WHAT HAPPENED: The September 11th Testimony Project
A new play written and directed by Amy S. Green
Presented by The Theatre Project

Pay tribute to the survivors of the World Trade Center attacks. Hear the stories of more than 40 real-life characters as they recount their experiences on and since that day. The characters include police officers, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and ordinary New Yorkers whose courage, common sense, honesty, and good humor are heroic in their own way. This harrowing and poignant play follows them from that sunny morning through the crash and collapse, escape, rescue, recovery, and grief, and ends with reflections on how their lives have changed.

The September 11th Project was created from oral history interviews conducted at John Jay College of Criminal Justice/CUNY and funded in part by the New York Council on the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Citizens Committee for New York.

Co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and The Graduate Center, CUNY

Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Monday, September 9, 2002, 6:30 p.m
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.

Co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and The Graduate Center, CUNY; produced by special arrangement with Samuel French, Inc.
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis.

Two Showings at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Monday, September 30, 2002, 6:00 p.m. FREE
Monday, September 30, 2002, 8:00 p.m. FREE

For more information or to sign up for this program visit CUNY’s Continuing Education Public Programs:
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/cepp
or call (212) 817-8215.

For information about Break-A-Leg Productions visit:
http://www.breakalegproductions.com

The Part of Hamlet and Filumena Marturano
Works by Eduardo De Fillippo
Presented by Jane E. House Productions, The Eduardo De Filippo Estate, and Istituto Italiano Di Cultura of New York

Eduardo De Filippo (1900-1984), born in Naples, was one of Italy’s most prolific and beloved playwrights as well as an accomplished actor, and a prominent director of theatre and film. You are invited to the national premier public reading of his one-act play The Part of Hamlet (1939) translated into English for the first time by Mimi and Nello D’Aponte. Mimi D’Aponte is on the theatre faculty at Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. This work originally starred Eduardo, his sister Titina, and his brother Peppino. Professional American actors will present this unique reading.

Also get a taste of Eduardo as a film actor and film director in Filumena Marturano, his 1951 screen rendition of his 1946 play. In the screening of a selection of this black and white film Eduardo impersonates the wealthy bourgeois Don Domenico, and his sister Titina plays opposite him as the long-suffering but indomitable Filumena. The screening will be preceded by a reading in English translation by Thomas Simpson (Northwestern University) of the 15 - minute clip selected for the screening. This script was made internationally famous as Marriage Italian Style, the 1964 film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.

The program will be accompanied by commentary from Jane House and Mimi D’Aponte on the Neapolitan acting tradition, Italian dialect theatre, and translation. Total running time is approximately 90 minutes. Dramaturgical notes about The Part of Hamlet and information on the playwright’s work will be provided. There will be a small reception with the director, translators, and actors afterwards in Room 3112 on the 3rd Floor of The Graduate Center.

Co-sponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and the Ph.D. Program in Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY. Produced by special arrangement with The Eduardo De Filippo Estate.

Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Monday, October 7, 2002, 6:30 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.

Einstein's Dreams
World Premiere of a Concert Reading of an Original Musical Play
Based on the novel Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
Science and the Arts

The ground-breaking writing and composing team of Joanne Sydney Lessner and Joshua Rosenblum have created an original musical adaptation of Alan Lightman's captivating and enchanting novel Einstein's Dreams. Lightman's novel caused a literary sensation when it was published in 1994, with one critic calling it "a brilliant novel of time in its marvelous flight...gorgeous in its writing, spellbinding and profound in its effects." Lessner and Rosenblum, the authors of the cult hit musical Fermat's Last Tango, weave Lightman's ingenious fantasy vignettes about the nature of time into an infectious musical tapestry that revolves around Einstein himself and a compelling, elusive, beautiful woman who haunts his dreams. This provocative but lighthearted new work of musical theater is guaranteed to stimulate, move and entertain. No physics background required.

Produced by Brian Schwartz and sponsored by the Science Center and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Showing at Elebash Recital Hall
Monday, October 7, 2002, 6:00 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis.

For more information or to sign up for this program visit CUNY’s Continuing Education Public Programs:
http://web.gc.cuny.edu/cepp
or call (212) 817-8215.

