The Odyssey – Everyone’s Seeking Something

Jun 12, 2017 / 21:00 – 22:30 / The Continuum Theater

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Event Details

Mon, June 12, 2017

21:00 – 22:30

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The Continuum Theater
VILLA LA PIETRA
Via Bolognese, 120
50139 Firenze - ITALY

The Odyssey – Everyone’s Seeking Something is an imaginative retelling of the Odyssey, written by Naomi Lorrain and conceived/created in collaboration with The Continuum Company. The play follows its curious narrators, Nona and Anon, as they conjure Homer’s epic poem with two violins and a cast of twenty-five. Directed by Continuum Artistic Director Jim Calder, The Odyssey – Everyone’s Seeking Something will be performed in the Continuum Theater, a repurposed pool in the center of Villa La Pietra’s expansive grounds, under the Music Direction of Angel Desai, with choral arrangements by Award-Winning South African Choir Director, Nolufefe Mtshabe. The Odyssey is rounded out by a decorated cast with an impressively wide scope of Broadway/Off Broadway, Film & TV credits, including: Angel Desai, a Lunt-Fontanne fellow and cast member of the Tony-Award Winning Company (2006), Emma Duncan, a recipient of the Grace Le Vine Theater Award from the Princess Grace Foundation, Korey Jackson and Ruibo Qian: two recipients of the prestigious Leonore Annenberg Fellowship, Naomi Lorrain, a recipient of both the William Pickens and Lily Rosen Prizes for Writing from Yale University (and the playwright of this world premiere), and Joaquín Torres, an actor turned President of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. Korey Jackson, Ruibo Qian and Joaquín Torres all return to Villa La Pietra this Summer after their debuts in The Natalya Project (2014) and The Tempest (2015). Between the six leading actors, this cast has performed in America’s pre-eminent theatrical institutions, including: A.C.T, Berkeley Repertory Theater, The Goodman Theatre, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, Yale Repertory Theater, and more. They have been featured in Academy Award Nominated movies like Manchester by the Sea, hit TV shows including: Broad City, Daredevil, Elementary, Homeland, House of Cards, Jessica Jones, Law & Order: SVU, Madame Secretary, Mozart in the Jungle, and Nurse Jackie. It is a rare opportunity to see an American cast as decorated performing internationally together. Don’t miss this new work, a centerpiece to Villa La Pietra’s Season, developed by esteemed professionals in a theater space unlike any other.

(Rain date June 13)

Due to some sexual (erotic) content and explicit language, parental guidance is suggested.

Featured Biographies

Angel Desai

ACTOR

Broadway:  Company (2006, Tony® Award, Best Revival).  Off-Broadway includes: Peer Gynt and The Norwegian Hapa Band (Ma-Yi), The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale (CSC); Manic Flight Reaction and The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Playwrights Horizons), The Architecture of Loss (NYTW), The Antigone Project and Gum (Women’s Project), and This End Up: A User’s Manual for Lovers of Asians (Ma-Yi). Regional includes Scenes From Court Life… (Yale Rep, world premiere), Frankie and Johnny (Berkshire Theater Festival), Ernest Shackleton Loves Me (George St. Playhouse), Old Globe, McCarter Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, Long Wharf, Arena Stage, Playmakers Repertory, Cleveland Playhouse.  Recent TV: Chicago Med, Minority Report, Madam Secretary, Major Crimes, Forever, Elementary, Nurse Jackie, Being Mary Jane,” “Damages“.  Film: The Clique, The War Within, Heights, Black Knight, and Robot Stories. 2014 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow, 52nd Street Project volunteer. MFA in Acting from NYU.

Emma Duncan

ACTOR

Emma Duncan received her MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program in 2015. New York and Regional credits include Cymbeline (The Public Theater), The Bridges of Madison County, Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, Late Night Cabaret (Williamstown Theater Festival), The May Queen, The Tempest (Chautauqua Theater Company). TV/Film: Chicago Justice (NBC). Her NYU credits include the word premiere of Rajiv Joseph’s Describe the Night, Plenty, A Free Man of Color, The Beaux Stratagem, Vieux Carré, Henry VI Part II and Three Sisters. She holds a B.A. in Religion and Art from the University of Virginia. She is the 2014 recipient of the Grace Le Vine Theater Award from the Princess Grace Foundation and the 2016 Richie Jackson Artist Fellowship.

