Virtue isn’t rewarded and life is cruel...

I don’t like violence – but Victor McGowan does. He’s the protagonist of the plays you’re about to read and I’m about to direct. Nancy Manocherian, the Founding Artistic Director of the cell, chose to feature The McGowan Trilogy as part of the First Irish Theatre Festival this year.

I’ve never held a gun, punched anyone, or been pistol-whipped. The closest I’ve been to a fight was a karate match when I was 8 and a self-defense class when I was 16.

I don’t have the stomach to watch torture, brutality, or physical violence. I close my eyes and cover my ears during the scary parts of movies (and books). But Seamus isn’t writing violence; he’s writing in response to it.

McGowan is a monster, but the world is a more potent monster. No one likes to admit it, but it’s difficult to maintain one’s humanity. Virtue isn’t rewarded and life is cruel.

Victor McGowan has traded his humanity for an ideological commitment and each play in this trilogy challenges his ability to maintain this perverse stoicism.

Paul Nugent is the ideal actor to embody McGowan because he is the opposite of him. He feels deeply and cares about everyone. Paul plays the monstrous McGowan with absolute conviction and is powerfully convincing, and yet he is trustworthy. His portrayal subtly reveals McGowan’s traumatized context, and so we empathize when he falters. We all know the world is a brutal place, even though we close our eyes and cover our ears.

Kira Simring.

Posted on October 11, 2014 .

Life is Never Still

 

"Life is Never Still"

It's all about movement in time... We think about a still life as capturing a moment, but moments are never static.
Sometime last summer I met with John in his studio. I love Asian influenced art, so I was smitten with Johns work and we planned a show. Several days later, Eunbi Kim walked into the cell to explain her proposal for a music/performance piece, "Murakami Music." She told us the work was based on the magical novels of Haruki Murakami, using the Beatles' Norwegian Wood and other songs he uses in his novels, as well as incorporating recited passages, read by Laura Yumi Snell. Immediately I responded. I had just read Murakami's Norwegian Wood and flashed on John's haunting paintings which include literary quotes. Both John's and Murakami's subjects are dreamlike studies in displacement. These conjured images seemed like a perfect match for a gesamtkuntswerk. We immediately enlisted Jeremy Bloom to put the pieces together for the.cells.art.works. I am excited for the opening and am looking forward to living with John's magical images in our space.

Posted on September 9, 2012 and filed under Un-Blog Me!.

Midsummer is Back

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, in association with the cell,

A Twenty First Century Salon

TM

, present The Hive's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S ^ Queer DREAM

This is not your grandmother’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but one for 21st century NYC—a modern re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic, which casts Hermia and Lysander as lesbian lovers with Demetrius and Helena as a gay couple. In the midst of the national gay marriage controversies, this production exposes contemporary America's sexual hang-ups and resistance to gay marriage. Concepts of what constitutes gender, sexual orientation and power will be explored and exploded! A wild bacchanal of every fetish imaginable--filled with delectable and dangerous fairies straight out of everyone’s fantasies and fears.

Performances @ Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue (Between 9th & 10th St.)

Wednesday - Sunday, 8pm 

Additional 3pm performance Saturday, May 5th and 12th

Closing Night, Saturday May 19, 2012

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Tickets 

$25 General Admission

$20 Students / Seniors

click above logo to purchase tix

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Visit The Hive for more information

Posted on May 4, 2012 and filed under Un-Blog Me!.

Make Art Not War

While the reviews for both our Irish plays, Rated P and Russian Transport have been excellent, I can't figure out why everyone hasn't yet seen them. People, please come out and support not-for-profit theater! Your tax-deductible dollars would be better spent on art than wasted on the wars waged by the crazy politicians who are making a big show of this ridiculous presidential campaign. What kind of world do we want to live in? One of greed and gore, or one of peace and beauty? You tell me. Check out the Irish cell review in Back Stage!

Posted on March 8, 2012 and filed under Un-Blog Me!.

Aida

Aida Scillar Jones-Ly, the creation of Garlia and Sulei, was born February 23rd at 2:06pm, weighing in at 7.5 lbs. 
Totally gorgeous. Congrats on a job well done! 

 

 

 

Posted on February 24, 2012 and filed under Un-Blog Me!.

Oh, what a night!

Oh, what a night!

They knotted their ties and tied the knot. The sublime dinner at Per Se was the perfect complement to the sublimely simple ceremony to legalize the union of my son, Jesse, with his partner of 9 years, Adrian. How great to live in a state that, at long last, allows us a simple human freedom...to love.

Posted on February 17, 2012 and filed under Un-Blog Me!.

A Gala Affair

I’m so ridiculously exited!!! The New Group, producer of outstanding off Broadway theater, will be honoring ME at their annual Gala to be held on February 27th. I am thrilled to be recognized along with the great playwright, David Rabe, for my contribution to the community and would be especially honored if the cell audience would join in the festivities. Not-for-profit theater is dependent on the private sector to stay alive and thrive. Please consider joining the party with your purchase of a ticket to this star-studded event!

Click Here for the RSVP Form!

Visit the New Group Website

Posted on February 10, 2012 and filed under Un-Blog Me!.