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NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP

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columbinus

BY THE UNITED STATES THEATRE PROJECT

WRITTEN BY STEPHEN KARAM AND PJ PAPARELLI

DRAMATURGY BY PATRICIA HERSCH

CONCEIVED AND DIRECTED BY PJ PAPARELLI

 

BOLD THEATRICAL LOOK AT

COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL SHOOTINGS

 

BEGINNING PERFORMANCES FRIDAY, MAY 5

AND OPENING MONDAY, MAY 22

NEW YORK, APRIL 11, 2006 - New York Theatre Workshop Artistic DirectorJames C. Nicola and Managing DirectorLynn Moffat haveannounced that columbinus, created by The United States Theatre Project, written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli, with dramaturgy by Patricia Hersch, and conceived and directed by PJ Paparelli, will begin performances Friday, May 5 at 8:00pm, at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. Opening night is scheduled for Monday, May 22 at7:00pm.

columbinus, a play sparked by the April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, probes the psychological warfare of alienation, hostility and social pressure that goes on in high schools across America.   columbinus weaves together excerpts from discussions with parents, survivors and community leaders in Littleton as well as diaries and home video footage to bring to light the dark recesses of American adolescence.  When columbinus premiered in 2005 at the Round House Theatre, Peter Marks of the Washington Post called it, "An ambitious examination of the suburbanization of evil, directed with a surefire sense of theatricality by PJ Paparelli."  columbinus received four Helen Hayes Award nominations including Best Resident Play and Best Director, Resident Play.  The NYTW production of columbinus is based on the Round House Theatre / Perseverance Theatre co-production.

James Nicola, NYTW's artistic director says, "The creators of columbinus vividly portray the isolated world of adolescence, a place where proms and guns can exist side by side.  In the case of Columbine High School, this generational segregation led to a profound human tragedy.  But the creators of columbinus do not offer answers; rather they offer the audience an opportunity to consider for themselves how two relatively privileged suburban teenagers came to kill their classmates and themselves.  I was lucky enough to have seen columbinus at the Round House Theatre last year and I now look forward to sharing the play with New York audiences."

PJ Paparelli says, "columbinus is not a play; it is a theatrical discussion.  I always thought this piece would be an answer to the notorious question: ‘why?’  After traveling to Littleton and meeting parents, children, survivors and community leaders, I realized there were answers from every perspective, including from the shooters themselves.  With all these answers, I noticed things had not changed even in Littleton.  Life went on.  And all the reasons ‘why’ remain.  Why does this cycle never change?"

Patricia Hersch’s groundbreaking book A Tribe Apart: A Journey into the Heart of American Adolescence (BallantineBooks) has become a classic in its field. Described by   The Philadelphia Inquirer as “a contemporary masterpiece,” it was named one of the top ten books of the year by both the Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com on Parenting and Families.    Known as a lecturer, consultant, writer, and youth advocate, Hersch tours the country bridging the gap between adolescents and the adult world around them, and she is frequently called upon by the media for her expertise.  Immediately following the Columbine shootings, she was asked to address a special meeting of the COPS (Community Oriented Police in the Schools) Program at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.,  a Listening Conference on School Violence for Youth convened by MTV and the National Association of Attorneys General,  and a seminar for journalists, "Putting School Violence in Perspective," at Gannett Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia sponsored by the Educational Writers Association and the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Families. A former contributing editor to Psychology Today, her work has been published in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Baltimore Sun, and other newspapers and magazines nationwide.  Her new book, A Passion of Their Own: The Adolescent Quest for Connection will be published next year.

Stephen Karam received a 2006 Helen Hayes nomination for co-writing columbinus.  His most recent play, Speech & Debate, will premiere this summer at the Brown/Trinity Playwrights Repertory Theatre.   His other plays have been produced/workshopped at The Kennedy Center, Stark Raving Theatre, Arena Stage, The Blank Theatre Company, Roundhouse Theatre, Perseverance Theatre, Cardboard Box Theatre Company and at the New York Music Theatre Festival.  He is a winner of the Director’s Choice Award selected by Tony-winning director John Rando, a three-time winner of the Blank Theatre Company's National Young Playwriting Competition, YPI's (Young Playwrights Inc.) National Playwriting Competition, and the Kennedy Center’s ACTF Award for Musical Theatre.   He is a graduate of Brown University.  www.stephenkaram.com

