Bars and Measures

By Idris Goodwin
Directed by Kristan Seemel
Original Music by Justin Ellington

The New York Premiere - EXTENDED
October 18 to November 17, 2019

A tale of two brothers. One a classical pianist. The other a jazz bass player. One a Christian. The other a Muslim. One living in freedom. The other in jail. Separated by bars, the brothers try to reconcile their differences through the language they know best. Music. A beautiful journey through faith, family, melody and time.

Inspired by a true story and widely praised, Bars and Measures by award-winning playwright Idris Goodwin comes to NY for the first time.

IDRIS GOODWIN (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright, break beat poet, and Producing Artistic Director of Louisville’s StageOne Family Theater. Goodwin uses story to inspire and incite new audiences across culture and generation. His plays include And In This Corner Cassius Clay, This Is Modern Art co-written with Kevin Coval, How We Got On and Hype Man : a break beat play. He's been honored to receive commissions and developmental support from institutions like The Kennedy Center/ New Voices New Visions, The Eugene O'Neill Conference, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, and Berkeley Rep's Ground Floor Residency. He's currently writing Scarfoot Lives, a new play co-commissioned by Arena Stage's Power Play Program and The Playwright Center's McKnight Fellowship. In addition to the forthcoming poetry collection Can I Kick It?, he’s had several publications with Haymarket Books including Inauguration and Human Highlight: Ode To Dominique Wilkins. A frequent public speaker at conferences and educational spaces, Idris is one of the leading voices in his field, committed to using art to cultivate more diverse and equitable spaces. Visit Idris on the web and social media.

KRISTAN SEEMEL (Director)grew up in the theater working on new plays, serving as dramaturg on a score of premiere productions and developmental workshops in Portland, Oregon where he worked for almost a decade. He is passionate about new writing and his directing projects include the recent premieres of HYPE MAN by Idris Goodwin, Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love by Mallery Avidon and The Electric Lighthouse by Ed Himes (all at The Flea). Other new plays Kristan has directed include Mutt by Lava Alapai (Many Hats Collective) and The Verspiary by Matthew Zrebski (Stark Raving Theatre) as well as NW regional premieres of Carlos Murillo’s Mimesophobia (Sand & Glass Productions), The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel (TheatreVertigo) and Mac Wellman’s A Murder of Crows (defunkt theatre). Kristan also assisted on the recent Flea premieres of NSangou Njikam’s Syncing Ink and A. R. Gurney’s Ajax. Recent favorite revivals include Bad Penny by Mac Wellman (The Flea), Brecht & Weill’s The Threepenny Opera and Hamlet (CoHo Productions). Kristan’s staging of Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (defunkt theatre) garnered him a Portland Dramatic Critics Circle award for Outstanding Direction. In New York, Kristan has developed new plays at Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb (Superlab), the Lark and Target Margin Theater. He is an Associate Artist at Tribeca’s own Flea Theater and a graduate of the Brown/Trinity Rep MF. www.kristanseemel.com

JUSTIN ELLINGTON(Composer) Lincoln Center’s The Rolling Stone, Pass Over (LCT3), Pipeline, Other Desert Cities. Off-Broadway: Mrs. Murray’s Menagerie (Ars Nova); The House That Will Not Stand, Fetch Clay Make Man (New York Theatre Workshop); He Brought Her Heart Back in a Box, The Winter’s Tale (TFANA). Additional theater: Father Comes Home From the Wars, How to Catch Creation, Until The Flood (Goodman); Familiar (Steppenwolf); Ink (Kennedy Center); The Comedy of Errors (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); As You Like It (Stratford Shakespeare Festival); The American Clock (The Old Vic). Awards include Grammy, ASCAP and Obie awards.

Assistant Director: Vincent Scott | Scenic Designer: Frank Oliva | Costume Designer: Sarah Lawrence | Lighting Designer: John Salutz
Sound Designer: David Lawson | Technical Director: Kim T. Sharp | Production Stage Manager: Rebecca Kane
Assistant Stage Manager: Madeleine Burrow | Fight Choreographer: Dan Renkin
Music Coach: Cleve Douglass | Press Representative: Joe Trentacosta, JT Public Relations
Graphic Design: Sylvia Haber, Perpetuart | Marketing: Deirdre M Cossman | Social Media: Myan Disnie Sebastien | Photos: Russ Rowland

Actors and Stage Mangers appear courtesy of Actors' Equity.

BARS AND MEASURES was Commissioned by B Street Theatre in Sacramento, California