The Art of Marionettes
A lecture / demonstration by Vít Horejs of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater
Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

Czech-American master puppet player Vít Horejs will give a demonstration of the art of marionettes with selected puppets used in productions of his Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater. Golem, one of Vít Horejs' recent projects in collaboration with The Jim Henson Foundation, Danspace Project, GOH and La MaMa has been described as, “magical, … poetry in the interaction of dancers and objects.” His interpretation of Hamlet at the Jan Hus Playhouse reflects a new trend in Czech puppetry. It shatters the illusion of traditional marionette theater by having the puppeteers on stage as human actors performing opposite their wooden counterparts.

The evening will include introductions by Daniel Gerould and Claudia Orenstein, as well as a slide presentation followed by a question and answer period.

Co-sponsored by the CUNY Graduate Center's Ph.D. Program in Theatre, the Lucille Lortel Chair and Sidney E. Cohn Chair in Theatre, the journals of Slavic and East European Performance and Western European Stages, and the New York Czech Center.

Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Monday, November 4, 2002, 4:30 p.m.– 6:00 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.

Science and Music
The Science, History, and Music of the Concertina

This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of the inventor of the concertina, the English physicist, Sir Charles Wheatstone, known widely for the “Wheatstone Bridge.” The speaker-musicians will discuss the science and acoustics of the concertina as a “free-reed” instrument, and its history. The presentation also includes a complementary program of music from Victorian England, present-day chamber music, the early twentieth century music hall, and the English Country Dance tradition.

Performers:
Allan Atlas, The Graduate Center/CUNY
Alla Borzova, The Graduate Center/CUNY
David Cannata, Temple University
Wim Wakker, Schumann Academy of Music, The Netherlands

Showing at Elebash Recital Hall
Monday, November 4, 2002, 6:00 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.

Lecture on Einstein’s Dreams- Einstein in Athens

A lecture by the acclaimed Macedonian Theatre Director and Professor of Acting and Directing, Slobodan Unkovski (see Slavic and East European Performance Vol. 21, Winter 2001). Professor Unkovski will discuss his adaptation of Alan Lightman’s Einstein’s Dreams for the National Theatre in Greece in preparation for a workshop in February 2003. Presented in collaboration with the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.

Showing at Theatre Thesis Room, 3107
Friday, January 24, 2003, 3:00 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.

Why? (Perchè?) A one-act play (1892)
American Premiere of an Unknown Pirandello
By Italian playwright and novelist, LUIGI PIRANDELLO (1867-1936)
Presented by Jane House Productions,The Istituto Italiano Di Cultura, New York

Directed and translated by Jane House; Followed by The Fin-de-Siècle Italian Stage, a talk by Distinguished Professor Marvin Carlson

When he was in his early twenties, Pirandello submitted a number of short theatre pieces to well-known people in Italian theatre. They were never performed, but two were published, among them Why? (Perchè?, 1892), presented this evening. It was not until 18 years later, in 1910, that Pirandello had one of his plays produced. Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Chair of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, will give an overview of the kind of theatre that would have surrounded Pirandello during the late nineteenth century. He has published widely in theatre history and theory, performance studies and dramatic literature. Among his many books is The Italian Stage from Goldoni to D’Annunzio.

Co-sponsored by Martin E. Segal Theatre Center—The Graduate Center, CUNY, and The Pirandello Society of America

A small reception will follow.

Showing at The Istituto Italiano di Cultura, New York
686 Park Avenue (at 68th Street), NYC
Tuesday, January 28, 2003, 6:00 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.

Pixérécourt: Four Melodramas
Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

A celebration honoring the first volume in a new series of Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Publications. A reading of scenes from four of Pixérécourt’s most important melodramas: Alice, The Ruins of Babylon, Christopher Columbus, and The Dog of Montargis. Translated and edited by Distinguished Professors Dan Gerould and Marvin Carlson.

Scenes directed by Elizabeth Swain.

Co-sponsored by The Graduate Center’s Ph.D. Program in Theatre.

Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Monday, February 3, 2003, 6:30 p.m. FREE
Reservations required.

