BAm PRESS RELEASE

Brooklyn Academy of Music 3) Lafayette Avenue Brooklyn, N.Y . 11217 (212) 636-4123 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 1, 1983 Contact·:. Ellen Lampert Owen Levy

THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS IN A SPECIAL HOLIDAY ENGAGEMENT AT BAM, DECEMBER 15-31

The critically acclaimed production of THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS, which opened to rave reviews and played to capacity audiences during a limited engagement in BAM's NEXT WAVE Festival in November, will return to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for a special two-week holiday engagement, December 15-31, 1983. A musical theater work which blends American gospel music with Greek tragedy, THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS features leading gospel singers, and is produced by the Brooklyn Academy of Music in association with Liza Lorwin and the Walker Art Center.

THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS is based on an adaptation of ' in the version by Robert Fitzgerald, and has been conceived, adapted, and directed by with music composed, arranged and directed by Bob Te l son. Transplanted to contemporary times, this story of Oedipus' redemption blends the American music of the black Pentecostal church service with the staged choral ode, presenting the essence of Greek tragedy as a passionate, ecstatic religious experience.

THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS will feature , Isabell Monk, Carl Lumbly, Robert Earl Jones, Kevin Davis, plus Clarence Fountain and The Five Blind Boys of Alabama, the J.D . Steele Singers , J . J . Farley and the Original Soul. Stirrers, and the Brooklyn Institutional Radio Choir. Musicians include Carl Adams, Nelson Bogart, Sam Butler, Leroy Clouden, Curt~ .s Fowlkes, John Hagen, Luico Hopper, Butch Heyward, and Bob Telson.

This production incorporates passages from both Sophocles' OEDIPUS REX and ANTIGONE in versions by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, which are published as THE OEDIPUS CYCLE OF SOPHOCLES, A Harvest/HBJ Book, Harcourt Brace Javonovich, Inc.

(over) Set design is by Alison Yerxa, with costumes by Alison Yerxa and Ghretta Hynd, sound design by Otts Nunderloh, lighting by Julie Archer and Alison Yerxa, and special effects designed by Esquire Jauchem and Gregory Meeh.

Lee Breuer, a founding director of Mabou Mines Theater Company, has worked as a director, adaptor, and author. His adaptation and direction of NABOU MINES PERFORM SAMUEL BECKETT received three Obie Awards; THE SHAGGY DOG ANIMATION (Part III of the ANIMATIONS trilogy) received an Obie for Best Play in 1978. His production of A PRELUDE TO DEATH IN VENICE was awarded Obies for both direction and script in 1980.

Bob Telson studied composition with , and received a B.A. in Music from . His collaborations with Lee Breuer include compositions for the video tapes LIES and THE B. BEAVER ANIMATION, music for A PRELUDE TO DEATH IN VENICE, and the score for SISTER SUZIE CINEMA.

THE GOSPEL AT COLONUS was originally developed as a work-in­ progress under the auspices of Re.Cher.Chez Studios.

The NEXT WAVE Production and Touring Fund is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Ford Foundation, AT&T, Warner Communications Inc., the New York Council for the Humanities, Willi Wear Ltd., the Dayton-Hudson Foundation for B. Dalton Bookseller, Dayton's and Target Stores, the CIGNA Corporation, and the BAM NEXT WAVE Producers Council. Additional funds for the ~~XT WAVE Festival are provided by the New York State Council on the Arts, the Emma A. Sheafer Charitable Trust, the Mary Flagler Cary Caritable Trust, the Tortuga Foundation, the New York Community Trust, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Meet the Composer, Inc., Philip Morris Incorporated, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. WNYC-FM 94 is the official radio station of the NEXT WAVE Festival.

Performance times and prices are as follows: Monday through Thursday evenings at 8pm*, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, Sunday at 7pm: $20, $15, $10

Friday and Saturday evenings at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm: $25,$20,$15

*no performances December 19 and 25

For further information, call the Brooklyn Academy of Music at (212) 636-4100.