Sign up today to unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Perhaps it is to keep the drama from flying into pieces, therefore, that he clamps the procedural frame so firmly in place around the prisoners debates. Presented by Ron Kastner, Roy Gabay, and John Gould Rubin at the East 13th Street Theater, 136 E. 13 St., NYC, Nov. 29-Dec. 31. Sure, it tells a story of addiction and cyclical abuse a narrative we've grown to expect about those who go behind bars. The performance by Frankham was another highlight for me; the development of the character though her interactions with Angel and her later monologues was subtle, yet well conveyed. In one particularly impressive monologue, Adjepong's Lucius exercises whilst addressing his religious beliefs; the actor's energy doesn't falter once as he performs . Search all monologues from plays. Spoken in Riggins hoarse yet commanding drawl, modulating his speed and timbre with the dexterity of a blues guitarist, its the kind of moment when a play hits a perfect bulls-eye. All people wanna do is cry for the victims! [17], Michael Billington of The Guardian, who had given the play three out of five stars in 2002,[18] gave the same rating after a 2019 performance and said that "for all the vividness of the dialogue, the play still strikes me as baffling in its exploration of guilt, faith and redemption." Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train does not offer a clear verdict, even while it implicitly criticises the judicial and penal systems of America. (He tells his court-appointed lawyer that he merely aimed at Kims water-buffalo-sized posterior.) These near-monologues are often gorgeous, but they can also be weirdly self-negating; in 'A' Train, they don't even always make sense. There is nothing abstract about them: Mr. Guirgis says that the play began in his own attempt to rescue a friend from the Unification Church. Jenkins, a born again Christian and cold blooded killer. Jesus Hopped was fairly well received by critics and though it did not pick up any major awards in its US run, it was nominated for an Olivier Award in the UK in the category of Best New Play in 2003. But as Lucius works his sociopathic charm on Angel, he begins to open up little by little. How An inmate at Rikers (ANGEL) struggles with his new circumstances as he tries to convince his fellow inmate (LUCIUS) to speak to him. One of the most striking things about Soulpepper's Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train is how multi-dimensional its main characters are. But after DAmico is canned for slipping Lucius contraband cookies, hes left without an audience. benchmade adamas exclusive; disney plus march 2022 releases; By Jesse Green. Backed up by wonderful performances all around especially McCarthy who does heart-breaking and detailed work as Mary Jane Jesus is the kind of tough, uncompromising theater that is as philosophically engaging as it is emotionally and theatrically. Anyone can read what you share. THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALL at New York Theatre Workshop, THE WALLS HAVE EARS at The Roxy Theatre Group, Gulfshore Playhouse 2023-24 Season at Gulfshore Playhouse, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey 2023 Season at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, WESTPORT COUNTRY PLAYHOUSE 2023 SEASON at Westport Country Playhouse. His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Monologues are presented on StageAgent for educational purposes only. It's a tight, well-paced and thoughtful staging . Although he takes responsibility for his actions, he still fears execution. Reverend Kim, a Lexus-driving cult leader who's sucked in Angel's childhood friend, Joey. **** Mary Jane (his lawyer): Well . Angel Cruz is a 30-year-old bicycle messenger awaiting trial for the death of the leader of a religious cult. His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Joey said, "Jesus hopped the A train to see us safe to bed." **** Mary Jane . Signature Theater; 294 seats; $65 top. JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN by Stephen Adly Guirgis . Reviews for Jesus Hopped the . But in the next cell to Angel is an articulate serial killer called Lucius who has found God and who tries . . A moment where things come into complete focus is a late monologue by a prison guard whose soft spot for Lucius cost him his job: with perfectly calibrated delivery, Gregory Prest delivers a . Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. But then, in a knife-edge final discussion before Lucius is sent to the electric chair, Angel extraordinarily finds that he too is turning towards the faith that he has so far shunned, thus jeopardising his own case against the born-agains. JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN - Equity video submissions Actor's Express Theatre Company | Atlanta, GA, Associate Artistic Director Amanda Washington. Thats a rare thing to find anywhere, let alone in smaller professional or community groups. Riverside Jacksonville News, But the guy dies, and the Angel is in solitary . DAmico - (30s/40s/Italian) He is a gentle and more calming guard at Rikers. Join StageAgent today and unlock amazing theatre resources and opportunities. Qty: Full Length, Drama 4 men, 1 woman Total Cast: 5, Flexible Set ISBN-13: 978--8222-1799-2. The two convicts talk about God and redemption, free-will, racism, addiction and the meaning of freedom. . GUIRGIS/Jesus Hopped the A Train/2001/Angel/Skiing in Aspen