directed and produced a 2022 production of Anderson’s play “Valley Forge.”  His Zoom film “In the Garden of Live Flowers” recently won Best Biopic at the Green Academy Awards Film Festival. With First Flight in New Jersey in July, he directed his adaptation of “Little Women.” In August 2024, through his company FFP, he will produce “Hamlet on the Run” at the Tank Theater; in September, he is producing and directing “Tongs and Bones Shakespeare” Off-Off Broadway. Farrell has published several books, including “Forgotten Soldiers from Our Forgotten War,” “What Price Glory,” and his adaptation of “Little Women,” all available at Amazon.com.

 

Ben Masterton (Musical Composer and Sound Design) has composed and arranged music for dozens of Shakespeare productions in Chicago with the Shakespeare Festival of Chicago, Free Shakespeare, and Body Politic, including “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,”  “Macbeth,”  “Hamlet,’ “The Winter’s Tale,” “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “Twelfth Night,” “The Merchant of Venice,” and “All’s Well That Ends Well.” Other favorite productions include, “The Lennon Play,” “Dagon,” “The Lorenzaccio Story,” “A Dorothy Parker Revue,” “Dear Brutus,” “The Songs of the Pogo Podcast” (with Frank Farrell), “The Imaginary Invalid,” “The Successful Life of 3,” “The Snow Queen,” “The Crucible,” and “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” (Raven Theater), “Three Sisters” (Commons Theater), and “The Enchanted” (Chicago Waldorf School). Ben has written over a hundred songs and currently resides in Gainesville, Florida.

 

William Shakespeare (Playwright, 1564-1616) The Bard’s incomparable, seismic canon of work far exceeds the plays, used as foundations, for the one-acts in “Tongs and Bones Shakespeare.”  Yet there is little factual information regarding his life.  Baptismal records document that he was born in Stratford-upon-Avon to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden, part of a family that included seven brothers and sisters.  His own children numbered three, after his marriage at age eighteen to Anne Hathaway, who was eight years his elder. The first mention of his career in the London Theatre is as an actor and playwright in 1592.  His prodigious outpouring of dramatic writing includes “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,”  “The Tempest,”  “As You Like It,” and “The Winter’s Tale” and at least thirty-three other titles.

Production Team:

Frank Farrell (Set Design); Ben Masterton (Original Music); Frank Farrell (Light Design); Ben Masterton (Sound & Music Design)

Cast Biographies

Noni Alley they/them (Fairy, Ariel, Sir Oliver Martext, and Cleomines) is an actor and Voice-over artist based in New York City. An acting alumnus from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, with a background in circus arts, Noni performs in film, anime, and live theater, with a special interest in characters that break gender expectations.

 

Meghan Covington (Titania, Forester #1, Audrey, and Stranger) is a NY-based actor, playwright, and producer. Her most notable acting work has taken place regionally on the stages of The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co, The Shakespeare Theatre, Round House Theatre, Theatre J, Olney Theatre in Washington DC, and Firehouse Theatre, Richmond Shakespeare Festival, and Theatre Lab in Richmond, VA. She was also a company member for Synetic Theatre, where she spent 4+ years developing skills in classical pantomime technique, physical theatre, and dance. Meghan has a BFA in theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University, and she currently serves as the Artistic Director and Board President of River’s Edge Theatre Company in the Lower Hudson Valley. 

 

James Dryden (Indian Boy, Fairy, Jaques, and Shepherd) is an aspiring actor from Durham, North Carolina.

Alejandro Flores (Ape, Sailor #2, Duke Senior, and Apollo) is an actor from Ossining, NY, who graduated from the City College of New York, where he was part of multiple productions, including Morriseau’s “Pipeline” (Dominique), Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat,” and Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Nick Bottom).  Besides acting in school productions, Alejandro has pursued directing, lighting design, improv, and film.  His love of the craft has led him to explore monologues from various Shakespeare plays, and he is extremely excited to be performing in this production and creating something wonderful with his fellow castmates and the production crew.  Alejandro thanks his family and friends for supporting him throughout his journey!

