The Granduncle Quadrilogy is a holiday special for a made-up holiday. "Listen to Granduncle, ancient storyteller and veteran of an endless war, as he and his fellow citizens mix folktales, fictional ethnology, and war stories to conjure a mordant yet moving portrait of an imaginary icebound world that curiously mirrors our own," describes press notes.
Piper McKenzie (pipermckenzie.com) has been a fixture of the downtown and Brooklyn scenes since being founded by Hope Cartelli and Jeff Lewonczyk in 1998. Called "brazenly experimental, unapologetically populist, and surprisingly endearing" by IndieTheater.org, Piper is dedicated to exploring the middle ground between high and low culture, comedy and tragedy, history and the future. Notable recent productions include this past spring's hit comedy of war and sex Babylon Babylon, the sci-fi romance serial Lady Cryptozoologist, and the celebrated Bizarre Science Fantasy dance-theater series, whose most popular installment, Macbeth Without Words, was a standout of 2007's Pretentious Festival at The Brick.
The Granduncle Quadrilogy stars Fred Backus, Ivanna Cullinan, Jessi Gotta, Richard Harrington, Gavin Starr Kendall, and Melissa Roth, with choreography by Jenny Schmermund and fight direction by Qui Nguyen. Also featured will be costume design by Julianne Kroboth, lighting design by Ian W. Hill, prop design by Berit Johnson, and sound design by Mick O'Brien. Roger Nasser is the assistant director, and Chris Connolly is the technical advisor.
The preview and all Friday/Saturday performances will feature custom Granduncle-themed baked goods from "renegade bake sale" Sweet Tooth of the Tiger (www.sweettoothofthetiger.com). Additionally, original podcasts of fables from Granduncle's world will be posted to pipermckenzie.com on the three successive Tuesdays leading up to the opening: November, 18, November, 25, and December, 2.
The show is a limited engagement and will be previewed on Thursday, December, 4 2008 at 8:00 p.m.. Tickets cost $10. Performances begin Friday, December 5, 2008 and run through Saturday, December 20, 2008, Thursday to Saturday at 8:00 p.m.. Tickets cost $18.
The performace takes place at The Brick, which is located at 575 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, one block from the Lorimer stop of the L train / Metropolitan stop of the G train.
The Granduncle Quadrilogy appears as part of The Brick's inaugural Mainstage Season. For the first time in its six-year history of providing audacious, high-quality theatrical experience to New York's most cutting-edge audiences, Williamsburg's Brick Theater is packaging six major productions under the umbrella of a single Mainstage Season. The Brick is also offering a variety of Season Ticket plans to ensure subscribers a first shot at its most exciting offerings to date.
All works in the Mainstage Season will enjoy full performance runs, preceded by low-cost previews performances. In addition to the mainstage shows, Penny Dreadful, The Brick's ongoing monthly serial – now in its second season! – will air two performances per month of each new episode. The Brick will also host several workshop performances of new works, as part of its ongoing commitment to developing new theater in New York City (schedule to be announced).
The Brick Theater is located at 575 Metropolitan Avenue (between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on the L & G subway lines (L: Lorimer stop; G: Metropolitan stop). For more detailed directions & further information, see www.bricktheater.com.
The Brick and its non-profit company, The Brick Theater, Inc. were founded in September of 2002 by Robert Honeywell and Michael Gardner. Formerly an auto-body shop, a storage space and a yoga center, this brick- walled garage was completely refurbished into a state-of-the-art theater complex, with a large sprung floor and professional lighting and sound package.
The Brick has been home to numerous critically acclaimed original productions, including three years of the New York Clown Theatre Festival, Richard Foreman's Harry in Love, The Film Festival: A Theater Festival (featuring Death at Film Forum and The Stubborn Illusion of Time), Babylon Babylon, Notes From Underground, Bitch Macbeth, The Debate Society's A Thought About Raya, Secrets History Remembers, The Pretentious Festival (including Every Play Ever Written and Macbeth Without Words), The Present Perfect, Bouffon Glass Menajoree, Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist/Cleansed, The Death of Griffin Hunter, the Havel Festival, Sexadelic Cemetery, Greed: A Musical Love $tory, The Kung Fu Importance of Being Earnest, The $ellout Festival, Adventures of Caveman Robot, Total Faith in Cosmic Love, The Baby Jesus One-Act Jubilee, Memoirs of My Nervous Illness, The Moral Values Festival (featuring Dear Dubya, World Gone Wrong, My Year of Porn), Tupperware Orgy, Bizarre Science Fantasy, Who is Wilford Brimley? The Musical, Jenna is nuts, Habitat, In a Strange Room (based on William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying), Fallout Follies, Assurbanipal Babilla's Assyrian Monkey Fantasy and stagings of Chekhov's Three Sisters, O'Neill's Beyond the Horizon, Maria Irene Fornes' Abingdon Square and the Brooklyn premiere of legendary Polish playwright Stanislaw Witkiewicz's The Pragmatists.
