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Three Pianos

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Each manning a piano, the trio slips into a wild reenactment of a Schubertiad—a musical salon thrown by the composer and his friends.  Unfortunate butchery of the German language ensues as they grapple with fundamental questions about the nature of music, love, and drunk dialing.  Join in the eccentric merrymaking of this OBIE-winning music-theater event that wowed audiences and critics alike in its sold-out runs in New York.

A.R.T. Guide to Winter 2011-2012! The Three Pianos Educational Toolkit!
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Need to know

Price of admission includes a glass of red wine or non-alcoholic cider.

Wednesday, December 21 at 2:00 PM was a dry performance.

In addition to our regularly scheduled post-performance discussions, Christopher Gibbs, Professor of Music at Bard College, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Schubert and author of The Life of Schubert, held a post-performance discussion on December 15.

Notable dates

Price of admission includes a glass of red wine or non-alcoholic cider.

Wednesday, December 21 at 2:00 PM was a dry performance.

In addition to our regularly scheduled post-performance discussions, Christopher Gibbs, Professor of Music at Bard College, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Schubert and author of The Life of Schubert, held a post-performance discussion on December 15.

Press

Three Pianos Parties with Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’

WBUR “Here and Now” Interview for Three Pianos

At a Valentine’s Day party several years ago, three friends — Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duff, and Dave Malloy — discovered a shared love for Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s song cycle “Winterreise.”
As they played the music, drank and debated, an idea was born: to create a theater piece that incorporates Schubert’s music.
The result is “Three Pianos,” and it takes place both in Schubert’s time and today, at an all-night party where pianos are not only played but used as props– they’re sat on, spun in circles, used as a bar and a bed. Even the audience gets to drink wine and take part.
The Village Voice describes the show as “like being cozily tucked away with a clutch of nerdy music-loving friends.”
“Three Pianos” won an Obie in New York and is currently playing at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge Massachusetts. Here & Now‘s Robin Young met with all three performers there. They told her that the show is a recreation of something called a “Schubertiad,” a type of party that Schubert held with poets and composers where they would make art.

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Credits

Creative team

By

Rick Burkhardt, Alec Duffy, and Dave Malloy

With music from

Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, Op. 89 (1828)

Directed by

Rachel Chavkin

Directed by

Rachel Chavkin

Rachel Chavkin is an Obie Award-winning director/dramaturg/writer, and the Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based experimental ensemble the TEAM (theteamplays.org), now in its 10th year. A.R.T.: Three Pianos,Particularly in the Heartland. Selected projects: Anne Washburn’s trans adaptation of Euripedes’ Iphigenia in Aulis, Classic Stage Company; Dave Malloy’s Preludes (World Premiere), LCT3; The TEAM’sRoosevElvis, PS122’s COIL festival, and tours to the Royal Court, Walker Art Center, and A.R.T.; Bess Wohl’s Small Mouth Sounds (World Premiere), Ars Nova; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (World Premiere), Ars Nova, Kazino (New York TimesTime Out New York and New York Post Critics’ Picks); British artist Chris Thorpe’s Confirmation (World Premiere, 2014 Edinburgh Fringe First Award, American Theatre's Top 10 Shows at the Edinburgh Fringe), with Warwick Arts Centre and Battersea Arts Centre; Meg Miroshnik’s The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, Yale Rep; Marco Ramirez’s The Royale, The Old Globe and upcoming at Lincoln Center; and multiple collaborations with Taylor Mac, including his extravaganza The Lily’s Revenge (World Premiere Act II), HERE. Doris Duke Impact Award nominee (2013 and 2014), Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel nominations (for Great Comet). NYTW Usual Suspect, Artistic Associate at London’s Gate Theatre, alum of Soho Rep’s Writer/Director Lab, Drama League Directors Project, Women’s Project Director’s Lab, and New Georges Affiliate Artist. She has also taught extensively at NYU, Pace, and other colleges. Proud member of SDC.

