Event

PLAYING HOT

Created by Kevin Armento & Jaki Bradley

Written by Kevin Armento
Directed by Jaki Bradley
Music Arrangements by James Williams & Marcus Miller
Featuring Alphonso Horne of Sammy Miller and the Congregation and Marcus Miller

CAST: Josh Bonzie, Fernando Contreras*, Lindsley Howard, Dante Jeanfelix, Roi King, Emma Meltzer, Cristina Pitter

This Memorial Day, an old favorite is comin on back. Join us for a one-day-only jazz-concert-picnic-reading of Jaki Bradley and Kevin Armentos PLAYING HOT.

Set within a brassy dance hall, PLAYING HOT deconstructs the incredible story of the birth of jazz in New Orleans. Retracing the rise and fall of Buddy Bolden, the little-known trumpeter who pioneered the radical sound that would become Americas Art Form, the show is neither biography nor period piece, neither play nor musical, but an explosive and innovative theatrical event in the style of jazz. With the help of a live brass band, Buddys legend and infectious songs are conjured to life, riffing on history and pop culture the same way his music riffed on the notes on the page.

Almost exactly one year ago, we presented a one-night only party version of the show, and this Memorial Day were bringing you a concert reading at the abandoned St. Luke's Church in Clinton Hill. Join us at 2PM, bring that picnic blanket and basket along with you. This is a community event, presented to the public free of charge.

*Pipeline Ensemble Member

PLAYING HOT is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC).

PLAYING HOT received developmental support as part of the 2016 Artist Residency Program of The Drama League of New York (Roger T. Danforth, Artistic Director, Gabriel Shanks, Executive Director, funded in part by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust), from Pipeline Theatre Company (Artistic Director, Ari Schrier; Producing Director, Natalie Gershtein) and through The Habitat Theater Companys Directors Playground. PLAYING HOT was the recipient of a 2015 Jerome Travel and Study Grant.