Don't miss Jeffrey Stanley in GRAVE DIGGER'S BAWL at the Plays & Players Philadelphia Playwrights Showcase April 25-28, 2012 @7pm

Ouija Board Seance Transcripts

BEAUTIFUL ZION: A BOOK OF THE DEAD
written and performed by Jeffrey Stanley
directed by Daniel Student
Philly Fringe
Philadelphia, PA
September, 2011

"[This show is among] the most striking and provocative. You might be shocked by what you see, but we promise you won�t be sorry. Stanley courageously bares his soul, divulging family secrets, haunting dreams, interpretations of Nietzsche and his ideas of human happiness. Get your tickets as soon as possible; only 16 are sold per show in order to involve and affect every member of the audience."

            - Ellie Levitt, The Daily Pennsylvanian, 'Top 5 Must Sees at Live Arts & Philly Fringe'

"One of the most exciting aspects of the Fringe Festival is when it draws audiences to places they�ve never been before and might never have a chance to go again, whether it�s a room in an unknown mansion or in the depths of a possibly haunted grotto.  After the demise of a close relative who drank himself to death, Jeffrey Stanley became obsessed with communicating with the dead through Ouija boards. Beautiful Zion: A Book of the Dead is a �real dark comedy� about the years he spent trying to talk to the other side. But how could all that eeriness (and humor) be conveyed in a traditional theater space? So the New York expat looked for a stage appropriate for the macabre elements of his decidedly funny show. He found the Blue Grotto. It�s decked out in thousands of blue lights on light fixtures by artist Randy Dalton. Stanley equates it to a mad scientist�s laboratory. �It�s visually stunning, it�s creepy as hell, it�s in the cellar of an old building and it might be haunted,� Stanley said.
- Molly Eichel, Philadelphia Daily News

"It's a one-man show, but award-winning playwright Jeffrey Stanley isn't the only one in it. At least, he hopes not. The supporting cast is made up of ghosts � if they're willing to make an appearance. Years in the making, the new play includes elements of an earlier work Stanley performed in New York under the curation of Andy Warhol pal Neke Carson. The play is 'about communication between family members while they're alive and maybe even after they're dead,' Stanley says. Expect humor, but also 'a lot of death, a lot of suffering, a lot of human misery.'"
            - Matt Cantor, Philadelphia City Paper

Post-show walk-through of the entire set beginning with the "hell room" where the seances took place and then moving into the Blue Grotto proper, with all prop photos, papers, martini paraphernalia, and the antique suitcase hung or laying as they are by the show's end, having been pulled and attached to chains hanging from sculptures in the seating area, or passed around for audience inspection.
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www.shiva3.com
Press Contact:
Iggy Rocketboy
iRock@shiva3.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - August, 2011


Philadelphia, PA � Shiva3 is proud to announce the world premiere of acclaimed New York playwright and NYU faculty Jeffrey Stanley's autobiographical, darkly comic monologue BEAUTIFUL ZION: A BOOK OF THE DEAD at the 2011 Philly Fringe Festival.  The 70-minute show will be performed in the Blue Grotto, artist-in-residence Randy Dalton's blue-illuminated wonderland in the dark, dank, mysterious cellar of the CEC on 35th and Lancaster, at 8pm on Wed 9/7/11, Thurs 9/8/11, Fri 9/9/11, Sat 9/10/11, Wed 9/14/11, Thur 9/15/11, Fri 9/16/11 and Sat 9/17/11, for a total of 8 performances.

This diabolical, supernatural, comical, theatrical event explores family secrets, homemade ouija boards, inept dream interpretation, Nietzsche, and death by acute alcoholism: all the things that make life worth living. Featuring live ouija action from audience volunteers, the show has multiple endings depending on which ghosts appear.

"The secret to human happiness will be revealed," promised writer-performer Jeffrey Stanley. "In a time of worldwide spiritual crisis, rampant alcoholism, billions of unwanted children born every second, and, be honest, your generally sour mood, isn't it time to sit back, relax and let someone else solve your problems for you?  Religion hasn't helped you, the government hasn't helped you. Your family hasn't help you. No amount of Prozac, no amount of Jell-o shots, have helped you.  I can help you. I am that person."



