The third installment in the BADASS RECORD COLLECTION series, Bible and Wine was an extraordinary blend of music, movement, dance, story, and design, using the music of pop maestro Eric Matthews as inspiration for a meditation on history, faith, lust, and immortality. Loosely inspired by Chaucer's masterwork The Canterbury Tales and the art of the high Middle Ages, Bible and Wine was a daring and unique event which combined director Frank Cwiklik's trademark immersive theater mindscapes with movement, dance, and performance and the music of one of the most engaging and exciting recording artists of the past twenty years.

 

 

As night falls on a museum of Medieval artifacts, the souls and spirits of the ancient past slowly materialize, embarking on a haunting pilgramage through the tattered remnants and haltingly reassembled fragments of the art and architecture that once surrounded and defined them. As we follow them through the halls of the quiet cloisters, their lives, loves, deaths, dreams, and desires once again become flesh and substance in a compelling and moving journey through time and faith. The Badass Record Collection series proposes to utilize pop and rock music as non-traditional theatrical text, exploring the forms of recorded music to create new and exciting theatrical works, and this production promises to be the most exciting and groundbreaking example of this concept. It's dance, it's performance, it's lights and sound, it's live performance and recorded sound, it's everything theater can be, and should be, in one breathtaking event.

  
 

Most exciting of all is the inclusion of two exclusive new tracks from Mr. Matthews, recorded and prepared especially for the project, which will make their world premiere in this performance. These new works, full of the life, energy, theatricality, and musical muscle that define his extraordinary body of work will delight his fans, and entice audiences yet to encounter his compelling and distinctive style and vision.

  
 

Eric Matthews has been making music professionally since 1992 as a member of bands such as Belt Buckle, Cardinal, Brookville, and Seinking Ships. He has been releasing acclaimed solo recordings since 1995, first with the legendary Sub Pop label, which released the critically acclaimed "It's Heavy in Here" and "Lateness of the Hour". He has lent his sideman talents on records by such diverse talents as Tahiti 80, The Dandy Warhols, Spookey Ruben, and Pugwash. Since 2006, he has been producing other acts, mostly new bands and young songwriters on the rise and in need of veteran insights in helping to realize their own creative aspirations. His most recent releases include the 2008 classic "The Imagination Stage" and the recent debut CD of his newest band, Seinking Ships. For more info on Eric's music, visit him at www.ericmatthews.net.

 
 

Frank Cwiklik is entering his second decade of creating immersive, eclectic indie theater in New York City. He has produced, directed, and/or appeared in over two thirty productions since 1999, including the influential Bitch Macbeth, the controversial political satire Sugarbaby!, and, with DMT's American Shakespeare Factory, the recent cult smash Two Gentlemen of Lebowski. His eccentric, aggressive directorial style has earned him praise from Time Out New York, the Village Voice, NYTheatre.com, Backstage, The New York Times, and others, and has influenced countless directors both on and off-Broadway. His future projects include the ASF entries Hamlet and Taming of the Shrew, and his first original play in nearly five years, God's Comic, a fantasia inspired by the life and work of the great silent cinema comedian and vaudeville legend Harry Langdon.

  
 

DMTheatrics was founded in 1999 with the express purpose of creating theater for audiences, not agents or academics, and for taking advantage of the immediacy and of live performance by creating immersive, engaging and spectacular theatrical pieces. By looking back to the classic forms of burlesque, vaudeville, cabaret, linear storytelling, and spectacle, DMT hopes to create new and exciting theater for the present and help usher in the future of performance with clean, direct, attractive works that excite, inspire, and most importantly, entertain. DMT does not workshop its pieces, nor does it hold staged or seated readings, as we firmly believe that the only way to truly "break" a show is by doing it, no pretention, no discussion, no nonsense. Our shows may be loud, they may be chaotic, they may be eccentric, they may even be stupid, but they are always heartfelt and engaging, and they are never, ever boring.

CLOSED FEBRUARY 16TH -- thanks to all who came!

 

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Shiloh Klein is an actress and dancer from southern Louisiana whose DMT debut was in the smash hit Two Gentlemen of Lebowski. She is currently studying dance and voice in Manhattan while making her way into the film industry. She recently wrapped her first feature film as the lead in The Fabulous Thuderbird, and can currently be found working with band Phoenix Reign and crew on their Heavy Metal Underground series on Queens public access TV, as well as guest host on their Heavy Metal Sundays radio show on www.nexusproductionsradio.com.
 
 

Saara Falk is a Finn with flaming red hair who moved to New York two years ago to follow her dreams! She is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC. Her latest credits include playing Becca in the conservatory theatre production of David Lindsey-Abaire's "Rabbit Hole", Woman In the Horizon in Sasha Santiago's film "Interstellar", and Sister Judith in the Brick Theater production of John Whiting's "Devils". She's also an alumna of the Finnish National Opera Ballet School and has worked as a dancer in Europe including The Finnish National Opera and Savonlinna International Opera Festival. Finito! Lux et veritas!

