FELL at The Fringe

7.15 Productions and Columbia University’s Black Theater Ensemble
Present

FELL

By Harrison David Rivers
Directed by Jess McLeod

The New York International Fringe Festival – FringeNYC
A production of The Present Company
August 8th – 24th
Tickets: $15. For tickets visit http://www.fringenyc.com/

The New School for Drama Theater – 151 Bank Street
Saturday, August 9th @ 2pm
Monday, August 11th @ 5:15pm
Wednesday, August 13th @ 5pm
Thursday, August 14th @ 10pm
Friday, August 15th @ 7pm

7.15 Productions and Columbia University’s Black Theater Ensemble is proud to present FELL as part of the 11th annual New York International Fringe Festival. Performances will take place from August 9 – August 15, 2008 at The New School for Drama Theater (151 Bank Street). Official opening is set for Saturday, August 9th at 2pm.

What are you willing to risk to break through the glass ceiling? Since the civil rights movement gave African Americans equality under the law, an elusive, but very real struggle has emerged: equality in the workplace. Meet Jesse Metcalfe, a successful black businessman one step away from reaching the next rung on the corporate ladder. Facing pressure from his status obsessed wife, not to mention his own desire to rise above societal expectations, it seems that Jesse is willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead. FELL is a cautionary tale exploring how one individual's decisions about (or denial of) his race can adversely affect the confidence and self-image of the people he's doing it all for: his children.

FELL is written by Harrison David Rivers and directed by Jess McLeod.

Harrison David Rivers (Playwright) Plays include When Last We Flew (FIRE! New Play Festival 2008), Fell (Black Theater Ensemble, Columbia University), Step (New York Musical Theater Festival), Baptism and Pony (At Play Productions), Man Ascends (The 24 Hour Plays), Mouth Says Move (Atlantic Stage 2), Burning (Manhattan Theatre Source), and Sistahs (Collective:Unconscious). Harrison is a founding member of At Play Productions, a member of the Old Vic New Voices Network, and a Resident Playwright with Brooklyn based Freedom Train Productions. He holds degrees in American Studies and Dance & Drama from Kenyon College and is currently pursuing his M.F.A. in Playwriting at Columbia University.

Jess McLeod (Director) is the Director of Programming at The New York Musical Theatre Festival, where she heads the Next Link Dramaturg program and developed the musical theatre/pop-rock fusion concerts The Unauthorized Musicology of Ben Folds I and II and Undercover Showtunes. Other credits include The Times by Joe Keenan & Brad Ross, The Last Five Years, Kitchen Sink by Rachel Axler. B.A. from Williams College, MFA from Northwestern, 2011; member, NYU's First Look Company.

The cast features Melissa Joyner, Rory Lipede, Jack Perry, Laurence Stepney, Kendale Winbush, and Jehan O. Young.

The production team features Brandon Giles (Set Designer), K.J. Hardy (Lighting Designer), and Jesca Prudencio (Costume Designer), and Carly DiGiovanni (Production Stage Manager).

7.15 Productions (Producer) is a new production company focusing on nurturing and exposing the next generation of theater professionals. Their internet initiative Playit4ward.net is an innovative approach to theater production that uses reality-based videos and blogs to chronicle what it takes to produce when all you’ve got is yourself, your friends and the unlimited marketing and fundraising potential of the internet. Playit4ward.net’s premier production will be Electra In a One-Piece, by Isaac Oliver and Directed by David Ruttura.

Columbia University’s Black Theater Ensemble’s (Producer) mission is to produce quality theater with, about, and for the black community at Columbia University and beyond. Past productions have included Joe Turner's Come and Gone, For Colored Girls Who've Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, American Ma(u)l, and a workshop production of Fell.

FELL plays at The New School for Drama Theater (151 Bank Street between West and Washington Streets). The nearest subway lines are the A, C ,E ,L at 14th Street/8th Avenue.

Sponsored in [in part] by the Arts Initiative at Columbia University. This funding is made possible through a generous gift from The Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Additional funding provided by Columbia University’s School of the Arts.