For Immediate Release:

In honor of the Solstice and the

Original Opening Date of
their production of
Thornton Wilder's
THE ALCESTIAD

Magis Theatre Company

Will host a Special Launch Party
Entitled “The Healing Sun”
for its newly created interactive website
June 20 at 7 PM

The event will Stream on Facebook

www.Alcestiad.com
Alcestis, Act II: “This is the healing sun…the sun of the summer Stolstice”
The Alcestiad, Thornton Wilder

New York: Magis Theatre Company was set to present Thornton Wilder’s rarely produced play “The
Alcestiad, with a satyr play The Drunken Sisters beginning on this year’s Solstice, June 20, 2020, outdoors
at Roosevelt Island's Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, but due to the shutdown, had to
reschedule the run for next June 2021.

In honor of its original opening night, Magis Theatre will host a Solstice launch party event entitled “The
Healing Sun,” for its new interactive website (www.Alcestiad.com) that focuses on this timely and powerful
play. It will feature interviews with the cast, dramaturgical material about Wilder's play, letters from Thornton
Wilder during the writing of the Alcestiad, and a walking tour of Four Freedoms Park, the outdoor venue on
Roosevelt Island in New York City where the event will be held next June. The event will stream on Facebook
@ Magis Theatre Company

“Wilder sets his play on three days of summer solstice, 12 years apart. Solstice means “when the sun
stands still”… a moment of change from the days getting longer to once again getting shorter, calling
attention to growth and transformation. On this day, the sun is at its strongest, healing herbs at the full
potency.  At this time in our own  history, we are in great need of healing not only of bodies, but of our
society and our planet.” George Drance, Magis Theatre Company

“The Healing Sun” launch party event will be held on Saturday, June 20, at 7 PM. It will include Russ Cusick,
Deniz Demirer, Margid Sharp Douglas, Brian Douglas George Drance, Kimbirdlee Fadner, Sara
Galassini, Jacqueline Lucid, Tony Macht, Mae Roney, Diego Andres Tapia, and Jenna Wyman.

The Alcestiad takes place in a world where individualism and greed have been driving forces in recent years,
this work of Thornton Wilder celebrates the beauty of making sacrifices for the good of others and how this
kind of courageous self-giving can transform society.  Alcestis learning through her pain to overcome it by
understanding, is a theme that is crucial for us today.

Magis Theatre seeks out neglected works of the past that still have something important to say to us in our
present. "The Alcestiad" is one of those pieces and was brought to Magis Theatre’s attention by Irene
Worth in 1997. In a world where individualism and greed have been driving forces in recent years, this
work of Thornton Wilder celebrates the beauty of making sacrifices for the good of others and how this
kind of courageous self-giving can transform society.  Alcestis learning through her pain to overcome it by
understanding, is a theme that is crucial for us today.

One of America’s most lauded playwrights, Thorton Wilder’s rarely performed play, The Alcestiad premiered
at the Edinburgh Festival in 1955, directed by Tyrone Guthrie and is inspired by Euripides Greek tragedy
Alcestis. Wilder’s third-act imagines a world after Alcestis returns from the land of the dead, her kingdom is
overthrown by a tyrant and is ravaged by a plague. The play deals with the power of irrational fear in society
at the hands of those who would seek to intimidate others brutally as well as askes questions about the
meaning of human life and its’ relationship to the divine.

Thornton Wilder said of The Alcestiad, “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. On another level, however, it is a comedy about a very serious matter.”

ABOUT MAGIS

Magis Theatre Company is an actor-driven, physically-based ensemble, creating art and sharing our training
with professionals, teachers, and students. We train together for 3-5 hours weekly, while exploring literary
works that examine the human condition across cultures and generations. The creative input of the ensemble
forms each new artwork.

In 2005, Magis began working together to continue the unique kind of training we shared as artists in the
Columbia University MFA program. For over ten years, we have opened our doors to student and professional
actors seeking this kind of training, produced a yearly season of critically acclaimed performances, and
presented our work at professional theatre education conferences regionally, nationally, and internationally.

As an ensemble, our weekly training sharpens our skills and lets us work with our texts for a long time before
the formal rehearsal process begins. We normally study and work with a text for over a year before we begin
rehearsal.

Magis Techniques have been shared at workshops at several universities and with the Kennedy Center's
Cultural Visitors Program; and abroad in Italy, Albania, Honduras, Kosovo, Cambodia, and Guatemala.

In those years, we have presented a number of productions, including "Calderon's Two Dreams" (2017)
"Mark," (2014) "Occupy Olympus" (2013) "Shakuntala and the Ring of Recognition." (2010) Our current
programming also includes our monthly "Actor’s Workout” training open to the public, collaborating across
disciplines on new works based on neglected texts, opening readings and workshops for our audiences to
experience our process.

Magis is committed to collaborating across disciplines to explore neglected texts.

The texts we choose to work on seek to foster a greater understanding of the human condition and are texts
that speak to the present from the past.

Our last major production was the professional American premiere of the 1677 script of “Life is a Dream,” by
Calderon De La Barca. We presented this new translation in repertoire with the more familiar 1635 version so
that audiences could experience the breadth of the playwright’s life experience and wisdom as the plays
reflected and echoed each other. The production entitled “Calderon’s Two Dreams” featured a cast of 14 and 4
musicians playing music specially composed for the production by the late Elizabeth Swados.
As an ensemble, we train weekly practicing the “Magis method” which was developed after several alumni from
the Columbia University Graduate MFA program in Acting wanted to deepen and develop the training they
received at the hands of master teachers such as Andrei Serban, Anne Bogart, Kristen Linklater, Priscilla
Smith, and Nikolaus “Niky” Wolcz. Recognizing that there was not yet any single place to go where they could
continue to find the diversity and breadth of this training, they decided to work together to create a laboratory
where different techniques could be investigated and interact with one another.

We are also committed to using theatre to generate a greater understanding of the possibilities of using our
artform to help human growth and understanding. To that end, we will be working in concert with “Thrive for
Life Prison Ministries.” Using Magis Company members as teaching artists working with Joseph Brockets' text
of “The Odyssey” and engaging with incarcerated persons exploring the text and how the themes of personal
struggle and responsible action might be mirrored in their own lives.

www.MagisTheatre.org
www.Alcestiad.com

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