'The Republic Of Poetry' at the Medicine Show Theatre

The Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble, one of NYC�s longest-running experimental theatres, present The Republic of Poetry, a suite of original short verse plays about love, war and some places in-between. Conceived by Obie-Award winner Barbara Vann and directed by Ms. Vann as well as Aaron Beall, Nicole Colbert and Stelios Manolakakis, the show runs from 9 - 26 Jun 2005 at the Medicine Show Theatre

The Republic of Poetry comprises the work of 11 poets, each of whom has written a short verse play especially for this project ranging from 2 to 20 minutes in length. Some of the highlights: Filip Marinovich�s 'Salient Mourners,' in which the Army presents its official policy on fallen soldiers in Iraq with doublespeak and euphemism; Denise Duhamel�s 'Pituitary Theft,' which is composed entirely of fake English subtitles from Hong Kong movies; and Harry Matthews� 'Trial Impressions,' a suite on the changeability of love.

The poets who�ve contributed to the evening include Martin Espada, who has been called 'the Latino poet of his generation' and whose latest collection of poetry received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was named an American Library Association Notable Book of the year. His poems have appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Harper�s, The Nation, and The Best American Poetry; Arnold Weinstein, librettist for the opera 'A View From The Bridge' and lyricist for William Bolcom�s 'Casino Paradise'; Harry Matthews, whose latest novel 'The Journalist' was acclaimed by the New York Times and Time Out; as well as Bayard, Denise Duhamel, Vincent Katz, Roy Lisker, Filip Marinovich, Simon Pettet, Miriam Sagan and Bruce Weber.

Featured in the cast are Alex Bilu, Jasha Bilan, Mark Dempsey, Mark Gering, Jason Alan Griffin, Beth Griffith, Kirt Harding, Amanda Ifrah, Monica Lynch, Ward Nixon, Kip Potharas, Ken Scudder, Lisa Shred, Ayanna Siverls and Barbara Vann.

According to Vann, �One of the things we like to do at Medicine Show is experiment with language, and in my mind the language of poetry is closest to the ideal language of theatre. We�ve had a poet�s reading series for the last 20-odd years, have performed verse plays by E.E. Cummings, Frank O� Hara and Gertrude Stein. The noted poet Kenneth Koch wrote �1000 Avant-Garde Plays� for the company. By producing this evening, we hope to encourage more poets to write for the theatre.�

The Republic of Poetry has choreography by Linda Lutes and Nicole Colber, with design by Uta Bekaia, Patricia Cronin and Knox Martin