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NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP

TO PRESENT

THE SEVEN

WRITTEN AND COMPOSED BY WILL POWER

DIRECTED AND DEVELOPED BY JO BONNEY

CHOREOGRAPHED BY BILL T. JONES

HIP-HOP ADAPTATION OF

AESCHYLUS'S SEVEN AGAINST THEBES

BEGINNING PERFORMANCES WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18

AND OPENING SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 12

NEW YORK, DECEMBER 9, 2005 - New York Theatre Workshop Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director Lynn Moffat have announced that the world premiere of The Seven, written and composed by Will Power, directed and developed by Jo Bonney, and choreographed by Bill T. Jones, will begin performances Wednesday, January 18 at 8:00pm, at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. Opening night is scheduled for Sunday, February 12 at 5:00pm.

The Seven is a hip-hop adaptation of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes, which follows the struggles of Eteocles and Polynices, the two sons of the cursed King Oedipus, as they fight for the throne of Thebes. This is a story of war, family, and a cursed society unsure of how to free itself. Writer and composer Will Power has taken this classical tale of pre-destination versus choice and updated it with an urban idiom to explore modern themes including poverty, race and the abuse of power. The entire script is in rhyming verse, interwoven with such musical styles as calypso, do-wop, R & B, funk, and blues.  Director Jo Bonney (A Soldier's Play, Fat Pig), renowned choreographer Bill T. Jones (Last Supper at Uncle Tom's Cabin/The Promised Land and Still/Here) and a cast of 12 join Will Power to create this complex and ambitious piece that will make an old story come alive for a new generation.

In 2003, Will Power wowed critics and NYTW audiences with FLOW, his smart and dynamic show. The New York Times said, "Will Power is treading in new territory, experimenting with tools that are new to the theater. What's most impressive is that you can see clearly through the door it is opening to a storehouse of new possibilities." And Newsday said, "FLOW is an electrifying show that will satisfy even those theatergoers who don't know Nas from Nelly."

James Nicola, NYTW's artistic director says, "I first met Will Power several years ago when I saw a reading of an embryonic version of The Seven. From that reading, I clearly saw Will's keen intelligence and spirit at play and I knew immediately that he was an artist NYTW needed to support. Will performed his solo work FLOW at NYTW in 2003 and it contained all of the ingredients - original music, text and choreography - that he is now using on a much larger scale in The Seven to create a dramatic work for performers other than himself. Will Power has been a leader in the new theatrical form of hip-hop theater and The Seven is the next step in his growth as an artist and the growth of the art form."

Nicola continues, "With such distinctive and unexpected collaborators as director Jo Bonney and choreographer Bill T. Jones, Will's spin on one of western drama's earliest masters demonstrates the kind of creative collisions that New York Theatre Workshop hopes to inspire."

Will Power says, "Remaining true to the characters, storyline, and themes of Seven Against Thebes, The Seven contemporizes this ancient tale by aesthetically and linguistically fusing the ancient world with the urban world of today, creating a 'Greek hip-hop chorus.'  Hip-hop has always been about 'flipping it' - taking something old and making it new, or taking something looked upon disdainfully by society - poverty and black speech, for example - and making it beautiful."

Will Power is an award-winning actor, rapper, playwright, and educator. Viewed as a pioneer in the genre of hip-hop theater, Power has created his own style of theatrical communication, fusing original music, rhymed language and dynamic choreography to produce compelling evenings of work. Produced by New York Theatre Workshop and the NYC Hip-Hop Theater Festival, Will Power's solo show FLOW has been described as "astounding" (CurtainUp) and "theater with the refreshing aroma of originality" (The New York Times) while Power himself has been called an "electrifying" (Newsday) and "dynamic performer" (Variety). Most recently Will Power received the prestigious 2005 Joyce Award, a 2005 NYFA Fellowship, a 2004 Jury Award for Best Theatre Performance at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival, and a 2004 Drama Desk nomination for Best Solo Performance. Power's skills have also been captured on television and film as a featured performer on "Last Call with Carson Daly" and "Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry" on HBO. He was the lead male in the film Drylongso, a hit at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and was also featured in the documentary, All Fathers are Sons. In addition to composing the music used in all of his theater shows, Power has composed lyrics and music that have been heard on MTV, UPN's "Moesha," and "Kingpin" on NBC. He also has been featured on four critically acclaimed albums "Free Roots," "Spirit of the Roots," "Bembon," and "Prietos" as the lead vocalist for the Omar Sosa Sextet. Power has received two AUDELCO award nominations for his solo shows, including the Gathering: a hip hop theater journey to the meeting places of Black men, as well as winning the Trailblazer Award from the National Black Theater Network for his contributions to theater.

Jo Bonney's recent directing credits include Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play (Second Stage); Caryl Churchill's Top Girls (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Christopher Shinn's On the Mountain (Playwrights Horizons); Neil LaBute's Fat Pig (MCC); Lisa Loomer's Living Out (Second Stage); and Nilo Cruz's Anna in the Tropics (Arena Stage, Washington, DC).  Other credits include Universes' Slanguage (New York Theatre Workshop/Mark Taper Forum); Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July (Signature Theatre, NYC) (Lucille Lortel Award); Jose Rivera's Adoration of the Old Woman (La Jolla Playhouse) and References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot (The Public Theater); Eric Bogosian's Humpty Dumpty (McCarter Theater); subUrbia (Studio Theatre, Washington, DC); FunHouse; Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll; Pounding Nails in the Floor with My Forehead and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (USA/Britain); Diana Son's Stop Kiss and Anna Deavere Smith's House Arrest (The Public Theater); Jessica Goldberg's Good Thing (The New Group); John Osborne's Look Back in Anger (Classic Stage Company); Danny Hoch's Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop (USA/Britain).  Bonney is the recipient of a 1998 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Direction and the editor of "Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century" (TCG).

Bill T. Jones, a 1994 recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, began his dance training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (SUNY), where he studied classical ballet and modern dance. After living in Amsterdam, Mr. Jones returned to SUNY, where he became co-founder of the American Dance Asylum in 1973. Before forming Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company (then called Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane & Company) in 1982, Mr. Jones choreographed and performed nationally and internationally as a soloist and duet company with his late partner, Arnie Zane. In addition to creating more than 50 works for his own company, Mr. Jones has received many commissions to create dances for modern and ballet companies including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Lyon Opera Ballet, and Berlin Opera Ballet. In 1995, Mr. Jones directed and performed in a collaborative work with Toni Morrison and Max Roach, Degga, at Alice Tully Hall, commissioned by Lincoln Center's Serious Fun Festival. His collaboration with Jessye Norman, How! Do! We! Do! premiered at New York's City Center in 1999 as part of Lincoln Center's Great Performers "New Visions" series. Mr. Jones' theater involvement includes co-directing Perfect Courage with Rhodessa Jones for Festival 2000, in 1990. In 1994, he directed Derek Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountainfor The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN. In 1986, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane were awarded a New York Dance and Performance ("Bessie") Award for the Joyce Theater season, and in 1989 and 2001, Mr. Jones was awarded two more "Bessies" for his work, D-Man in the Waters(1989), and The Table Project and The Breathing Show (2001). In 2000, The Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones "An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure." Mr. Jones' memoirs, "Last Night on Earth," were published by Pantheon Books in 1995.

The cast of The Seven is Uzo Aduba, Shawtane Monroe Bowen, Jamyl Dobson, Amber Efé, Edwin Lee Gibson, Benton Greene, Manuel Herrera, Flaco Navaja, Tom Nelis, Postell Pringle, Pearl Sun, and Charles Turner.

Scenic design for The Seven is by Richard Hoover; costume design by Emilio Sosa; lighting design by David Weiner; sound design by Darron L West; music production and additional composition by Justin Ellington; additional composition by Will Hammond; music direction by Daryl Waters; and the production stage manager is Judith Schoenfeld.

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 25 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.

The Seven 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 with one intermission. Tickets are $60 and, beginning December 15, 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 theatregoers, 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.