The monologue will also be staged in an unusual location.  "The Fringe is all about pushing boundaries and performing works in nontraditional spaces," explained Stanley, "so rather than do the show in a place you'd expect, like upstairs in the Meeting House Theatre at the CEC, I'm doing it inside Randy Dalton's moody, meditative Blue Grotto installation in the cellar, made up of thousands of blue lights, many of them in antique fixtures, giving the place an almost Victorian feel.

The seating area is intentionally limited but comfortable, so only 16 tickets will be sold per show.
 "That's okay," said Stanley.   "With such a small audience I'm clearly not doing this for the money. I'm doing it to make cool art in a cool space. It's an intimate, creepy, magical story so an intimate, creepy, magical space seems appropriate.  I also love that the CEC is a former Quaker meeting house and school dating back to 1837," he said.  "I had looked high and low across Philly for a performance space that fit the bill of being old, of being intimate, of feeling spiritual in some sense, and of being potentially haunted. Other contenders had included the Edgar Allan Poe House basement, the Mutter Museum and Laurel Hill Cemetery. When I remembered my visits to the Blue Grotto during an early visit to Philadelphia two years ago it was, no pun intended, like a light bulb going off.  Make that a zillion blue light bulbs."

Stanley was thrilled that Daniel Student, artistic director of Philly's historic Plays & Players Theatre and the driving force behind the popular Superheroes Who Are Super reading series,  accepted his offer to helm this new work.  "I've been gradually resettling in Philly from Manhattan since 2009," Stanley said, "and doing a lot of lurking in the city's theatre scene.  When you're in a city that likes the idea of putting cheese on steak, and of rioting and flipping over cars when their team wins, you have to be careful how you proceed. The last thing you want to do is offend someone.  I became aware of Dan's work by sneaking into the many shows he's directed,  and by stalking him at Quig's Pub. You can smoke there and the drinks are cheap, so naturally actors and directors flock to it."  Stanley added, "Dan's a visual, imaginative, brave, quick-witted director. He's the perfect match for BEAUTIFUL ZION: A BOOK OF THE DEAD."

"I myself am not a believer in spirits," director Dan Student about his involvement with this unique show, "but now I want to be. When I read Jeff's play I knew I was in for a journey into a strange and exciting world.  He bares his soul in a way that is at once deeply personal to him and universal to us all. It's a perfect blend of snarky comedy, touching melodrama, and a chance for the audience to interact in wonderful and magical ways."



Special Promotions
Wiccan Wednesdays � for both Wednesday shows, the first three ticket holders to show Jeffrey Stanley their sage wand before the show will be given a $10.00 Starbucks gift certificate.

Freemasonry Fridays � for both Friday shows, the first three ticket holders to discretely wear their Masonic rings or other authentic Masonic logo jewelry and show it to Jeffrey Stanley in secret before the show will secretly be given a $10.00 Starbucks gift certificate. Don't try to pull a fast one�Stanley knows his Masonic jewelry.

Paranormal Psaturdays  (so much for alliteration on this one) - for both Saturday shows, the first three ticket holders to show Jeff a convincing photograph or smartphone video clip of authentic-looking paranormal activity in their homes will be given a $10.00 Starbucks gift certificate.

Other prizes will be given out randomly at each performance, including a free inept dream interpretation session with Jeffrey Stanley, and, if you believe your home is haunted, a free in-home ouija board session  Stanley is a magnet for ghosts, angels and demons so if they're there he'll be able to chat them up. DISCLAIMER: please note that Jeffrey Stanley is not an exorcist. Spirits may remain in your home and may become pissed. Objects may spontaneously catch fire and pets may become temporarily possessed.


Reviews of Stanley's Previous Works
Is there a more timely play in New York right now than TESLA'S LETTERS?  This well-written, well-constructed drama is no less than an anguished cri de coeur for American intervention to halt slaughter in the Balkans...Constitutes pertinent, intelligent, instructive, well-acted, well-directed and often witty and suspenseful theater...Although Tesla's Letters is a drama of ideas about war and peace, the exercise of humanity and the uses of science, it is a measure of its appeal as theater that its first act ends not with a whimper but a bang...Tesla's Letters provides a multitude of rewards."
             - Lawrence Van Gelder, New York Times, 1999

