Releases:
Contact:
Alex Zavistovich
Lean & Hungry Theater
301-292-7538
alextalks@comcast.net
Lean
& Hungry Theater to Present
“A
Midsummer Night’s Dream,”
Broadcast Live on WAMU 88-5, Sunday, June 26
Live
Listening Audience and Authentic Old-Style Sound Effects Enhance the
Modern Setting of Shakespeare’s Classic Comedy
Washington, DC (May 17, 2011) –
Lean & Hungry Theater, DC’s only radio drama company, and
Washington DC’s NPR affiliate WAMU 88-5, will present a special
live-to-air broadcast of Shakespeare’s classic comedy “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream” at 6 PM, Sunday June 26, 2011.
Tickets for the live event are $25, and will be provided by agreement
with WAMU 88-5.
Immediately following the broadcast, audience members are invited to
stay for Lean & Hungry’s continuing “Food for
Thought” discussions and talkback, which will focus on the
relevance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in
literature and contemporary society.
Lean & Hungry’s one-hour radio production of “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be broadcast live from the
Woods-Brown Amphitheatre on the grounds of American University. The
show will air immediately before WAMU 88-5’s hugely popular
“Big Broadcast” program of classic radio dramas.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is directed by Hannah
Todd, dramaturg for Lean & Hungry’s “Romeo and
Juliet,” which aired on WAMU 88-5 this past Valentine’s
Day; the show was rebroadcast Saturday, May 14 on Sirius XM’s
Book Radio Channel. Special effects and musical underscore for Lean
& Hungry’s productions are provided by Lean & Hungry
Technical Director and Resident Composer Gregg Martin.
The cast of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” includes
Steve Beall, Chris Genebach, Jessica Hansen, Karen Novack, Matthew
Vaky, Alex Vaughan and Alex Zavistovich. These artists have appeared
with or taught at The Folger Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre, The
Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, The
Washington Shakespeare Company, Studio Theatre, and other local and
national companies.
Set in the Prohibition Era, Lean & Hungry’s “A
Midsummer Night’s Dream” will recast many of
Shakespeare’s classic characters as gangsters and molls, with
most of the action taking place in and around the Palace Hotel. The
story of beguiled young lovers, vengeful mobster kingpins and slapstick
laborers culminates with an hilarious “play-within-a-play”
climax.
The DC public charter school system introduces Shakespeare to students
as early as fourth grade. Among fourth grade students overall in DC,
one in eight are English Language Learners, and one in five are special
needs students.
“The story of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ is a
staple of English and Theatre education, and part of the required
reading list for many public schools in the DC metropolitan area and
across the nation,” explained Jessica Hansen, Lean &
Hungry’s Artistic Director. “We welcome the DC area’s
families to join us for a mix of classic theatre and classic radio with
a modern twist that they can’t find anywhere else.”
“By placing our production in a more contemporary setting with
modern-day sound effects, we’re offering an easy-to-understand
perspective for today’s young audiences,” Hansen added.
“In our adaptation, mischievous Puck provides modern-language
narration throughout the show. It’s a great way to introduce new
audiences to this wonderful play.”
The resident theater company of St. Stephen and the Incarnation
Episcopal Church in Columbia Heights, Lean & Hungry Theater is the
only company in the Washington, DC metropolitan area dedicated to
adapting works of Shakespeare and other classic playwrights for audio
distribution, including radio broadcast, CD, and download.
The productions and recordings of Lean & Hungry Theater are endorsed by the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind.
About
Lean & Hungry Theater: Conceived in 2006, Lean
& Hungry Theater
(Lean & Hungry) is a non-profit educational radio drama
company.
Drawing primarily on the works of William Shakespeare, Lean &
Hungry provides adaptations of classic dramatic works to underserved
areas, in established or improvised venues (both live and electronic),
for the educational benefit and cultural enrichment of students,
families, seniors and other interested groups in the Washington, DC
metropolitan area and beyond. Lean & Hungry performances are
recorded before a live audience, complete with sound effects and
original musical underscore. The recorded performances are made
available as audio streams, audio CD and as radio broadcast
productions. For more information, visit www.leanandhungrytheater.com
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