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Scenic Designer/Illustrations

Andreea Mincic

Scenic Designer/Illustrations

Andreea Mincic

Scenic Designer/Illustrations

A.R.T.: Debut. Set Design credits: Three Pianos (Obie Award), NYTW and Incubator Arts Project; Shadows, Murder in the Cathedral, Urinetown, Hoi Polloi; Storm Still, Nonsense Theater Company; Pony Palace/Football, The Seagull, Nurses in New England, Half Straddle; Here At Home, Red Over Red, Assember Dilator, 31 Down; Ring Cycle 2, PL115; Mosheh/Video Opera, Yoav Gal. Worked on numerous shows at: St. Ann’s Warehouse; The Public Theater; Ohio Theater; PS122; Here Arts Center; 3LD; Hudson Stage; Buro Fur OFF Theater; The Place, London; National Theatre, Bucharest.

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Costume Designer

Jessica Pabst

Costume Designer

Jessica Pabst

Costume Designer

A.R.T.: Debut. Off-Broadway: Lidless, P73; Three Pianos, New York Theatre Workshop; The Metal Children, The Vineyard Theatre (Henry Hewes Design nomination); Civilization (all you can eat), Clubbed Thumb; Be A Good Little Widow, Ars Nova; Asuncion, The Hallway Trilogy, There are No More Big Secrets, That Pretty Pretty, or The Rape Play, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre; The Tenant, The Confidence Man, 12 Ophelias, Woodshed Collective. Regional: THIS, Kirk Douglas Theatre. Jessica is a member of Woodshed Collective, and a Clubbed Thumb Associate Artist. Her work has also appeared at St. Ann’s Warehouse, NYU School of Opera, Atlantic Theatre School, Columbia University, HERE, Dixon Place, Dance Theatre Workshop, The Joyce Theatre, SPF, NYMF, and the New York International Fringe Festival. Graduate NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

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Lighting Designer

Austin R. Smith

Lighting Designer

Austin R. Smith

A.R.T.: Three Pianos. Off-Broadway/Regional: Rocky: The Musical, Alex Timbers/Stage Entertainment/Developmental; Beckett, Creative Insteps Inc.; Balm In Gilead, BrianMertes/Chashama; Sleep No More NYC, Punchdrunk; Allegiance, The Old Globe; Clear, Dixon Place; Three Pianos, NYTW & Incubator Arts. Various associate work at The Public, The Vineyard, Second Stage, KC Rep, Center Theatre Group. Ongoing: Anna Christie, The Old Globe; Massacre, Rattlestick.

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Sound Designer

Matt Hubbs

Sound Designer

Matt Hubbs

A.R.T.: Marie AntoinetteThree Pianos. Sound Design credits: Preludes, LCT3; The RoyaleTime and the Conways, Old Globe; Stage Kiss100 Saints You Should Know, Playwrights Horizons; Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812, Kazino, Ars Nova; Marie Antoinette, Soho Rep, Yale Rep; How We Got OnDeath TaxA Devil at Noon, Humana Festival of New American Plays; Three Pianos, NYTW; The Human Scale, Public Theater; Telephone, Foundry Theatre; HammockThe Matter of Origins: TeaBlueprints of Relentless Nature613 Radical Acts of Prayer, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange; the National Playwrights Conference, Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. A company member of the TEAM, he has designed The Holler SessionsRoosevElvisMission DriftArchitectingParticularly in the Heartland, and A Thousand Natural Shocks. BA in Philosophy as a University Scholar at Xavier University.

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Production Manager

Dave Polato

Production Manager

Dave Polato

Production Manager

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Production Stage Manager

Jessie Vacchiano

Production Stage Manager

Jessie Vacchiano

Production Stage Manager

A.R.T.: Debut. Recent stage management credits include Off Broadway: Three Pianos, New York Theatre Workshop; Mongo, The Working Theatre; and The Magdalene, Emerald Green Productions. Regional: The Breakup Notebook and Little Shop of Horrors, Revision Theatre; Murder in the Cathedral, Brooklyn Arts HQ; Five Flights, Red Stage Theatre. New York/Educational: Storm Still, PS122; The Vigil, Impetuous Theatre Group; Sea Marks, Rutgers Theater Company.

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