"TESLA'S LETTERS is a captivating mystery, up until the very end...The intricate writing is filled with intellectual arguments and verbal word-play about historical events, not unlike a Tom Stoppard play."
          - Jennifer MacBain, Show Business Weekly, 1999

"It is unusual for Mill Mountain Theater�s Norfolk Southern Festival of New Works to be performed on the Main Stage instead of the smaller Theater B, but when word gets out of the charm of Jeffrey Stanley�s MEDICINE, MAN they will need the extra seats. Stanley�s script has amusing and clever dialog and creates characters both appealing and familiar...A sweet, often amusing story with a wonderfully crafted character in Calvin Barker."
          - Anna Wentworth, roanoke.com, 2003

"Jeffrey Stanley's charming comedy MEDICINE, MAN offers lots of laughs and some astute observations on class and regional differences in the United States...He has both a good eye for what's going on in American life
and a good ear for the way people talk."
          - Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News, 2005

TESLA'S LETTERS eventually wins you over by the soundness of its conceit and the human weight of its arguments....You're right there with Daisy, forlornly hoping her beloved Tesla was part of a rippling current of peace."
          - Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune, 2007


About Playwright and Performer Jeffrey Stanley
A new arrival to Philadelphia, Jeffrey Stanley's wartime drama Tesla's Letters (published by Samuel French, 2000) premiered to rave reviews Off Broadway at The Ensemble Studio Theatre in 1999 and went on to national and international productions including the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe and the 2007 Chicago premiere.  Medicine, Man (CreateSpace, 2008) was commissioned by the Mill Mountain Theatre in Virginia where it premiered in 2003 and was most recently produced at Theatre Three Dallas in 2005, and presented as a reading in Philadelphia by the Inspira Theatre Company in 2009.  He is the immediate past president of the board of directors of the legendary New York Neo-Futurists experimental theatre ensemble (during his tenure the New York Neo-Futurists won Best Ensemble at the New York Innovative Theatre Awards, were named Best Performance Artists by the Village Voice, People of the Year by nytheatre.com, and Arts Organization of the Year by Artists Forum magazine). His award-winning short film Lady in a Box, a black comedy starring Sarita Choudhury, has been licensed numerous times for international broadcast and distribution, and he has been hired to write a number of screenplays.  Stanley has been a resident of prestigious artists' colony Yaddo, and a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College..  He regularly teaches playwriting and screenwriting in the Goldberg Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, has appeared as a guest writer in The New York Times, New York Press, Time Out New York and the Brooklyn Rail, and he was a senior editorial advisor to Boston University's Center for Millennial Studies' book on apocalypse movements The End That Does (Equinox Books, 2006).  Stanley holds an MFA from the Goldberg Dramatic Writing Program at NYU Tisch where he studied under playwright David Ives, and a BFA from NYU Tisch in Film & Television Production.  He lives in Philadelphia.  For more info please see http://www.brain-on-fire.com.


Listings Information
What: BEAUTIFUL ZION: A BOOK OF THE DEAD in the 2011 Philly Fringe

When:
Wed 9/7, Thurs 9/8, Fri 9/9, Sat 9/10, Wed 9/14, Thur 9/15, Fri 9/16 and Sat 9/17, at 8pm sharp. Seating begins at 7:45pm.

Where: SEE MAP. The Community Education Center (CEC) on 35th and Lancaster in the Blue Grotto in the cellar. By subway take the blue Market-Frankford line to 34th, walk up the hill on 34th to Lancaster, turn left and walk one block. The CEC is a large brick building on your left.  PARKING is also available in the CEC's rear parking lot at 3590 Warren Street (on 34th Street turn onto Filbert Street and merge onto Warren; map to parking lot here).

Tickets: $20, purchased only in advance through the Fringe Festival website, http://www.livearts-fringe.org.  No tickets will be sold in person at the door.

Festival Information
The 2011 Philly Fringe will take place September 2-September 17, 2011. Tickets prices range from free to $30, and can be purchased online at www.livearts-fringe.org or by calling 215.413.1318. The Festival Guide will be available the first week of August, and can be either downloaded as a PDF or picked up in hard copy at any Festival venue as well as at key �Hot Spots� (to be announced online in July) throughout the city.  The Philly Fringe was founded in 1997. Today, it serves as a collective home for artists bringing their work to audiences in every conceivable form--in traditional and untraditional venues, using new artistic forms and established ones.

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