Address:
155 First Avenue
East Village, NY 10003
Phone: 212-254-1109
Website: www.theaterforthenewcity.net
Description: "Anna Nicole: Blonde Glory" (world premiere) written by Grace Cavalieri, directed by Shela Xoregos. Cino Theater - Sunday, August 21 at 7:00PM; Wednesday, August 24 at 7:00PM; Friday, August 26 at 9:00PM; Saturday, August 27 at 2:00PM; Sunday, August 28 at 7:00PM. Running Time: 70 minutes | Tickets: $15.
This witty, imagined year in the life of Anna Nicole Smith began as a sheaf of published poems by Grace Cavalieri, playwright and award-winning poet. Ms. Cavalieri's creation of a quintet of characters in Anna's life is a richly invented panorama. Performer Mary Riley channels Smith's charisma, innocence and battered resolutions into a dynamic whole. A cheer-leading production number highlights Anna's quest for fame. There is a supporting cast of five. Lighting is by Don Cate. Costumes are by Rayneese Primrose. Score is by Jon Tomlinson. Grace Cavalieri has 24 full-length and short-form plays that have been produced on American stages. Her book, "Anna Nicole: Poems" (Case Menendez, 2008), won the national Paterson Award for Literary Excellence in 2009. The characters in that book inspired this play. She founded and still produces "The Poet and the Poem" for public radio, now from the Library of Congress, now celebrating its 34th year on the air. Cavalieri holds numerous poetry awards: the Allan Ginsberg Award for Poetry, the Pen-Fiction Award for story, the Bordighera Poetry Award and The Columbia Award and the Corporation for Broadcasting Silver Medal, among others. She has a 25-year association with the Xoregos Performing Company. Shela Xoregos has directed many new plays as well as plays by Shakespeare, Euripides, Wilde, Lillian Hellman, George Kelly, others. She is Producing Artistic Director of Xoregos Performing Company, which commissions works of theater, dance and music. The company presented an outdoor production of "Medea" last summer; this year, Sophocles' "Antigone" will be performed in four boroughs during July and early August. She began as a dancer and has choreographed for the Oakland Ballet, Seattle Chamber Dance, MAD for Dance and others.