HERZOG/4000 Miles/2012/LEO/Chicken crash monologue . Lucius Jenkins is on appeal, trying to avoid the death penalty for the murder of eight people. Lucius. Dont be a God-fearing man, Valdez warns Lucius, be a Valdez-fearing man.. Its an aesthetic which is extremely Willis design are deceptively simple. Making moments memorable are flashbacks some characters share. David Zayas and Ron Cephas Jones in Jesus Hopped the A Train. View Jesus_Hopped_the_A_Train from THE 100 at CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College. But it also displays incendiary passion and insight into its troubled characters". He then mercilessly exploits that vulnerability by adding a contrasting pair of guards to the mix: one, named Charlie, a good-natured patsy; the other, Valdez, a by-the-rules sadist. The kind that seems so raw and dangerous, you almost feel like a creep for listening in but then anxiously wait for his return whenever he leaves the stage. Part Size: Lead. An . It allows Lucius' evangelism to soar and Hanrahan's monologues to gain an air of a courtroom. "[15] Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed a 2017 revival favorably, praising the "incisive characterizations and riveting dialogue". Describe the Night. J esus Hopped the 'A' Train occurs almost entirely within the one-hour-per-day periods when two Rikers Island prisonersAngel Cruz (Anthony Lam) and Lucius Jenkins (Bobby Bermea)get to . With some bravado, Angel insists that what he did was therefore only technically wrong. Rehearsals and performances held indoors at Actors Express. Joey said, "Jesus hopped the A train to see us safe to bed." A lot of what we hear from the lawyer is in the form of direct address, and these monologues lack the poetry (brute or not) of the rest. glass, to create the sense that characters might be talking to, arguing with, HB Studio. The monologue of Paravicini from The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie (comedy / murder mystery) Shakespeare Monologue (Performance Video) . Perhaps the most stirring monologue of the play comes from . A great feeling., Justin Steele and 6 Chicago Cubs relievers combine for the 1st spring training no-hitter in franchise history. The verbally fiery "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" is a bravura play: The dialogue can be ear-scaldingly profane, and the heaven-or-hell speeches soar like theological arias. Howie. Jesus Hopped The "A" Train. He has a great, effective monologue at the end about the death of Lucius that is sublime. The play is essentially a set of monologues stitched together at the edges, and showing signs of fraying. What about my victimization? But it also displays incendiary passion and insight into its. Lucius is awaiting extradition to Florida to take responsibility for the trail of bodies he left behind. Rabbit Hole. Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train begins and ends with the same image: a young prisoner, Angel, on his knees, praying in darkness. That is exactly where Mr. Guirgis, who won a 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Between Riverside and Crazy, wants us: in a confused crouch that renders us vulnerable to deeper questioning. A monologue from Jesus H. Angel's desperate desire for assurance and forgiveness make him, in a weird way, immediately lovable. Some movie actress, she got incested once or twice, she so brave to come forward! Those arguments are eternal, as the frequent biblical references suggest. If you dont have access to a reader, please present a monologue in the style of the show. The production team includes Ashley Sweet (stage management), David Sepulveda (set design), Jamie Burnett (lightening design), Tommy Rosati (sound design), Carol Koumbaros (costume design), Emiley Charley (ASM/Propmaster). Angel (John Ortiz) and Lucius (Ron Cephas Jones) are in lock-down, spending all but one hour a day in their cells. idea of performance. But youd be wrong. Plot synopsis. Jesus Hopped the A Train. We see Angel meeting with his lawyer, a tightly-wound public defender with personal walls as thick as the ones at Rikers. For tickets and information, call Ticket Central at 212 . . New York, NY, Ages 12-17: Camp Broadway Ensemble @ Carnegie Hall Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train closes October 15, 2017 Details and tickets -[/ezcol_1third] It's startling to watch Luciusa so-called man of Godinfluence Angel in a way akin to Rev. Then one day they get talking. New York, NY, Accessibility Statement Terms Privacy |StageAgent 2020. As his name implies, Angel wrestles with questions of faith, and those questions come pouring out from Lucius during their side-by-side exercise sessions in the prison's outdoor cages. Part investigation of our broken criminal justice system, part examination of the corruptive influence of Judeo-Christian morality, "Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train" is a promising start to Eclipse Theatre . . One has been serving his sentence for years, but his discovery of God helps him find joy in his days. Relying heavily on the attorney's direct address monologues, the entire subject seems to be one Guirgis feels the need to include, but never finds a way to integrate. Mirrors, not cages, provide the true path to justice and peace. Set inside Rikers Island, Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train follows Angel . Jesus beautifully toys with that idea, like in Mary Janes monologue about her alcoholic father. She makes the switch so