Tonight they're going to party like it's 1989.
Poetic Theater Productions presents Mickey Bolmer's Back, a play that celebrates and mourns the history of New York's Greenwich Village through the lives and stories of the neighborhood's most notable artistic denizens, including Nan Goldin, Frank O'Hara, Hibiscus, George Platt Lynes, and Cookie Mueller. Mueller, a writer, actress, and muse of filmmaker John Waters, died from AIDS-related causes in 1989 at the age of 40.
"Set amidst the backdrop of a Greenwich Village gay club on Halloween 1989, the village partygoers take on the personas of past friends and lovers, many of whom lost their lives to AIDS," read press notes about the off-off-Broadway production. "In her final days of life, Cookie Mueller makes a final journey to Varick Street to find her friends, or possibly to stop time, or perhaps to explore her history, or maybe just to dream. Everyone is invited to the tragedy party as Mickey Bolmer's rich poetic language takes us Back into a world of love, loss, creation, and possibility."
Directed by Andrew Willis-Woodward with production design by Rachel Klein, the world premiere ofBack officially opens tonight and runs through October 31 at the cell, where "audience members are invited to attend in period appropriate attire to celebrate an evening of vogue, sexuality, history, and experimentation."
The cast includes Xandra Clark, Mateo d'Amato, Tamara Geisler, Matthew Lynch, Felix J. Mayes, Olivia Nice, Bello Pizzimenti, and Adam Wennick.
For tickets and more information visit PoeticTheater.com.
Matthew Dalton Lynch and Olivia Nice
Xandra Clark, Bello Pizzimenti, Mateo d'Amato, and Adam Wennick
Tamara Geisler, Bello Pizzimenti, and Matthew Dalton Lynch
Tamara Geisler
Adam Wennick
See more Back production photos on the next page.
Tamara Geisler, Xandra Clark, Olivia Nice, and Mateo d'Amato
Felix J. Mayes and Bello Pizzimenti
Felix J. Mayes, Adam Wennick, Tamara Geisler, and Xandra Clark
Matthew Dalton Lynch, Xandra Clark, Bello Pizzimenti, Tamara Geisler, Felix J. Mayes, and Olivia Nice
Olivia Nice and Matthew Dalton Lynch
Read about more LGBT-inclusive New York theater here.
