THEATER PREVIEW: "Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead"

The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.

options

THEATER PREVIEW: "Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead"

POSTED: Wednesday, February 2, 2011, 3:07 PM

Filed Under: Arts | Events | Arts Events | Arts Preview | Philly Artists Theater

Jeffrey Stanley

It's a one-man show, but award-winning playwright Jeffrey Stanley isn't the only one in it. At least, he hopes not. Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead is a 60-minute "autobiographical black comedy" whose supporting cast is made up of ghosts — if they're willing to make an appearance, Stanley says. An adjunct faculty member at New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, Stanley is workshopping this free work-in-progress in Philadelphia — his new home — at the historic Plays & Players theater. Years in the making, the new play combines elements of earlier works, including another black comedy Stanley performed in New York under the curation of Andy Warhol pal Neke Carson. Mix that with "inept dream interpretation," family history, and a Ouija tent, and the result is Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead. The play is "about communication between family members while they're alive and maybe even after they're dead," Stanley says. Expect humor, but also "a lot of death, a lot of suffering, a lot of human misery." One-man shows or otherwise, Stanley's works focus on shared experience: in performing his material, he's found "people in the audience have had the same tragedies," and the plays are ultimately "cathartic," both for the performer and the viewer. Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead is also interactive in a literal sense: Stanley will bring three audience members into the Ouija tent onstage to reach out to the dead. But ghosts can be unpredictable, so the last part of the show introduces an "element of randomness and chaos." Stanley has three possible endings worked out, based on what happens in the moment. Because it's a workshop, the audience will "get to be involved early in the process of creating a new show," the playwright notes. Afterward, he'll host a Q&A session, which will continue in Quig's Pub on the same floor as the play. Stanley hopes eventually to perform the show as part of the Philly Fringe or in another alternative venue, like the Laurel Hill Cemetery. Viewers get a free Ouija board on the backs of their playbills. Thu., Feb. 3, 8 p.m., free, Plays & Players, third floor, 1714 Delancey St.

Posted by Matt Cantor @ 3:07 PM Permalink | Post a comment

Comments (0)

Q&A with SHARI SOLANIS: "The goal isn't pornography"
What we're trying to do this weekend
SEXY TIME Q&A: I've never had an orgasm during sex with a man — and I'm 30!
NOW SEE THIS: Transit cop arrests marijuana activist for alleged disorderly conduct.
CONCERT REVIEW: Primus (3D & quadraphonic sound) @ The Tower 10/17
Q&A with Tony Goldwyn: "Life is gray, and relationships are, too"
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: The Archbishop meets the Geator, the Mayor goes suit shopping, Le Bec Fin fin.
ICEPACK ILLUSTRATED: Indian fare rules, Dunder Mifflin lives on, Tom Jones is a god
Q&A with Goon’s Seann William Scott
SWIMMING HOLES: Some of our favorite places to get wet

About this blog

Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

Follow Critical Mass editors Patrick Rapa and Emily Guendelsberger on Twitter:

@mission2denmark | @emilygee

Search this blog:

Topics:

Blog archives:

May
April
March

February
January

Past Archives: