Gilded Stage Festival

The American Legacy
Metropolitan Playhouse
The American Legacy

220 East Fourth Street ~ New York, New York 10009
(212) 995 5302

"One of my favorite downtown theaters" ~ Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
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Gilded Stage Festival

Nine New Plays
Nine Companies
All Inspired by the leading writers and creators of
The Gilded Age

An interview in The Villager

~ An interview on nytheatrenow
Edith Wharton's Roman Fever*
a dramatic reading
performed by Michèle LaRue


Haring Productions presents
Gilt on the Gold*
a new play by Peter Judd

Many Hats Productions presents
Bunner Sisters*
by Linda Selman
a staged reading of
a new staged adaptation, based Edith Wharton's first novella


Core Creative Productions presents

A Thousand Deatbs
by Anthony P. Pennino
adapted from Jack London's Story
Gold Coast*
by Stages on the Sound

The Tragic Muse*
by Mark Dundas Wood
based on the novel by Henry James

Edison's Elephant*
by David Koteles and Christopher Van Strander

The Adventure Collective presents
Joan and the Gentleman Juggler

by Gabrielle Sinclair, Thom Wall, and Ric Walker

Fifty Shades of Gilded*
by David Lally

Performances marked with * were AEA Showcases.

Double Bill
Edith Wharton's Roman Fever *
a dramatic reading performed by Michèle LaRue
“. . . So these two ladies visualized each other, each through the wrong end of her little telescope.”
Close-knit and closely held secrets unravel when privileged matrons revisit the scene of their Gilded Age girlhood.

1/13; 1/18; 1/22 at 7 pm; and 1/26 at 1 pm


Edith Wharton
Gilt on the Gold *
by Peter Judd
presented by Haring Productions
Frederick Law Olmsted at the end of his life in 1898 relates the "particular accidents" that astonishingly led to his appointment as Superintendent and co-designer of Central Park . The inspiration of his youth came from Carlyle, Emerson, Ruskin, and the English landscape writers--and the sense of community in Hartford and the Connecticut landscape which he deeply enjoyed. His last achievement was to shape the grounds of the Vanderbilt Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, the setting for the largest and most flamboyant Gilded Age mansion--a chateau modeled on those of the Loire. Olmsted expects that someday its grounds will be open to all. "So, put a bit of gilt on Vanderbilt's gold so that all may enjoy and learn from it." The play evokes the character and the guiding artistic passions of one of the most inventive and passionate Americans of the 19th century whose influence remains strongly present in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1/13; 1/18; 1/22 at 7 pm; and 1/26 at 1 pm




Frederick Olmstead

Bunner Sisters *
by Linda Selman, based on the story by Edith Wharton
a staged reading presented by Many Hats Productions
Wharton's first novella about the poor, the immigrant, and the disenfranchised: a tale of surreal vulnerability for women on their own at the end of the nineteenth century.
1/14; 1/23; 1/25 at 7 pm; and 1/18 at 1 pm

Bunner Sisters

Double Bill
A Thousand Deaths
by Anthony P. Pennino, based on the story by Jack London
presented by Core Creative Productions
As the twentieth century approaches, Joshua believes he has found a cure for death. He needs to test his theory, though, and uses Henry as his guinea pig...over and over and over again. This play examines questions of life and death, guilt and punishment, morality and necessity. Based on the Jack London short story of the same title as well as London's story "The Francis Spraight."
1/15; 1/19; 1/24 at 7 pm; and 1/26 at 4 pm
 
Jack London
Gold Coast *
by Stages on the Sound
A visually stunning exploration of the culture and personalities of the Gilded Age with a loving focus on the stylized entertainments of that bygone era. Stories of gold and glamor told by the poorest of the poor.
1/15; 1/19; 1/24 at 7 pm; and 1/26 at 4 pm
 
Train

The Tragic Muse*
by Mark Dundas Wood, based on the novel by Henry James
"The Tragic Muse is the great modern personage…."
Mark Dundas Wood's adaptation of Henry James's 1890 novel (directed by Jesse Jou) presents the tale of an ambitious young actress whose comet-like ascent disrupts and transforms the life of a political family. Utilizing Wilde-like wit tempered with bittersweetness, James explores the political and theatrical life of London and Paris in a story that will resonate with anyone interested in becoming--and in remaining--an artist.
1/15 and 1/23 at 9 pm; 1/19 and 1/25 at 4 pm

Henry James


Edison's Elephant *
by David Koteles and Christopher Van Strander
In 1903, on Brooklyn’s Coney Island, Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant. Moreover, he filmed it, for all to witness. Based on historic accounts, Edison’s Elephant explores the life and death of Topsy, the circus elephant who, after much abuse, retaliated against those who harmed her, and who was ultimately executed for her actions—as the subject of Edison’s film Electrocuting an Elephant.
1/16 at 7 pm; 1/19 and 1/24 at 9 pm; and 1/25 at 1 pm
Read the interview in nytheatrenow

Thomas Edison

Joan and the Gentleman Juggler
by Gabrielle Sinclair, Thom Wall, and Ric Walker
presented by The Adventure Collective

A coming-of-age wonder tale that mixes fiery oratory and virtuosic juggling with the friendship of two very different teenagers in the spirit of America's best loved storyteller for children, L. Frank Baum.
1/16 at 9 pm; 1/17 at 7 pm; 1/18 at 4 pm; and 1/19 at 1 pm

L. Frank Baum

Fifty Shades of Gilded *
by David Lally
P.T. Barnum, looking to create one last great spectacle before he passes to the great beyond, creates a live staged competition, "The Greatest Reality Show On Earth." Watch luminaries of the Gilded Age from Nellie Bly to Nikola Tesla duke it out amongst the singers, dancers, jugglers and other circus performers to see who can be the most outrageous, the most ostentatious, and who is the champ at "gilding the lily" on the world's very first reality show.
1/17 and 1/18 at 9 pm; 1/20 and 1/21 at 7 pm

P.T. Barnum