Talking Band and La MaMa E.T.C. present
Burnished By Grief – A Romantic Comedy
January 22 – February 07, 2015
at the First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

A love letter to the chaos of cramped New York City living. This music-infused, sinister romantic comedy is inspired by Obie Award-winning playwright Ellen Maddow’s work as a mediator in Brooklyn Civil Court, where she has witnessed how the city’s extraordinary diversity, combined with close living, has produced complex misunderstandings and remarkable relationships.

Created by the multiple Obie Award-winning Talking Band, Burnished by Grief is a chaotic, over-stimulated urban mash up filled with constant motion, scrambled energy and the overlapping realities of race, culture, and multiple generations. Seven characters long for a pocket of stillness, the solace of beauty, relief from loneliness, and the possibility of falling head over heels in love with their opposites.

Burnished By Grief
Directed by Paul Zimet
Written by Ellen Maddow
Sets and Video by Anna Kiraly
Costumes by Kiki Smith
Lights by Lenore Doxsee
Sound by Tim Schellenbaum
Production Stage Manager: Julia Katz
Interns: Nikolai Mishler and Matthew Schott

Featuring: Will Badgett, Shelley Fort, Sam Kulik, Debargo Sanyal, Mary Shultz, Tina Shepard, Rae C. Wright

About Burnished By Grief

“New York may be eating itself, the Village and its history, but goddamn it, it’s not gone yet. And some of the things that make the city wonderful remain…Talking Band’s The Golden Toad, [is] a wistful shaggy-dog tale about people dealing with rising tides: dementia, gentrification and, of course, sea levels.” – Time Out New York
Since its founding in 1974 by Paul Zimet and Ellen Maddow–former members of Joseph Chaikin’s seminal Open Theater—the Talking Band has remained a cornerstone of New York City’s avant-garde theater community. Ben Brantley of The New York Times recently called them “one of the boldest and most venerable politically minded companies in New York experimental theater.” American Theater magazine has deemed them “one of the most exceptional theater companies in the country.” The Talking Band will present the world premiere of its latest work, Burnished by Grief, a sinister, music infused romantic comedy, at La MaMa from January 22–February 7.

Written and composed by Ellen Maddow and directed by Zimet, Burnished by Grief is a sinister romantic comedy that investigates the symphonic beauty of cramped New York City life. The play is inspired by Ellen Maddow’s work as a volunteer mediator in Brooklyn Civil Court. There she has witnessed how the city’s extraordinary diversity, combined with close living, has produced complex misunderstandings, as well as, unexpected and remarkable relationships.

Burnished by Grief is a chaotic, over stimulated urban mash up filled with constant motion, scrambled energy and the overlapping realities of race, culture and multiple generations. Five characters long for a pocket of stillness, the solace of beauty, relief from loneliness, and the possibility of falling head over heels in love with their opposites.

Performances of Burnished by Grief –A Romantic Comedy will take place January 22 – February 7 at LaMaMa’s First Floor Theater (74 E. 4^th Street). Tickets, $25 ($20 Student and Senior) and will be available soon by calling 646-430-5374 or visiting www.lamama.org.

For the world premiere of Burnished by Grief, the creative team—including Anna Kiraly (Set and Video Designer), Kiki Smith (Costume Designer) ,Lenore Doxsee (Lighting Designer), and Tim Schellenbaum (Sound Design) – will transform LaMaMa’s First Floor Theatre into a surreal and kaleidoscopic Brooklyn where private encounters occur in public spaces, including a backyard surrounded by peering neighbors and stationery bikes in the midst of a chaotic traffic island.