Jennifer Kim (Judith, Puck, Spirit # 1, Rosalind, and Vassilios) is a NYC-based actress. Her recent roles include Cassandra in the Gallery Players’ “Oresteia,” Zubaida Ula and Catherine Connolly in St. Jean’s Players’ “The Laramie Project,” and Beth March, Aunt March, and Hannah in First Flight Theatre’s “Little Women.”

Mychal Leverage (Oberon, Sailor #1, Touchstone, and Dion) is an alumnus of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy and has been a performer his entire life.  Off-Broadway: “Sleepy Hollow the Musical” (Ichabod Crane). Tours: “Little Women” (Prof. Fritz Bhaer). Regional: “Daddy Long Legs” (Jervis), “The Addams Family” (Gomez), “Shrek the Musical” (Shrek), “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (Monty), “Nice Work If You Can Get It” (Jimmy), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Oberon).  His hobbies include playing Magic: The Gathering and . . . not much else, actually.  He lives in New Jersey with his lovely wife Heidi, and their dog Atticus Finch. W: mychalleverage.com IG: @MychalLeverage

Emily Ross they/them  (Sycorax, Forester # 2, and Reader of the Stage Directions) is an artist from Chistochina, Alaska. They are a founding member and current artistic director of the Clementine Players and a graduate of Atlantic Acting School. They were last seen as Harriet in Megan Quick’s “Vice and Virtue,” the Sheriff in “Brokeneck Girls: A Murder Ballad Musical,” and Macduff in “Macbeth.” 

 

Tickets

$18.00; OFF-OFF-BROADWAY RUN OPENS SUN., 9/1 at 8pm, RUNS WED., 9/4 at 6:30pm,  FRI., 9/6 at 6:30pm, SUN., 9/8 at 8pm, WED., 9/11 at 9pm

For more information

The Plays That Form the Basis for “Tongs and Bones Shakespeare”:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-1596)

In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” two young couples must flee to the woods, or one will face harsh punishment by Athenian law.  In the forest the group becomes mixed up, though, paired with the wrong partners, due to the mistaken herbal application of “love-in-idleness” by a sprite named Puck, servant to the king of the fairy realms, Oberon.  Puck then wrongly administers his “juice” again and transforms one of a band of local, rehearsing actors into a lover who woos Oberon’s queen, Titania (she is embroiled in a dispute with her husband over the care of a changeling boy).  By the end of the Midsummer night, the gamesmanship, laws, and mismatches have been reconciled and excused.  The fleeing, agitated lovers return to the city for a triple wedding, which includes their own.  Part of their entertainment is the play performed by the practicing actors.

The Tempest (1610-1611)

After being set adrift at sea the deposed Duke of Milan, Prospero, and his baby daughter, Miranda, begin a new life on a magical island.  There they meet a spirit named Ariel, who becomes Prospero’s servant, as well as another inhabitant, who will be his slave.  Caliban is his name, the son of a devil and the deceased witch Sycorax, who, like Prospero, was highly skilled in the magical arts. When Prospero conjures a tempest at sea, a group of nobles is shipwrecked on the isolated island, including Prospero’s usurping brother and a king’s son, with whom Miranda falls in love. Old injuries are rectified through encounters between the different parties, Prospero regains his dukedom, and Miranda will marry.  The voyagers prepare for their return to Italy, and Caliban reclaims his island.