effectively between coaching and monologue scenes that at first I thought she was two different actors. But his drive and dish make it possible. Much of it also seems unneeded and diverting. Late in Jesus Hopped the "A" Train, . The play takes place in a prison on Rikers Island in New York. 1 Benet in a sectional final. Kim's described affect on Joey, the friend Angel fought so hard to free from a cultish existence built by a false prophet. October 23, 2017. Lucius Jenkins has found God, and Angel's life and the course of his trial will be changed forever. On his first night at Rikers Island, a terrified inmate named Angel Cruz tries to reconstruct the Lords Prayer from his broken memories. The characters have nowhere to hide so it heightens the Ben Brantley reviews Labyrinth Theater Company production of Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, at East 13th Street Theater; photo (M) . We meet two guards. But Mark Brokaws staging on a simple set by Riccardo Hernandez, sensitively lit by Scott Zielinski, is otherwise evenhanded and clean, as if not wanting to leave any fingerprints. The critic wrote that there are "overwritten passages and reliance on expository monologues. This is an invite-only performance limited to the local area. In fact, that symmetry is present in almost every character. Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train reveals a young playwright's awkwardness with its overwritten passages and reliance on expository monologues. Playing Lucius Jenkins, a fellow inmate convicted of murdering eight people, Riggins delivers the kind of . Search the history of over 797 billion But Nieves' resonant performance negotiates the line between adolescence and adulthood, faith and nihilism and other boundaries that cage in Angel's soul as surely as the Rikers walls encase his body. When "Jesus Hopped The A Train" begins, you think it's going to be a story about Angel Cruz, a thirty-year-old Latino who winds up in prison after shooting a cult leader in a botched mission to rescue his brainwashed friend. The production received considerable acclaim from critics such as Ben Brantley of the New York Times and Michael Feingold of The Village Voice. The play runs about 15 minutes too long the second act has too much repetitive, screamed arguments and Guirgis has a habit of spelling his theses out a little too neatly. Isaac. Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train closes October 15, 2017 Details and tickets -[/ezcol_1third] It's startling to watch Luciusa so-called man of Godinfluence Angel in a way akin to Rev. All you can really hear is the thundering heartbeat of each man's fear. centres around Angel, who finds himself facing a murder charge after shooting a Sure, it tells a story of addiction and cyclical abuse a narrative we've grown to expect about those who go behind bars. AE is fully committed to diversity, inclusion and equal employment opportunity. Good cop is D'Amico (a warm and sturdy Robert Heinly), who exemplifies kind-hearted compassion. It allows Lucius evangelism to soar Jesus Hopped the A Train is a . Set in a US penitentiary - where Magda Willi's stage design could literally squeeze the life out of newly arrived prisoner Puerto Rican Angel Cruz - Kate Hewitt's production of Jesus Hopped The 'A' Train shines a new light on the religious debates that have come to define this critically acclaimed play.Angel is brought to Rikers Island pending a court case for shooting Rev Kim, a . web pages [4][5][6] The original cast included Salvatore Inzerillo, John Ortiz, and David Zayas, Ron Cephas Jones, and Elizabeth Canavan.[4]. Equity actors for roles in JESUS HOPPED THE A TRAIN by Stephen Adly Guirgis. Opened Oct. 23, 2017. Whilst Angel Cruz (Ukweli Roach) is locked up in prison for a murder accusation after he . Visceral Adventure . The legal procedural in the play Angel Cruz is a young Puerto Rican man incarcerated for shooting a cult leader after said person "stole" his best friend. Inside Rikers Island, a terrified Angel is befriended by a charismatic serial . 4. God Is The Giver, And Sustainer Of Life Verse, Nor does Angel, at least initially. Lucius has found God and been born again, and now, Angel's life and the course of his trial will be changed forever. Lucius is also a serial killer, a self-described paranoid schizophrenic who employs his charms on . Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis It starred Edi Gathegi, Sean Carvajal, Ricardo Chavira, Stephanie DiMaggio, and Erick Betancourt. But when performed, as it is here, by a cast that can recreate its rapture as well as its moral gravity, it achieves the doubleness of great art, burrowing deeper the higher it flies. , albeit in separate chain-link cages. . Aside from that hilarious and heartbreaking first sentence, theres not much I can quote from Stephen Adly Guirgiss Jesus Hopped the A Train, which opened on Monday in a riveting revival by the Signature Theater. Synopsis Jesus Hopped the A Train tells the story of several inmates of Rikers Prison who are awaiting charges for murder. Aint no disease a addiction for me, its free will.. Collective Consciousness Theatres Jesus Hopped The A Train by Stephen Adly Guirgis runs through November 11 at Erector Square (319 Peck Street, Building 6S) in New Haven, CT. Jesus, directed by Dexter J. Singleton and produced by Jenny Nelson, stars Jhulenty Delossantos (Angel), Rob Giardian (DAmico), Jason Hall (Valdez), Bridget McCarthy (Mary Jane Hanrahan) & Terrence Riggins (Lucius).