Korey Jackson

ACTOR

Korey is thrilled to return to the Season at NYU’s Villa La Pietra where he performed in The Tempest two summers ago. Other credits include Wild With Happy (Public Theater), Far From Heaven’ (Playwrights Horizons), Macbeth (Berkeley Rep),  School For Wives (Two River Theater), Sex of the Baby (Access Theater). Film/TV credits include 5 Flights Up starring Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton (FOCUS), The Good Wife (CBS), The Following (FOX), Law & Order: SVU (NBC), Homeland (Showtime),‘Nurse Jackie (Showtime), Royal Pains (USA), Daredevil (Netflix), and the newest season of House of Cards (Netflix). He is a graduate of NYU’s Grad Acting program where he performed the title role in the world premiere of Tony Kushner’s ‘Henry Box Brown Play’. He is also a recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Artist Fellowship.

Naomi Lorrain

ACTOR

Naomi Lorrain is a New York based actor and playwright. She received her B.A. in the History of Science, History of Medicine and African American Studies from Yale University and recently earned her M.F.A. from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program. New York: Restoration Comedy (dir. Ed Sylvanus Iskandar), Illmatic (dir. Patricia McGregor). Regional: Song for a Future Generation, Big Bend in the Red Dirt Dessert (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Daughters of Lot (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). NYU Grad Acting: Uncle Vanya, All’s Well That Ends Well, The Bridgette Hobbs Connection, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Pygmalion, A Bright Room Called Day. Television: Madam Secretary, The Good Fight (CBS).

Ruibo Qian

ACTOR

Off-Broadway and Regional credits include Bull in a China Shop (Lincoln Center Theatre), Tiger Style! (Huntington, Alliance Theatre), Henry IV Part I (Pearl Theatre Company), Water by the Spoonful (Old Globe), The Nether (SF Playhouse), Golden Child (Silk Road Theatre Company), You For Me For You (Woolly Mammoth). Film and TV includes Manchester by the Sea, Mozart in the Jungle, Broad City, Jessica Jones. Education: B.F.A., Boston University; M.F.A., NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program. Previous performances at La Pietra include The Tempest (2015) and The Natalya​ Project (2014).

Joaquín Torres

ACTOR

At Villa La Pietra: The Tempest. New York: Off-Broadway:  The Civilians’ Brooklyn @ Eye Level, (dir. Steven Cosson, Brooklyn Lyceum); Scariest (dir. Ari Edelson, Meredith McDonough, Bleeker Street Theatre); Widows (dir. Hal Brooks, 59E59 Street Theaters); King Lear (dir. James Lapine, Public Theatre); Beauty of the Father (dir. Michael Greif, MTC); Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 (dir. Liz Diamond, Lincoln Center Institute); Winter’s Tale (dir. Barry Edelstein, CSC). Regional:  In the Next Room(dir. Les Waters, Berkeley Repertory Theater); Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play (dir. Mark Wing-Davey, Yale Repertory Theatre, Goodman Theatre); King Lear (dir. Robert Falls, Goodman + Shakespeare Theatre Company); Our Town (dir. Bartlett Sher, Intiman); Much Ado About Nothing (dir. Peter Dubois, Cal Shakes). Film/TV: Filters (dir. JohnFiorelli); Third Watch, Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); One Life to Live, All My Children (ABC) Training: New York University’s Graduate Acting Program.

The Continuum Company

THEATER COMPANY

The Continuum Company is built on an ethos of creation and a love of collusion…. we paint ourselves in a corner and tell a story in the escape. Our company is comprised of more than 300 actors and artists, trained by the NYU Tisch Graduate Acting Program. Spanning careers over three decades, their diverse talents and eclectic points of view are woven together by a shared vocabulary and collective curiosity. A small group from the Continuum Company gathers each summer at Villa La Pietra in Florence with the purpose of exploring a unique theatrical challenge, provocation, or classical work. In 2012, celebrated author E.L. Doctorow enlisted the group to use its unique storytelling to bring to life his novel The March. In 2014, a 27-person cast fused Homer’s The Illiad with traditional South African music and dance, with script by Laurence Maslon. A decade prior, a three-person version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, originally developed at Villa La Pietra, went on to a run at the Classical Stage Company in New York City. This summer marks the 11th year of this thrilling collaboration.

Jim Calder

DIRECTOR

Jim Calder is the Artistic Director of the Continuum Company, Director of La Pietra Summer Theatre Festival, Head of Movement at Graduate Acting Program NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, recipient of grants from NEA, Rockefeller Foundation, US-Mexico Fund for Culture, NYSCA and recipient of David Paine Carter Excellence in Teaching award and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Directed works in New York City at INTAR Theater, Lincoln Center Institute, Pearl Theatre, Classic Stage Company, with workshop presentation at The Public, New York Theatre Workshop and Home. Jim has performed at The Old Globe, P.S. 122, INTAR Theater, and throughout Europe with Teatro De La Grappe. He was the lead actor in PBS’s Noddy & Friends TV show and was a consultant for the development of the show and has performed under the direction of Jacques LeCoq in numerous TV specials in France.