  
 
Azumi Fukumura is honored and excited to be a part of Bible and Wine. Other credits include: Marilyn Monroe: Wouldn’t Be Fascinating (Fringe festival 2010); Sweeney Todd, My Favorite Year, Evita, Annie, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Miserables (Fantine), A Chorus Line (Connie), Perfect Family (Angel), The Merry Widow. She has been performed with Sasaki Ballet Tokyo in their productions of Giselle and Sleeping Beauty. Many thanks to everyone who have lent their support.
  
 

Erik Magnus was last seen as Gilbert in the world premiere of Charles Strouse's An American Tragedy. Recent roles include Fyedka in Fiddler on the Roof, Buck in Zanna Don't!, Pan in Bat Boy the Musical, Dream Curly in Oklahoma!, and the lead in an original dance theatre piece, Corps, for which he received and American College Theatre Festival Irene Ryan nomination. In 2009, Erik spent a semester in Arezzo, Italy at a conservatory dance program through the Accademia dell'Arte. He is a graduate of Muhlenberg College and a Fargo, ND native.

  
 
Heather Meagher was last seen creating the role of Megan in Turnstyle Theatre's new musical, Forbidden Office. Other recent roles include: Sister James in Doubt (A Small Company in America), Sky in Wincing At the Light (Love Creek), Susan in Praying Small (Love Creek), Susan in Company (Parkside Players), Catherine in Proof (Rockaway Theatre Company), Anne in A Little Night Music (St. Jean's Players), Raina in Arms and the Man (Foolish Mortals Productions), Kathy/Jeanie in In the Schoolyard (Theater for the New City), Mary Miles Minter in Murder Uncensored (Wings Theatre), Anne in A Little Night Music, Molly in Jake's Women, and Julie in Pack of Lies (Paper Moon Players). Heather is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and the Atlantic Theatre Company School.
  
 
Raymond Miller is a Toronto native and graduate of NYC’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts.  Stage credits include Pepper in the original Toronto company of Mamma Mia!;  assisting with the NYC staged-reading of the musical Heading East;  and dancing in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.  Film/TV credits include Showtime’s Queer as Folk, The Movie Network’s G Spot, Eloise at the Plaza, Crimes of Fashion, Model Behavior, In a Heartbeat, and as a host on Canada’s YTV Youth Network.
  
 
Lara Mummert is originally from San Francisco, CA. She has a BFA in Dance from SUNY Purchase Conservatory. She studied at the UCLA Acting program when she was 15 and also worked with the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco from 2004 to 2008. She trained with San Francisco Ballet, and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet (1999-2009). She has done works by Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Bill T. Jones Dance Company, Paul Taylor Dance Company and was an Apprentice with Hubbard Street Dance Chicago in 2009. This is Lara's first time performing with DMTheatrics.
 
 

Kevin Orzechowski is enjoying his fourth go round at being an enabler to Frank and DMTheatrics. He was previously seen in The Sinister Urge and the retrospective 0109, and, of course, the infamous Two Gentlemen of Lebowski. Favorite roles include "bikini cop", "undercover cross-dresser cop", and Sammy Davis Jr.

  
 

Denise J. Ozer is a recent graduate of Muhlenberg College with a B.A. in Theater and Dance. Originally from Ossining, NY, Denise is extremely excited to be making her NYC debut with DMTheatrics. Denise is currently a member of The Actors Project NYC and is working with CheckIt! Dance company. Past and favorite credits include Meredith Parker, Bat Boy the Musical, Kristine, Miss Julie, Wendy-Darling, CAW. Many thanks to the cast and creators.

  
 

Marissa Staniec  began her dance training at Deborah’s Stage Door Dance Center in Rochester Hills, MI studying Jazz, Tap, Ballet, Modern and Gymnastics. From there she went to study dance and film at Western Michigan University, where she was awarded the Ethel Eaton Dance Scholarship, the Partners in Dance Scholarship, the Dalton Excellence Scholarship and the Michigan Merit Award Scholarship. While at WMU, she performed choreography from noted artists such as George Faison’s Suite Otis, Lou Conte’s The 40’s & Doug Varone’s Strict Love. In 2005 & 2006, she performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. at the American College Dance Festival. In 2007, her choreography was chosen to represent Western Michigan University in the East Central Conference of the American College Dance Festival. She graduated from WMU in 2008 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a Bachelor of Arts in Film, Video and Media Studies. Since graduation she has worked for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, starting in 2008 on the Enchantment of the Seas. In 2009 she performed her second stint with RCCL, and moved to NYC in summer of 2010.