An Evening Celebrating the Art of Arthur Schnitzler
Presented by the Austrian Cultural Forum, Mint Theater Company, & Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Graduate Center, C.U.N.Y.

This evening celebrates the art of great Austrian writer Arthur Schnitzler and previews the Mint Theater’s February premiere of his brilliant Das weite Land (Far and Wide) in a new English language version. Join adaptor/director Jonathan Bank, John Simon (drama critic, New York Magazine), Schnitzler expert Andrew Wisely (author of Twentieth Century Criticism of Arthur Schnitzler, due out this spring), and Dr. Frank Hentschker from the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, C.U.N.Y. in a special evening of conversation on the life and work of Arthur Schnitzler, complete with an excerpt from the 1987 film adaptation of Das weite Land by Luc Bondy and a dramatic reading of Schnitzler’s pioneering short story Lieutenant Gustl.

“He had the most uncannily penetrating, witty and tragic view of every cranny of man-woman relations, and expressed it with a kind of ruthless lyricism …It is what you might get from a stethoscope that can hear the unconscious, a stethoscope that can sing.

- John Simon, New York Magazine

Showing at the Austrian Cultural Forum
11 East 52nd Street, NYC
Monday, February 10, 2003, 6:30 p.m. FREE
Food provided by Wallsé Restaurant and Café Sabarsky. Wines provided by Rosalie Sendelbach Imports.
Seating is limited. Reservations Required.

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of DNA
Science and Theater
Thread of Life

Thread of Life is a riveting new play about the role of Rosalind Franklin in the discovery of the structure of DNA. Written by Rita Nachtmann. Staged reading performed by Break-A-Leg Productions. Courtesy of the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Project.

Produced by the Science Center in collaboration with Continuing Education & Public Programs and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Showing at Elebash Recital Hall
Monday, March 10, 6:00 p.m. FREE

For more information or to sign up for this program visit CUNY’s Continuing Education Public Programs: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/cepp or call (212) 817-8215.

YokastaS
An Open Rehearsal-Selected Scenes
Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
and the Ph. D. Program in Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY.

YokastaS, a play written by Staviana Stanescu and Richard Schechner and directed by Schechner explores the central figure of Yokasta--Oedipus's Queen-Mother-Wife by presenting theatregoers with four Yokastas, each representing distinct parts of her life and different approaches to her experiences. Audiences see Yokasta as a pre-teen, a young woman, a happily married woman, and an older woman who intelligently recollects all aspects of her life.

Immediately following the selected scenes join Marvin Carlson, Sidney E. Cohn Professor of Theatre at the CUNY Graduate Center, who will moderate a discussion on adaptations of Greek tragedy. The discussion will feature Richard Schechner, director of the production, University Professor at NYU and founder of the seminal avant-garde 1960s theatre troupe, The Performance Group, as well as Saviana Stanescu, the co-author of this feminist rethinking of the Oedipus myth.

The program previews the East Coast Artist’s World Premiere of YokastaS, presented at La MaMa, E.T.C.
Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Monday, March 17th , 2003, 6:30 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.

An Evening with Japanese Theatre Director Satoshi Miyagi
Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center and Japan Society

Come explore the fascinating world of contemporary Japanese theatre with Artistic Director and playwright Satoshi Miyagi. Inspired by 18th-century bunraku puppet theatre, Mr. Miyagi's internationally acclaimed Ku Na'uka Theatre Company incorporates a unique performance style that uses two actors to perform each role. This special evening will include commentary by experts, a demonstration performed by members of the Ku Na'uka Theatre Company, and a moderated question and answer session. The program previews the Ku Na'uka Theatre Company's March 2003 U.S. premiere of The Castle Tower presented at the Japan Society.

John Bell (Moderator), Assistant Professor of Performing Arts, Emerson College; Thomas Rimer, Professor of East Asian Language and Literature, University of Pittsburgh; Tadashi Uchino, Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies, Tokyo University; Loren Edelson, doctoral student, The Ph.D. Program in Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY.

Cosponsored by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center; the Japan Society; The Ph.D. Program in Theatre,The Graduate Center, CUNY; and by The Saison Foundation.

