In a summer re-awakening, FDR Four Freedoms State Park swings open its gates for Alcestiad, a play cancelled by COVID, last year.
On Friday, June 18th, at 7:00 p.m., The Magis Theatre Company, brings Thornton Wilder‘s three act play to FDR Four Freedoms State Park. It runs on three consecutive nights, closing on June 20th, Father’s Day.
Note, June 3rd: Alcestiad sold out for all three nights.
Tickets for all three nights, with seating on the park’s historic stairs, are now available here. They’re free, but reservations required.
“On one level, my play recounts the life of a woman–of many women–from bewildered bride to sorely tested wife to overburdened old age. On another level, it is a wildly romantic story of gods and men, of death and hell and resurrection, of great loves and great trials, of usurpation and revenge.” Wilder summed up, “On another level, however, it is a comedy about a very serious matter.”
Thornton Wilder said of his play The Alcestiad
The venue at FDR Four Freedoms State Park is one of the most perfect outdoor performance spaces in New York. The summer sun sets over Manhattan’s midtown skyline, reflecting off new towers in Long Island City. Making a buffer, tides push and pull the East River gracefully on either side.
About Alcestiad, Magis and This Summer Re-Awakening
Alcestiad, inspired by Euripides, “deals with the power of irrational fear in society at the hands of those who would seek to intimidate others brutally, in the same way that FDR’s speech urges us to strive for ‘Freedom from Fear.'”
It’s timely.
“Four Freedoms Park Conservancy is excited to host Magis Theater this June 18,19,20,” Four Freedoms executive director Howard Axel told The Daily.
“When I first heard of their interest in performing The Alcestiad, I thought, how incredible that a play straight from Greek legend and mythology will performed at park architect Louis Kahn’s great modernist ode to the Golden Age of Greece.
“I encourage anyone who can; please join us to see Hercules, Apollo and Alcestis romp right here on Roosevelt Island.”
Working with Magis on this production are Roosevelt Islanders Russ Cusick and Jacqueline Lucid. Joining in, also, is Main Street Theatre & Dance Alliance assistant executive director Kimbirdlee Fadner and her son, Jack.
Interested? Go online now. Seating is free but limited, and you must register: June 18th thru June 20th,The Alcestiad by Thornton Wilder, Magis Theatre Company/FDR Four Freedoms Park.
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After Susan Rosenthal was fired, David Kraut would talk about almost anything except Susan. This was unusual because David could discuss a subject long after everyone else had exhausted both the subject and the available oxygen. When her name entered the conversation, however, he became careful. At first I mistook that restraint for discretion; later, I began to recognize guilt.
