Balm
in Gilead
By
Lanford Wilson
Guest
directed by Phil Soltanoff
Janet
Kinghorn Bernhard Theater at Skidmore College
April
14-15 and 19-23
All
shows at 8pm except Sunday matinee at 2pm
The
Skidmore College Department of Theater is pleased to announce its Spring
Mainstage production: Balm in Gilead. As one of the pioneer plays of the
Off-Off-Broadway movement, Balm in Gilead debuted at La MaMa in New York City
in 1966. In Skidmore Theater’s production, updated to the 1970s and inspired by
Steppenwolf’s 1984 revival directed by John Malkovich, Balm in Gilead tells the
story of the down-and-out of New York’s Upper West Side set to an iconic soundtrack
of Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Frank Sinatra and many other timely favorites.
Taking place in a gritty 24-hour diner, Balm in Gilead exists as a moment in
time in the lives of twenty-five outlandish characters, featuring an
unconventional structure of overlapping scenes, the contradictory combination
of the photo-realist and the abstract, and distinctly human stories of what it
is to survive in a destitute world.
FROM
THE DIRECTOR: “Rumor has it playwright Lanford Wilson sat in a gritty all-night
diner on the Upper West Side of mid-1960’s Manhattan – and just wrote down what
he heard. The result is Balm in Gilead, one of the first plays of the Off-Off
Broadway movement. The play creates a
world of lost souls: pushers and junkies, hustlers and whores – social outcasts
struggling delicately and brutally on the edge of poverty.” –Phil Soltanoff
Tickets:
$12 general admission and $8 for students and seniors.
Reserve
seats online at theater.skidmore.edu or by contacting our Box Office:
box-office@skidmore.edu or (518) 580-5439.