The Flea Theater Mounts Encore of THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES, Now thru 7/1

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The Flea Theater presents an encore production of THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES, a 5-hour marathon of all seven of Sophocles' plays re-envisioned by playwright Sean Graney. Directed by Ed Sylvanus Iskandar (a 2012 Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Director -- in his professional directing debut in NYC), the production stars 38 members of The Bats. Performances run today, June 6 - July 1 at The Flea (41 White Street between Church and Broadway in Tribeca).

In THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES, Sophocles' seven surviving plays-Oedipus, In Trachis, Philoktetes, In Colonus, Ajax, Elektra & Antigone-combine to create a provocative portrait of the human condition, where the intermingling of chance & fate yields disquieting results. A witty and relevant interpretation of the classics, THESE SEVEN SICKNESSES is an epic examination of the past and a window on the present.

The design team includes Julia Noulin-Merat (set), Andrew Hungerford (lighting - based on original design by Carl Wiemann), Loren Shaw (costumes), Patrick Metzger (sound), Michael Wieser (fight director), David Dabbon (music director), Greg VanHorn (dramaturg), and Kara Kaufman (stage manager).

Sean Graney is the Founding Director of The Hypocrites, a Chicago theater company. As a playwright, Sean has received productions of his play The 4th Graders Present an Unnamed Suicide at 59E59; Autophagy at the Drama League Director's Fest in 2007; Porno at the sideproject in Chicago; as well as several adaptations and short plays. As a director, Sean has worked at Steppenwolf, The Goodman, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis and Milwaukee Rep. He was a participant in the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors from 2004/6. He has won two Joseph Jefferson Citations for Outstanding Direction for Equus and Machinal. He currently teaches at University of Chicago and Lake Forest College. Please check out his cleverly named website, seangraney.com, to find out what the future holds.

Ed Sylvanus Iskandar is Founding Artistic Director of Exit, Pursued by a Bear where he directed Amy Freed's Restoration Comedy, Sean Graney's These Seven Sicknesses, Jason Williamson's Lesser Mercies, King Lear and Dido, Queen of Carthage (both starring Billy Porter) and Arok of Java. Ed has staged over eighty plays in the U.S. and U.K., including Michael Kooman and Christopher Dimond's Homemade Fusion starring Patina Miller (Zipper Factory); Goat Song for Asa Jacob (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Red Umbrella (Drama League); Translations and Don Juan (Stanford Summer Theater); and Brand, After Miss Julie and Don Carlos (Carnegie Mellon). Ed has taught at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon. He is a current Emerging Artist Fellow with the New York Theatre Workshop, a Drama League Directing Fellow, a two-time Resident Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and the recipient of the Robert M. Golden Medal for distinguished achievement in the creative arts.

The Bats are the resident Acting Company members of The Flea Theater. Each year over a thousand actors audition for a place in this unique company. The Bats perform in extended runs of challenging classic and new plays. The Bats have recently appeared in World Premieres by A.R. Gurney, Will Eno, Adam Rapp, Beau Willimon, Mac Wellman, Elizabeth Swados, Thomas Bradshaw, Itmar Moses, Sheila Callaghan, Julian Sheppard, Ken Urban, Tommy Smith, Jonathan Reynolds, Trista Baldwin, Jeffrey M. Jones, Ed Hime, Nick Jones, Laurel Haines and more.