SHADOWS
ADAPTED FROM THE FILM BY JOHN CASSAVETES
DIRECTED BY ALEC DUFFY
“Duffy, a director with rich musical sympathy, pushes us into the filmic plane. We lounge around the space on Andreea Mincic’s couches; actors move among us like guests at a party. If scenes get too big, the action spills onto Metropolitan Avenue. . . Composer Rick Burkhardt’s jazz combo plays just feet away, and when it does, baby, ‘Shadows’ really grooves.”
“(Shadows) offers audacity, invention and talent… Cassavetes would be proud.”
Hoi Polloi presents the first-ever staged version of Shadows, the collaboratively-created John Cassavetes film considered a watershed in the birth of American independent cinema. Originally released in 1959, the film depicts lean and hungry artists during the Beat Generation years in New York City, and an interracial romance that goes awry.
Adapted and Directed by Alec Duffy
Performers in original production: Duane Boutte, Rick Burkhardt, Jason Craig, Paola Di Tolla, Alec Duffy, Dustin Fontaine, Jessica Jelliffe, Mikeah Ernest Jennings and Julian Rozzell, Jr.
Music: Rick Burkhardt
Set design: Andreea Mincic
Costumes: Becky Lasky
Lighting: Stephen Arnold
Musicians: Rick Burkhardt, Jen Baker, Ezra Gale, and Steven Leffue.
The production premiered at the Collapsable Hole in Brooklyn in 2011, with a subsequent production at JACK (Brooklyn), 2013, with a cast that included Jason Quarles, B. Brian Argotsinger, Ikechukwu Ufomadu, Rick Burkhardt, Paul Perroni, Alexandra Miller, Dustin Fontaine, Samantha Debicki, Emile Blondel, and Julian Rozzell, Jr.
Photos by Ryan Jensen.