Solo Production of Mark's Gospel Runs Through This Weekend

 George Drance. Photo courtesy of Magis Theatre Company

La Mama E.T.C., in association with the Magis Theatre Company’s Logos Project, presents *mark, performed by George Drance, directed by Luann Jennings, with original music composed by internationally acclaimed, award winning composer Elizabeth Swados.

*mark will be presented at La Mama’s First Floor Theatre, 74A East 4th Street (between Bowery & Second Avenue) in Manhattan through Sunday, June 15. Performances are Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sunday at 2:30 pm. 

The Gospel of Mark, the oldest of the four gospels, had an early tradition of being performed aloud from start to finish. Written during Nero’s brutal persecution of the followers of “the Way,” the Gospel of Mark was recited in its entirety, giving courage to this community of quiet rebels whose radical compassion threatened the Empire’s status quo. Today it is rare for an audience to hear this gospel performed in its totality, or to experience it with the immediacy of that dangerous period of oppression. In his contemporary solo performance, Magis Theatre Company’s Artistic Director George Drance examines the message of commitment and love through the eyes of a street artist, using drawings to illustrate and illuminate the text.

Magis Theatre Company, founded in 2003, is an ensemble of actors and teaching artists, who came together out of desire: desire to teach, desire to train, and desire to act. The company has produced a variety of actor driven, physically based theatre productions that explore the human condition. 

Drance, artist-in-residence at Fordham University, has performed and directed in more than countries on five continents. He has served as artistic director of Theatre YETU in Kenya and artistic associate for Teatro la Fragua in Honduras. Drance has been a guest artist and lecturer at Columbia, Cornell and Marquette University.

Jennings worked for a dozen years as a director, artistic director and arts educator in Atlanta. She is the founder and director of CAELA, a service organization for arts leaders of faith; and she founded and ran the arts ministry at Redeemer Presbyterian Church  in New York City

Perhaps best known for her Broadway and international show Runaways, Swados has composed, written, and directed issue-oriented theater for more than 30 years. Some of her works include the Obie Award winning Trilogy, at La Mama Alice at the Palace with Meryl Streep at the New York Shakespeare Theater Festival and Groundhog, which was optioned by Milos Forman for a film. Awards include: Five Tony nominations, three Obie Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Ford Grant, the Helen Hayes Award, a Lila Acheson Wallace Grant, PEN, and others.