New Play by Author, Journalist and WFMU Host Kurt Gottschalk to be Staged at Dixon Place Theatre

Under a Scar-Filled Sky: The Buddy Zinn Mysteries – directed by Mahayana Landowne and produced by Kristen Persinos with live music by Charlie Waters – draws from film noir and Taoist Buddhism to tell the tale of a P.I. trapped in a purgatory of his own devise.

Saturday, February 16, 10 pm

Dixon Place Theater

161 Chrystie Pl.

NYC NY

www.dixonplace.org

January 18, 2013 (For Immediate Release) – Solon Productions is pleased to announce a staging of its first collective effort, Under a Scar-Filled Sky: The Buddy Zinn Mysteries, as a part of the Dixon Place “Works in Progress” series.

The one-act philosophical farce is based a series on four flash fictions contained in Kurt Gottschalk’s 2011 collection Little Apples: A Story Cycle concerning Buddy Zinn, a koan-spouting private investigator more interested in intellectual posturing than solving a case. At the suggestion of musician and actress Kristen Persinos, the four stories were developed for the stage, with well more than twice as much new material penned. When the first-time playwright and the first-time producer met the experienced director Mahayana  Landowne, the project began to get off its feet.

Buddy Zinn, the hero of the story, ruminates about crossword puzzles, pop music, the devil, Greek mythology and Buddhist parables in a dingy office he never seems to leave. The potential clients who attempt to hire his services end up frustrated with his seeming indifference and unamused by his pontificating. But is he enlightened or just drunk? Is he divinely unattached or miserably detached. Ultimately, the answer may be uncomfortably unclear.

The one friend, or foil, in Buddy’s life is Charlie, a confidante and yes-man who may be a product of Buddy’s imagination. In a unique act of staging, Charlie is played by musician and composer Charlie Waters, who provides a jazzy soundtrack live on the set while giving Buddy the ego support he needs.

Casting will be announced soon. The production staff is available for comment.

Watch http://buddyzinn.blogspot.com/ for updates.

Writer, journalist and musician Kurt Gottschalk's first published piece was a letter to Trouser Press magazine about David Bowie when he was 13. He received a Master’s in journalism from Columbia 
University and has written for the Village Voice, Time Out, Wire, The Brooklyn Rail and magazines in England, France, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Russia. He produces and hosts the weekly program Miniature Minotaurs on WFMU radio.  “Under a Scar-Filled Sky” was originally conceived as four short stories within his Little Apples: A Story Cycle, published by Lulu in 2011. Last year his Sentences was published under the Lulu imprint. http://spearmintmusic.blogspot.com/

Director Mahayana Landowne looks to create work with dramatic visions that transcend daily life. Recent productions include : MIXED (Baruch Performing Arts), Impossible Country (Mudbone Collective), Baruch Voices (Baruch),  Picasso Project (Luna Stage), Blue, (Vital Theater), Carcass (Diaspora Drama), The Heiress, (The Roundtable Ensemble at the Mint), Machinal (U. of Rochester), Post-Code (American Living Room, HERE) and Terrible Infant (Fringe Festival). Musicals include: Spring Bling, Summer in the Hummer, and The Dick Cheney Holiday Spectacular (Ace of Clubs), Western Unidad (Ice Factory Festival, Ohio Theater) and Post-Code (American Living Room, HERE). Favorite past productions include: The Skriker, Antony and Cleopatra, The Seagull, brass logic, Streetcar Named Desire, Obgynt, King Lear, and Mud. Affiliations/ Fellowships include: Drama League 00’, Second Stage, NYU-BFA Acting and Yale School of Drama, MFA Directing. As a Director, Landowne has also used her skills for creative grassroots organizing for social issues including the NYC Dance Parade which brings together over one hundred dance organizations to dance down Broadway and many art action activities that promote participatory art culture. yana.landowne.org

Producer Kristen Persinos is no stranger to downtown theater and a graduate of the Boston University acting program. She has performed at the Downstairs Series in some early pieces by playwright Anne Washburn and the first Blueprint Directors Series, both at the Richard Foreman Ontological Theater.  She participated in a Mabou Mines workshop her first year in NYC, has acted in many pieces over the years and has performed in her own rock band, Impostor Syndrome. http://impostorsyndrome.net/

Musical Director Charlie Waters: composer, performer, fighter of uptown hegemony, dealer in stolen tonalities, processor of metaphysical alpha notations, geographer of city sounds, leader of the nuAtonality, sparkler, father & husband, Concertomentist, Baptist, Southerner, flower-lover, Williamsburger, day-jobber.

Please note: As per Dixon Place policy, complimentary tickets are only available to industry professionals. Please visit the dixonplace.org to buy tickets or contact the production staff at buddyzinn@gmail.com for passes or for further information.