INTAR THEATRE

INTAR THEATRE

PRESENTS



MAXWELL ANDERSON’S NIGHT OVER TAOS



DIRECTED BY ACADEMY AWARD® WINNER

ESTELLE PARSONS



Play Written 75-Years Ago Has Modern Significance and

Offers Fresh Revelations Due to Present Fervor in U.S.

Over Immigration Issues



SEPTEMBER 20 – OCTOBER 20

OFFICIAL OPENING: MONDAY, OCTOBER 1 @ 7:00 PM



PLAYING AT

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY

(155 FIRST AVENUE)



INTAR Theatre, one of the U.S.’ longest running Latino theaters producing plays in English, begins its 42nd season with a production of Pulitzer Prize-winner Maxwell Anderson’s Night Over Taos, directed by Academy Award®-winning actress and director Estelle Parsons. This rediscovered classic will play a limited Off-Broadway run from September 20 through October 20 at Theater for the New City (155 First Avenue). The official opening is set for Monday, October 1 @ 7:00 PM.



During the U.S.-Mexican War, which took place from 1846 to 1848, Mexico lost nearly half of its territory, including what is now the state of New Mexico. Night Over Taos is the true story about a Mexican freedom fighter, Pablo Montoya, who in 1847 led a bloody and ultimately futile siege to protect New Mexico from being ceded to the United States. Though written 75 years ago, the themes and conflicts that comprise this epic drama ring eerily prophetic today given the growing sense of xenophobia in America. As INTAR’s Artistic Director Eduardo Machado elaborates: “Night Over Taos is a play from America’s rich past that talks intimately to all of us today who are struggling with issues of immigration and the Iraq War. Mr. Anderson has a grip on what is American, and shows us a story of how the west was really won.”



INTAR’s production celebrates the 75th anniversary of this rarely staged gem, which was the third show ever produced by the legendary Group Theatre when it premiered on Broadway in 1932. The original production was directed by Lee Strasberg and boasted a cast that included such luminaries as Stella Adler, Sanford Meisner and Clifford Odets. INTAR is thrilled to be mounting a play written originally for the Group Theatre, which was revolutionary in the 1930s in its dedication to the creation of new American plays that mirrored their turbulent times and focused on ensemble, actor-driven work—and which has, as part of its rich legacy, such plays as Awake and Sing!, Waiting for Lefty, and Paradise Lost.



Playwright Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959) is widely acknowledged as one of the most important, prolific and exciting American playwrights of the years between World Wars I and II. In fact, by the time he died in 1959, 27 of his plays had run on Broadway. He had also published a volume of poetry, two essay collections and numerous screenplays. Despite this incredible body of work, his plays have been seldom staged over the past several decades, and as a result, his contributions are relatively underappreciated. In fact, following World War II, Anderson rivaled Eugene O’Neill as this country’s leading playwright. He went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize in 1933 for Both Your Houses, and in 1937, he received Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Winterset and High Tor.



Anderson started out as journalist until the successful production in 1924 of What Price Glory?, a war drama he wrote with Laurence Stallings. He wrote many historical dramas including Elizabeth the Queen (1930), Mary of Scotland (1933), Valley Forge (1934), Joan of Lorraine (1947), Anne of the Thousand Days (1948), and Barefoot in Athens (1951). Among his other plays are The Star Wagon (1937), Key Largo (1939), and The Eve of St. Mark (1942). He also wrote the librettos for Kurt Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday (1938) and Lost in the Stars (1940). Anderson’s original screenplays included All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), for which he received an Academy Award® nomination, Rain (1932), Death Takes a Holiday (1934), and So Red the Rose (1935).



The cast of 25 – the largest of any INTAR production to date -- includes Jack Landron, Shawn Elliott, Peter Jay Fernandez, Mercedes Herrero, Mickey Solis, Erin Wagner, and Miriam Colon (Megan, please verify that they are listed in order of importance).



The design team includes Peter Larkin (Scenic Design), Howard Thies (Lighting Design), and Erich Bechtel (Sound Design). The show will include original music composed by Yukio Tsuji.



While Night Over Taos Director Estelle Parson’s is best known for her Academy Award® winning performance in the famed classic, Bonnie and Clyde, she is also an accomplished director. Ms. Parsons was last represented on Broadway with Oscar Wilde’s Salome, starring Al Pacino. But the directorial turn for which Ms. Parsons is most proud was when Joseph Papp invited her to form a multicultural, multilingual Shakespeare company that played on Broadway at the Belasco Theater for two season to New York City high school students. As a renowned actress, Estelle Parsons stage credits include: Happy Hunting (Broadway debut); Mother Courage and Her Children; Malcolm; The Seven Descents of Myrtle (Tony Nomination); And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little ( Tony Nomination); Mert & Phil; The Norman Conquests; Ladies at the Alamo; Miss Margarida's Way (Tony Nomination); The Pirates of Penzance; The Shadow Box, and Morning’s at Seven (Tony Nomination). Ms. Parsons was inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame in 2004. Among television audiences, she is perhaps best known as Rosanne Barr’s mother in the hit sit-com, “Roseanne.” Her first job on television is equally as notable, as she was one of the five people who started NBC’s “Today” Show.



Night Over Taos will be INTAR’s first offering for the 2007—2008 Season. The mainstage season will continue in December at the Lion Theatre on Theater Row with a newly commissioned collaboration by Carmelita Tropicana and Ela Troyano, Bring it On, Yous Tube. Spring 2008 will bring the world premiere of Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas’ Bird in the Hand also to the Lion Theater.



Night Over Taos plays Wednesday – Saturday at 8:00 PM, Saturday at 2:00pm and Sunday at 3:00pm from September 20– October 20 at INTAR at Theater for a New City (155 First Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets). NOTE: There will be additional Monday performances on September 24th at 8pm and October 1st at 7:00 pm (Opening Night). Tickets are $10 - $35, with $10 Tickets for Students/ Seniors, and can be purchased by calling 212.254.1109, or online at www.theatermania.com. For Group Tickets, call 212.695.6134 x 11. For more info, visit www.intartheatre.org.