Showing at Elebash Recital Hall
Tuesday, March 25, 2003, 6:30 p.m. FREE
Reservations Required.
For reservations contact Continuing Education and Public Programs, The Graduate Center at 212-817-8215

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of DNA
Science and Dance and Music
Dance, Music and DNA

Dancer/choreographer John Pennington, Pomona College, CA, will perform a piece he composed in collaboration with a molecular biologist and an artist. The Patrick Grant Group will perform a musical suite from GENOME: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Movements. Lori Belilove & Company, resident troupe of The Isadora Duncan Dance Foundation, will present a new work, commissioned for this event.

Produced by the Science Center in collaboration with Continuing Education & Public Programs and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Showing at Elebash Recital Hall
Friday, March 28, 6:00 p.m. FREE

For more information or to sign up for this program visit CUNY’s Continuing Education Public Programs: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/cepp or call (212) 817-8215.

Ku Na'uka Theatre Company Workshop
Presented by the Japan Society and Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

A workshop with Artistic Director Satoshi Miyagi and members of the Ku Na'uka Theatre Company. Inspired by the bunraku puppet theatre, the workshop focuses on Ku Na'uka's unique performance style where each role is carried out by two actors: a narrator, "Logos" and a performer, "Pathos."

Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Friday, March 28, 2003, 1:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
Tickets: $20, Japan Society Members $18
Reservations Required. Participation is limited.
For reservations contact Continuing Education and Public Programs, The Graduate Center at 212-817-8215

I Married You for Fun
The American premier staged reading of Natalia Ginzburg's three-act play

Jane House Productions will present the American premier staged reading of Natalia Ginzburg's three-act play, I Married You for Fun, translated and directed by Jane House. One of Italy's most powerful writers, Ginzburg (1916-1991) chronicled, in her novels, essays, and plays, the chaos and despair of the post-World War II era in Italy, the struggle to regenerate the country, and the role of women in modern Italy. Among the participants will be Frances Degen Horowitz, President of The Graduate Center, CUNY; Marsha Norman, winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for 'night, Mother, and playwriting professor in the Drama Division of The Juilliard School; Lynne Sharon Schwartz, novelist and translator of Ginzburg's essays; and Patricia Clough, Director of the Center for the Study of Women and Society, The Graduate Center, CUNY.

The event is co-sponsored by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura New York, the Center for the Study of Women and Society and Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center.

A small reception will follow.

Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Monday, March 31, 2003, 5:30 p.m. FREE
Seating is limited and on a first-come first-served basis. No reservations required.
For further information, contact janeehouse@juno.com.

Contemporary Theatre Abroad
Presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes New York, THALATTA!, MCC, and A.R.T./ New York.

Following a special A.R.T./New York - Martin E. Segal Theatre Center Literary Manager Round Table join the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center in introducing the work of German Playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig. In addition, celebrate the official international launching of the Goethe-Institut Theatre Library and hear from Jury Member Bernd Schmidt, who will speak about Contemporary German Drama. The new Goethe-Institut Theatre Library, an exciting website where theatre professionals from all over the world can download the latest German plays, will also be introduced.

Following introductions by Edwin Wilson, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Irmtraut Hubatsch, Goethe Institut Inter Nationes and Lisa Stevenson of A.R.T./New York, the THALATTA! Theatre Collective will present a scene from Schimmelpfennig’s Arabian Night, directed by Doug Howe. A scene from his play Push Up 1 - 3, produced by MCC Theater and directed by Stephen Willems will follow. A personal statement by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Q & A discussion will conclude the evening.

Here’s what people are saying about playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig:

“ A stiflingly hot summer evening in a block of flats; a near-naked young woman almost constantly asleep; a caretaker worried about why the water supply on the top floors has "vanished"; a slightly displaced world, and disorientation all round.The cleverness of Roland Schimmelpfennig (who has had two plays staged in London this year, Push Up at the Royal Court and now Arabian Night in a production by Actors Touring Company) is to make high-tempo drama out of solipsistic states of mind.”

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
Lesley Chamberlain, May 10, 2002, London

Showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre
Wednesday, April 23, 2003, 6:30 p.m. FREE
Reservations required.

