Award-Winning Krapp, 39 Opens in NYC Jan. 22 | Playbill

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News Award-Winning Krapp, 39 Opens in NYC Jan. 22 The award-winning Beckett-inspired Krapp, 39, written and performed by Michael Laurence, opens Jan. 22 in a fresh New York City engagement following its earlier 2008 appearance at the New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC).
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Michael Laurence in Krapp, 39

Krapp, 39, an 80-minute intermissionless solo show directed by George Demas, began previews Jan. 13 at the SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street). Performances play through March 15.

Darren Lee Cole Theatricals produces. According to production notes, "Krapp, 39 is a voyeuristic prefiguring of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, and a deeply personal window on one man's last moment of youth. Reeling on his 39th birthday, an actor's obsessive identification with Beckett's famous character compels him to examine his own quixotic life and failures. His hilarious and heart breaking self-scrutiny plays out through intimate audio tapes, archival video, raw journal entries, haunted letters, racy confessions, and recorded conversations with the living and the lost."

Cole stated, "I am so exited to present an award-winning play like Michael Laurence's Krapp, 39 at the Soho Playhouse. It is theatre for the serious theatregoers. New Yorkers need a performance like this and it really is the best deal in town."

Originally produced by Cliplight Theater, this production of Krapp, 39 follows an award-winning run at the 2008 FringeNYC and an extension in the Fringe Encore Series.

Beckett's 1958 monodrama, Krapp's Last Tape, concerns 69-year-old Krapp, who drinks, writes, sits and listens to a tape he recorded at age 39. It tells of the death of his mother and of a woman he loved. He then records his last tape. Writer-performer Michael Laurence was recently seen on Broadway as Stu Noonan in Eric Bogosian's Talk Radio, and appeared in Michael Hollinger's Opus at Primary Stages, Starbuck in The Rainmaker at Arena Stage, Tooth of Crime and Book of Days at The Signature Theatre Company Off-Broadway.

Director George Demas is the founding artistic director of The Cliplight Theater (www.cliplighttheater.com). He has directed plays and one-person shows in New York, Los Angeles and internationally since 1994. His most recent project was Marc Palmieri's critically acclaimed Levittown at Axis Theater in New York City. He will be directing The Funeral Play by Amanda Quaid at The Flea in June.

Tickets are $29-$39 and can be purchased at (212) 691-1555 or visit www.sohoplayhouse.com or www.krapp39.com.

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Laurence is the author of the plays The Escape Artist (Tribeca Lab, 1994), The Escape Artist: Virgil's Cauldron (Phil Bosakowski Theater, 1999), and the co-creator (with playwright-performer Edgar Oliver) of Chop Off Your Ear (Angel Orensanz Foundation, 2000). He also wrote and directed the independent feature film, "Escape Artists" (Anthology Film Archives' New Filmmakers Series, 2005). He is a founding member of The Cliplight Theater, for which he has directed Jesse McKinley's Quick Bright Things (HERE Arts Center, 1995), Edgar Oliver's Master of Monstrosities (La MaMa, 1996), I Am a Coffin (La MaMa, 1997), My Green Hades (Phil Bosakowski Theater, 1999), The Drowning Pages (La MaMa, 2000), and Maverick by George Demas (Culture Project, 2003). He is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied at The Experimental Theater Wing with Kevin Kuhlke, Mary Overlie, and Ryscard Cieslak, and The Classical Studio with Louis Scheeder and Deloss Brown. After college, he studied directing with Anne Bogart, and worked with theatre legends Judith Malina and Joe Chaiken.

Producer/general manager Cole has produced and managed plays for 30 years, including MindGame by Anthony Horowitz (SoHo Playhouse), Killer Joe by Tracy Letts (Vaudeville Theatre, West End, London; Soho Playhouse; The Theatre, Chicago), Killing Real Estate Women by Gary Bonasorte, Hiding Behind Comets, Charlaton, O'Keefe, Nostalgia Tropical (all NYC) and more. Management credits include Tango Appassionato directed by Graciela Daniele, The Big Love, Parting Gestures, Life in a Marital Institution, The Aunts (all NYC), Miracle on 34th Street, Love Letters, Over the Tavern (all Chicago) and For Colored Girls… national tour. Cole has been the executive director of the SoHo Playhouse for the past four years where he has produced Piaf, Room Service, Jamaica Farewell, Belly of a Drunken Piano, Bukowski From Beyond and Simon Lovell's Strange & Unusual Hobbies.

 
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