As You Like It (1599)

Love at first sight captivates Rosalind in Shakespeare’s romantic comedy “As You Like It.”  She is the daughter of the banished Duke Senior, and her eye has fallen on a handsome wrestler and young nobleman, named Orlando, who is mutually attracted to her.  When she is suddenly banished herself by her uncle, she flees to the Forest of Arden with her cousin Celia and the court jester Touchstone (where he will involve himself with a country woman named Audrey).  Disguised as a young man named Ganymede as protection in her new country life, Rosalind becomes acquainted with various characters, including the melancholy philosopher Jaques, a follower of her exiled father.  She also again meets Orlando who is escaping his treacherous brother. Rosalind, still in disguise, offers to cure Orlando of his lovesickness.   Unfortunately, Orlando can not fall out of love with his beloved. True to its title, the play concludes with joyful resolutions and reconciliations, Rosalind’s father being restored to his previous status, marriages, and, of course, a happy ending. 

The Winter’s Tale (1609-1611)

The shocking rupture of the marriage of King Leontes of Sicily and his wife Hermione, as well as his lifelong friendship with the King of Bohemia, propels “The Winter’s Tale” into its early stages of grief and irrationality.  Soon the queen will be imprisoned, a friend will be made a fugitive, and both will be accused of infidelity.  Hermione’s oldest child dies of grief and her newborn is taken from her and abandoned on a dangerous seacoast.  While the queen is put on trial, messengers are dispatched to the Oracle at Delphi for divine judgment, unaware of the unfolding calamity at home and Hermione’s presumed death. Taking an unexpected turn, the play then leaps years into the future, shifting scenes from Sicily to Bohemia.  Here, a young shepherdess, unaware of her true identity, falls in love with a prince. Their romance opens the way for redemption, reconciliation, and miracles.

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY (TNC) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning community cultural center that is known for its high artistic standards and  widespread community service. One of New York’s most prolific theatrical organizations, TNC produces 30-40 premieres of new American plays per year, at least 10 of which are by emerging and young playwrights. Many influential theater artists of the last quarter century have found TNC’s Resident Theater Program instrumental to their careers, among them are Sam Shepard, Moises Kaufman, Richard Foreman, Charles Busch, Maria Irene Fornes, Miguel Piñero, Jean-Claude van Itallie, Vin Diesel, Oscar Nuñez, Laurence Holder, Romulus Linney and Academy Award Winners Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody. TNC also presents plays by multi-ethnic/multi-disciplinary theater companies who have no permanent home. Among the well-known companies that have been presented by TNC are Mabou Mines, the Living Theater, Bread and Puppet Theater, the San Francisco Mime Troupe and COBU, the Japanese women’s drumming, and dance group. TNC  also produced the Yangtze Repertory Company’s 1997 production of “Between Life and Death,” which was the only play ever produced in America by Gao Xingjian before he won the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. TNC seeks to develop theater audiences and inspire future theater artists from the often-overlooked low-income minority communities of New York City by producing minority writers from around the world and by bringing the community into theater and theater into the community through its many free Festivals. TNC productions have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and over 42 OBIE Awards for excellence in every theatrical discipline. TNC is also the only Theatrical Organization to have won the Mayor’s Stop The Violence award.

Theater for the New City is located at:

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY

Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director

155 First Avenue
(between 9th and 10th Streets)
New York, NY 10003

Visit  Theater for the New City

 

—-THERE IS STILL TIME TO DONATE TO THIS PRODUCTION—

 

‘TONGS AND BONES SHAKESPEARE’ AT THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY (BY BOB SHUMAN; DIRECTED BY FRANK FARRELL)

Stage Voices Web site (www.stagevoices.com) will be following the course of the production with information and rehearsal updates.  To bring this ambitious project to life, we are seeking the generous support of our community.  To start, we are beginning a GoFundMe campaign: Please consider donating, as the cast, in keeping with those in Shakespeare’s plays, is rather large—there are, of course, costume and rehearsal space costs, as well; a long list of expenditures.  Your contributions, no matter the size, will play a vital role in ensuring the success of this production—and we give many thanks for your help.

Please use the following GoFundMe link for the crowdsourcing platform to donate.  

Press release: © Bob Shuman and Theater for the New City.  Flyer: Haley Karlich.

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