COCOON THEATRE PRESENTS ‘ANNUAL BECKETT PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL’

beckett-2016-nov

COCOON THEATRE PRESENTS ‘ANNUAL BECKETT PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL’
Two weekends of performances, lectures, open discussions, visual art and music,  surrounding three rarely seen Samuel Beckett plays: Not I A Piece of a Monologue The Old Tune November 4 – 13, Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm., and Sundays at 3 pm. Tkts: $25.
12 Vassar St., Cunneen-Hackett Theatre in Poughkeepsie

THE OPENING EVENTS
ART: Saturday, October 29 at 2 pm. Free. 12 Vassar St., Cunneen-Hackett Theater.  Join us for edibles, music and art.          

DRESS REHEARSAL: Monday, October 31 (Halloween) at 7 pm. $10. 9 Vassar St., Cunneen-Hackett Parlor.  Join us for a Soiree in the Parlor sharing selected scenes form the upcoming Festival, with audience discussion. Potluck event, bring a dish and arrive costumed!

THE PLAYS Cocoon presents its third ‘Annual Beckett Performance Festival,’ sharing three short Beckett plays, performed by Cocoon Actor’s Theater. Not I is a haunting duet piece exploring the voice of one woman. A Piece of a Monologue is a very quiet monologue for one male actor. The Old Tune is a fast-paced, comedic duet for two very old men.
Call to reserve: 845-452-7870 www.cocoontheatre.org

THE DISCUSSIONS Special guest lecturers will speak post-show, with open discussions with the directors, actors, and audience (names and dates to be announced).

THE ART A Black and White Sculpture art installation accompanied by Craig Chin’s Sound will be presented in the parlor rooms of the theater building before and after each performance. Opening October 29, 2pm.

THE PERFORMERS Cocoon Actor’s Theater is an ensemble of performers working throughout the year together on various classic material, sharing roles and duties.  Performing in this year’s ‘Annual Beckett Performance Festival’ are:  Jim Granger, Andrés and Marguerite San Millán, and Douglas Woolley.

THE PLAYWRIGHT Samuel Barclay Beckett (13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet, who lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in both English and French. He is widely regarded as among the most influential writers of the 20th century. Beckett’s work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human existence, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humor, and became increasingly minimalist in his later career. He is considered one of the last modernist writers, and one of the key figures in what Martin Esslin called the “Theatre of the Absurd”. Beckett was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation.”

PLAY BACKGROUND
Not I is considered a short dramatic monologue, although consisting of two characters, written in 1972 by Samuel Beckett, translated as Pas Moi; premiere at the “Samuel Beckett Festival” by the Repertory Theater of Lincoln Center, New York, directed by Alan Schneider, with Jessica Tandy and Henderson Forsythe. 
A Piece of Monologue is a fifteen-minute play written by Samuel Beckett, between October 1977 and April 1979. It followed a request for a “play about death” by the actor David Warrilow who starred in the premiere in the Annex at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, New York on 14 December 1979.

The Old Tune is a free translation of Robert Pinget’s 1960 play La Manivelle in which Samuel Beckett transformed Pinget’s Parisians, Toupin and Pommard into Dubliners, Cream and Gorman. Its first radio broadcast was by the BBC on 23 August 1960. Barbara Bray directed Jack MacGowran and Patrick Magee.

THEATER BACKGROUND
Cocoon Theatre is a 27 year old, non-profit, visual and performing arts organization presenting original and classic performances in modern dance, theater, and art, in conjunction with classes, workshops and community events. 
www.cocoontheatre.org   845-452-7870

Contact Producer Marguerite San Millan at 845-452-7870
‘Not I’ and ‘A Piece of a Monologue’ are presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. ‘The Old Tune’ by Samuel Beckett, an adaptation of Robert Pinget’s La Manivelle copyright © 1960 by les Editions de Minuit. Translation copyright © 1961 by the Estate of Samuel Beckett. Used through arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc. and Editions de Minuit, on behalf of the Estate of Samuel Beckett. All rights reserved.

Marguerite San Millan Cocoon Theatre President www.cocoontheatre.org 845-452-7870