SITI Company's "Cafe Variations" Offers Fine Cuisine for Theatre-Goers
SITI Company presents a celebration of café culture and vignettes with “Café Variations” at 8 p.m., Friday, March 1, 2013, at Ƶ University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. The program is made possible in part by the generous support of Whole Food Markets. Funding is also provided in part by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Theater Pilot, with lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Tickets: $40, $35, $30.
“Café Variations” is a production taken from Charles Mee’s “Café Plays” and is combined with a selection of George and Ira Gershwin’s music from the American songbook. Incorporating dialogue, music, and dance, members of SITI Company create an iPod-like shuffle of scenes and songs, featuring the romantic vignettes and philosophical characters ubiquitous to the lively world of the café.
Winner of seven Obie Awards, SITI Company is one of the country’s leading theatre ensembles. It is an ensemble-based theater company whose three ongoing components are the creation of new work, the training of young theater artists, and a commitment to international collaboration. SITI was founded in 1992 by Anne Bogart and Tadashi Suzuki to redefine and revitalize contemporary theater in the United States through an emphasis on international cultural exchange and collaboration. SITI Company is now recognized as one of theatre’s most important artistic collectives, creating groundbreaking work while training artists from all over the world. SITI Company’s mission is to provide a gymnasium-for-the-soul, where the interaction of art, artists, audiences and ideas inspire the possibility for change, optimism and hope.
“SITI Company has created a strong alternative approach to the traditional Stanislavski Method Acting School of Training in the United States and abroad. As an artistic collective that trains together, SITI has helped change the United States theater community’s thinking about the relationship between artists and institutions,” Molly Smith, Artistic Director, Arena Stage.
At 7:15 p.m., Dr. Orin Grossman, Ƶ University professor emeritus, will give a pre-performance lecture focusing on the use of Gershwin’s music in Café Variations. Dr. Martha S. LoMonaco, Ƶ University Professor of Theatre, will lead a post-performance discussion onstage with members of the cast.
Tickets and subscriptions are available through the Quick Center Box Office: (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396. (1-877-278-7396). Tickets can also be purchased online at .