PJ Paparelli is in his second season as Artistic Director of Perseverance Theatre.  Last season he co-directed Voyage, and directed A Midsummer Night's Dream and the world premiere of columbinus, with Round House Theatre in Washington, DC.  He is the founder and artistic director of the United States Theatre Project, where he conceived, co-wrote columbinus, which was nominated for five 2006 Helen Hayes Awards, including Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Direction, and Outstanding Production, and will have its NY premiere at New York Theatre Workshop in May.  From 1998-2004, he served as the Associate Director of The Shakespeare Theatre, where his directing credits include Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Bard on Broadway (with Karen Ziemba), Love Letters (with Dixie Carter and Hal Holbrook), All’s Well That Ends Well (Classical Acting Conservatory), Hamlet, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and The Merchant of Venice at the Shakespeare Free For All, and many plays in the ReDiscovery Series including the world premiere of three Tennessee Williams' recently discovered one acts.  He was associate director on The Oedipus Plays starring Avery Brooks at the Athens Festival in Greece, was the assistant director on King Lear, Richard II, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus, King John, A Woman of No Importance, Twelfth Night, Trojan Women, Timon of Athens, and The Duchess of Malfi.

The Washington Post called PJ, "One of the most exciting talents working in Washington."  His DC productions include Romeo and Juliet at The Folger, a collaboration with Terrence McNally on a new version of Corpus Christi at Source Theatre (2003 GLAAD Media Award), the world premiere of John Strand’s The Diaries at Signature Theatre and Love’s Labour’s Lost at Washington Shakespeare Co.  In 2001, PJ was selected to direct the inaugural production of the Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Romeo and Juliet (2001 St. Louis Post-Dispatch Judy Award “In a Class By Itself") and was appointed to the Festival's Artistic Advisory Board.  PJ founded and served as artistic director for the Pittsburgh Public Theatre’s Shakespeare Intensive where he directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Tom Stoppard’s Fifteen Minute Hamlet.  Other directing credits include Twelfth Night at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Action at Circle Repertory Company Lab and True West in Russian at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Moscow, Russia.

PJ has directed and/or taught Shakespeare at The Juilliard School (Richard III), North Carolina School of the Arts (Split), University of Alaska-Southeast, UNC at Chapel Hill, Catholic U (Twelfth Night), U of Pennsylvania (Once on this Island), Johns Hopkins (Godspell), and many master class and education programs at The Shakespeare Theatre.  He holds a BFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon and graduate studies in acting at the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia.  He was recently appointed the faculty of the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College.

In 2005-06, he will direct Twelfth Night and Hair at Perseverance, and will begin development on three world premiere plays: American Family for USTP; Sins of the Father, a collaboration between Perseverance and the Juilliard School, and Raven Odyssey, a theatrical exploration of Native Alaskan Raven stories. 

The cast of columbinus includes Anna Camp (Perfect), Joaquín Pérez-Campbell (Jock), James Flanagan (AP), Carmen M. Herlihy (Rebel), Nicole Lowrance (Faith), Karl Miller (Freak / Erik Harris), Will Rogers (Loner / Dylan Klebold), and Bobby Steggert (Prep).

Scenic design for columbinus is by Tony Cisek; costume design by Miranda Hoffman; lighting design by Dan Covey; sound design by Martin Desjardins; projection design by JJ Kaczynski; and the production stage manager is Amy McCraney.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) is a leading voice in the world of Off-Broadway and within the theatre community in New York and around the world. Since its founding in 1979, NYTW has emerged as a premiere incubator of important new theatre, honoring its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape our lives. In addition, NYTW is known for its innovative adaptations of classic repertory. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village neighborhood, NYTW presents five to seven new productions, over 80 readings, and numerous workshop productions, for over 60,000 audience members. Over the past twenty-five years, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick’s The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, and Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number. The 2002 remounting of Martha Clarke's seminal work Vienna: Lusthaus and subsequent American tour was one of the longest-running productions in NYTW's history. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies, and minority artist fellowships. In 1991, NYTW received an Obie Award for Sustained Achievement and in 2000 was designated to be part of the Leading National Theatres Program by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

columbinus plays at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. The regular performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:00pm, Wednesday through Friday at 8:00pm, Saturday at 3:00pm and 8:00pm, and Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. The running time is approximately two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission. Tickets are $55 and, beginning April 20, may be purchased on-line at www.telecharge.com, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or by phoning Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200. For exact dates and times of performance, call Telecharge.com. 

Maintaining its commitment to making theatre accessible to all theatergoers, NYTW continues its CheapTix program in which all tickets for all Sunday evening performances will cost $20. Tickets may be purchased in advance, payable in cash only, and are available in person only at the NYTW Box Office. And for all performances, student tickets cost $15, based on availability, and can be purchased in advance from the NYTW Box Office with valid student identification.  The NYTW Box Office is open 1:00pm to 6:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday.