SEAPORT SUMMER THEATRE FESTIVAL.

TWELFTH NIGHT and SNAPSHOTS ‘07
LAUNCH THE FIRST ANNUAL
SEAPORT SUMMER THEATRE FESTIVAL

TWELFTH NIGHT
DIRECTED BY JEFF COHEN,
FEATURES A CAST LED BY STEPHEN LARGAY (LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO) AS SIR TOBY BELCH

SNAPSHOTS ‘07
IS AN EVENING OF ONE-ACT PLAYS FEATURING WORLD PREMIERES
BY PATRICK BLAKE, CLAY McLEOD CHAPMAN AND JEFF COHEN

LATE-NIGHT COMEDY WILL ALSO BE FEATURED AT THE FESTIVAL EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT

SEAPORT SUMMER THEATRE FESTIVAL RUNS AUGUST 2 THROUGH AUGUST 26
OFF-BROADWAY AT THE S-P-A-C-E GALLERY & PERFORMANCE SPACE
207A FRONT ST at BEEKMAN ST at the SOUTH STREET SEAPORT

--------------------------------------


TWELFTH NIGHT, SNAPSHOTS ’07 and LATE-NIGHT COMEDY will launch the first annual Seaport Summer Theatre Festival. The Festival will run from August 2nd through August 26th at the S-P-A-C-E Gallery and Performance Space (a project of the Seaport District Cultural Association), 207a Front Street at Beekman Street, South Street Seaport, NYC.

The performance schedule is as follows:




Twelfth Night – Thursdays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm.
Snapshots – Fridays and Sundays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm.

Late Night Comedy – Saturday nights at 11pm.




Tickets are $18 per show, or all three shows for a special Festival Pass of $30. Tickets can be purchased by calling SMARTTIX.COM at 212/868-4444

TWELFTH NIGHT is the ideal Shakespeare play for the Seaport and Gallery setting. The comedy of love and longing begins with a tragic shipwreck off the coast of the seaport town of Illyria. The S-P-A-C-E Gallery’s eclectic collection of painting, sculpture and photography by Downtown Manhattan artists creates the perfect scenic environment for Illyria, a “Through-The-Looking-Glass” world that is, to quote the Bard, “high fantastical.” The TWELFTH NIGHT cast is led by Stephen Largay as Sir Toby Belch. Mr. Largay originated the role of Peachy Weil in the Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Award winning play The Last Night of Ballyhoo by Alfred Uhry. He is a recipient of the Elliott Norton “Best Actor” Award for Equus. Mr. Largay also starred in the 1998 CBS Drama series To Have and To Hold. Also featured in the principal cast of TWELFTH NIGHT are Danny Bruckert, Gene Gallerano, Jesse Gavin, Adam Hirsch, Mari Howells, Margaret Nichols, Patrick Pizzolorusso, Joli Tribuzio and Maxwell Zener. The ensemble cast features Sarah Bowles, Madeleine Burns, Rosalynd Darling, Jane Elliot, Manuel Fihman, Christopher Gooley, Jenna Harder, Rachael Hip-Flores, Claire Kenny and Tracy Weiler.

SNAPSHOTS ‘07 continues the popular SNAPSHOTS series of One Acts presented by the Worth Street Theater Company that included notable work by Richard Greenberg, John Patrick Shanley and Tom Disch and featured premieres of work by Keith Reddin and Robert O’Hara. The 2007 edition of SNAPSHOTS will include world premieres of: First Date by Patrick Blake, two monologues by acclaimed playwright and novelist Clay McCleod Chapman, Bridesmaid and The Interstate and On, and Jeff Cohen’s In These Times – scenes from the aftermath of September 11.

Patrick Blake is best known as producer of the acclaimed Off Broadway productions of The Exonerated (2003 Drama Desk Award) and the 2006 Obie Award winning In The Continuum (selected Ten Best Plays of 2005 by The New York Times). His First Date, featuring Hilary Bettis, is a series of first dates as an aspiring actress gets sucked into the vortex of New York City life.

Clay McLeod Chapman’s first book of short stories, Rest Area, was published in 2002 and his novel, Corpus, was published in 2003 by Hyperion. His plays have been performed at the Culture Project, PS 122, The Red Room, and The Fringe Festival. Bridesmaid and The Interstate and On, featuring Kira Sternbach and Tracy Weiler, can best be described as contemporary Southern Gothic. The former is a drunken wedding reception send-off where some particularly unsavory bridal secrets are revealed, the latter is a rumination on a prom-night tragedy. Jeff Cohen’s plays include Men Of Clay (Best New Play 2005, the Baltimore City Paper) and his adaptation of Chekhov, Uncle Jack (published in the anthology Playing With Canons edited by Martin Denton).

In These Times is a collection of snapshots depicting New York life in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks. Mr. Cohen’s Tribeca Playhouse was the closest theatre to Ground Zero and his Tribeca Playhouse StageDoor Canteen performances in the attack’s aftermath made headlines around the world. In These Times, with a cast that includes Madeleine Burns, Rosalynd Darling, Jenna Harder, Gabrielle Maisels and Mark M. Thomas, is an especially poignant tribute to the cultural life of the South Street Seaport and its proximity to Ground Zero as that day’s 6th anniversary approaches.

LATE NIGHT COMEDY will take over the Festival every Saturday night, featuring some of New York’s most exciting established and up and coming comedy acts.

Artistic Director Jeff Cohen continues to have an indelible association with Downtown and the events of 9/11. With The Seaport Summer Theatre Festival, he continues his commitment to bringing theatre and entertainment to Lower Manhattan. Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Mr. Cohen’s Tribeca Playhouse proved to be one of New York’s brightest artistic lights. As Artistic Director of the acclaimed Worth Street Theater Company and founder of the tiny Tribeca Playhouse, Mr. Cohen created the internationally renowned Tribeca Playhouse Stage Door Canteen, a 10 week performance series of stars from Broadway, Film and Television – a roster that included Phylicia Rashad, Colin Quinn, Mario Cantone, Lea DeLaria, Sandy Duncan, Joey Fatone, Sara Ramirez, Kristen Chenoweth and many others. The Canteen was conceived as an old-style USO-type show to entertain the Ground Zero rescue and construction workers who were literally rebuilding New York. The show was profiled by Associated Press, on every major TV network news program and was honored to receive a special 2002 Drama Desk Award.

TWELFTH NIGHT, SNAPSHOTS ’07 and LATE-NIGHT COMEDY will launch the first annual Seaport Summer Theatre Festival. The Festival will run from August 2nd through August 26th at the S-P-A-C-E Gallery and Performance Space (a project of the Seaport District Cultural Association), 207a Front Street at Beekman Street, South Street Seaport, NYC.

The performance schedule is as follows:



Twelfth Night – Thursdays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm.
Snapshots – Fridays and Sundays at 7pm, Saturdays at 3pm.

Late Night Comedy – Saturday nights at 11pm.



Tickets are $18 per show, or all three shows for a special Festival Pass of $30.

Tickets can be purchased by calling SMARTTIX.COM at 212/868-4444.