THE 2003 FESTIVAL OF NEW PLAY READINGS
From the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre’s Professional Playwrights Unit
Presented by The Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre
in association with the
Martin E. Segal Theatre Center
The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Tuesday, May 13, 2003
What’s Funny in Greenwich by Jay Vasquez
Why did Gustav buy this house?

Monday, May 19, 2003
The Psychiatrist by Fred Valle
Crazy??

Tuesday, May 20, 2003
Twister with an Octopus by Ben-Hur Carmona
Porno actors experience 9/11 ... a deeply felt human drama.

Monday, June 2, 2003
Power House by Fred Crecca
A dying world-famous Cardinal confronts his life of questionable actions with a long dead Pope.

Tuesday, June 3, 2003
Confessions of a P.K. by Henry Guzman
The darkly comic journey of a Preacher’s son who dreams of taking a leap out of faith.

Monday, June 9, 2003
The Courtship of Diderot by Maria Elena Torres
Budding Philosopher meets girl; budding Philosopher loses girl; budding Philosopher should think seriously about getting girl.

Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Gone Fishin’- Won’t Be Back by Harding Robert de los Reyes
Love - marriage - adultery - lap dancing.

Monday, June 16, 2003
Sin Paradise by George Joshua
The battle for a desperate man’s soul.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Welcome to Margaret’s World by Oscar A. Colon
The End of the World.

Monday, June 23, 2003
A Simple Gift by T. Cat Ford
A vagrant Appalachian girl wanders into a 19th century Shaker Community in search of the devil, and finds a people who believe heaven exists now on earth.

Tuesday, June 24, 2003
When Johnny Comes Marching Home by Noemi Martinez
Soldier leaves his dysfunctional family to go off to the Gulf War.

Monday, June 30, 2003
Late Blooming Roses by Allen Davis III
A favored daughter returns home bursting with great new ideas (but the same old problems).

ALL READINGS showing at the Martin E. Segal Theatre at 7:00 p.m.

Admission is FREE. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. No reservations required.

After each play there will be a short discussion with a guest moderator.

The Playwrights Unit and Play Reading Series are sponsored in part by The John Golden Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Shubert Foundation.

Special sponsorship provided by CUNY’s Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies.

For further information, click here.

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Discovery of DNA
Science and Theater
Remembering Miss Meitner and Background

Two new one-act dramas about pioneers of physics Robert Marc Friedman's Remembering Miss Meitner on her role in the splitting of the atomic nucleus; Lauren Gunderson’s Background concerns cosmologist Ralph Alpher and the origins of the universe. A staged reading of both plays performed by Break-A-Leg Productions.

Produced by the Science Center in collaboration with Continuing Education & Public Programs and the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Showing at Elebash Recital Hall
Monday, May 19, 6:00 p.m. FREE

For more information or to sign up for this program visit CUNY’s Continuing Education Public Programs: http://web.gc.cuny.edu/cepp or call (212) 817-8215.

American Women Playwrights
Presented by 92nd Street Y in cooperation with the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

Explore great theater through a combination of play reading, lecture, film clips and dramatic interpretation. Dr. Shafer, a scholar and actor, offers an overview of women playwrights from 1900 to 1950 with a focus on Rachel Crothers, Susan Glaspell, Mae West and Lillian Hellman. Plays are discussed within the framework of political and social change and the developing status of women in the theater. Students are assigned two plays to read and an optional reading list is provided.

Yvonne Shafer, PhD, teaches at St. John’s University, has taught or lectured in Europe and China; published widely in theater journals, author of six books, notably American Women Playwrights; nominated for the George Freedley Award and the Barnard Hewitt Award.

This class is presented by Daytime @ the Steinhardt Building—92nd Street Y in cooperation with the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Held at 35 West 67th Street beginning Tuesday, July 8, 2003 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon.
Four sessions total.
Price: $140.00
To sign up for this program call 212-601-1000 or click here.

All programs are held at The Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016 (at 34th Street) unless otherwise noted.

9/11 Painting by Sharon Florin • Clock Art by Alex E. Irklievski, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Einstein Image, M.I.T. Burndy Library, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

To view programs from previous semesters click on the link below.
Past Programs