By Elfriede Jelinek
Directed by Tea Alagic
Translated by Gitta Honegger
LORTEL AWARD NOMINATIONS:
OUTSTANDING SOLO SHOW
OUTSTANDING SOUND DESIGN JANE SHAW
From the controversial pen of Elfriede Jelinek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature, flows the solo play JACKIE, an intensely theatrical dissection of Jackie Kennedy Onassis and the myths surrounding her well-coiffed veneer. Like Jelinek’s acclaimed novel The Piano Teacher, the film of which won the 2001 Grand Prix at Cannes Film Festival, JACKIE is a disturbing exploration of submission, power, and the hypocrisy of everyday life.
“Tina Benko is HILARIOUS, INSPIRED & FABULOUS! The writing is BEAUTIFUL & PROFOUND.” – The New Yorker
“A MAGNIFICENT PERFORMANCE. Irreverent, sharp-eyed imagining of the former first lady. Witty and haunting.” – Associated Press
“Bold and arresting premiere! Jackie…seductively incarnated by a fearless Tina Benko” – Time Out, NY
“Dark delights in Camelot! MESMERIZING…Tina Benko is magnetic.” – New York Post
“Myth-mauling and jagged-edged Jackie, played with sly wit and laser focus by Tina Benko” – NY Daily News
(Playwright) who was born in 1946 and grew up in Vienna, now lives in Vienna and Munich. She has received numerous awards for her literary works, which include not only novels but also plays, poetry, essays, translations, radio plays, screenplays and opera librettos. Her awards include the Georg Büchner Prize and the Franz Kafka Prize for Literature. In 2004 she was awarded with the Nobel Prize for Literature. Click here for a recent and rare interview with Elfriede Jelinek.
(Translator) is professor of theatre at the Arizona State University. For ten years she was resident dramaturg at the Yale Repertory Theatre, where she also directed, and a professor of dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama. She was an early member of the Women’s Project. In addition to Jackie, Honegger has translated Elfriede Jelinek’s recent performance texts Rechnitz and The Merchant’s Contracts, which will be published in the spring 2013 by Seagull Press, Totenauberg (Death/Valley/Mountain), Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Currently, she is finishing her translation of Jelinek’s opus magnum, the 666 page novel “The Children of the Dead” and a biography of Helene Weigel: “Frau Brecht,” for which she received a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is the author of the biography “Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian” and the translator of plays by Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, Marieluise Fleisser Elias Canetti, among others.
(Director) is an alumna of the WP Lab and previously directed Saviana Stanescu’s Aliens With Extraordinary Skills at Women’s Project. Recent work includes: Man Of La Mancha (Burning Coal Theatre Company, Raleigh), Lidless by Frances Ya –Chu Cowhig (Walkerspace, Page 73,NYC), Waking Up by Cori Thomas (EST, NYC); Anonymous by Naomi Iizuka (Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque); The Marriage Of Maria Braun by Rainer Werner Fassbinder (ZKM, Croatia); Binibon by Jack Womack and Elliot Sharp (The Kitchen, NYC); and Events with Life’s Leftovers by Alberto Villarreal Diaz (Dramafest, Mexico City). She directed the world premiere of The Brothers Size by Tarell McCraney at The Public Theater, NYC, and later productions at The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, and The Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Ms. Alagic holds a BFA in acting from The Charles University in Prague and an MFA in directing from Yale School of Drama. “Director Tea Alagic, who debuted Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size, knows how to invest even ordinary speech with the force of ritual” – Village Voice. Visit www.TeaAlagic.com.
(Jackie) recently played the title role in Toni Morrison’s play Desdemona directed by Peter Sellars at the Barbican Theatre in London. Other theatre credits include Katori Hall’s Whaddaboodclot!! at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Little Foxes and Restoration at New York Theatre Workshop, Marie and Bruce at The New Group, Age of Iron and The False Servant at Classic Stage Company, Ten High at EST, and Rough Sketch at 59 East 59. TV and film includes Admission, The Contest, The Avengers, Lucky Days, Photo-Op, Royal Pains, Unforgettable, and three seasons on the Showtime series Brotherhood.
(Scenic Design) At Women’s Project Theater: Sheila Callaghan’s Lascivious Something. Recent Theater: Red Dog Howls (New York Theater Workshop); Habit, by David Levine (PS122/FIAF at Essex Street Market, Luminato Fesitval, Mass MOCA); Our Class, (Wilma Theater); Er nichts als er (zu mit Robert Walser), Jelinek (Meetfactory, Prague); Map of Virtue, 13P @ NYTW; Blue Flower (American Repertory Theater, Elliot Norton Design Award). Telephone (Foundry Theater) Kafeneion (Athens/Epidaurus Festival). Recent Opera: Powder Her Face, by Thomas Ades (New York City Opera at BAM); Phaeton, Saarlandisches Staatstheater, Saarbruecken; Ariadne Auf Naxos, Opera National de Bordeaux; Methusalem Project, Nationaltheater Weimar; Proserpina, Wolfgang Rihm (Spoleto Festival USA) Grants: NEA/TCG Career Design Fellowship; MacDowell Colony Fellowships; Watermill Center Residencies; Ed: MFA NYU Tisch, Visual Arts at Whitney Independent Study Program; BFA Cooper Union. Upcoming: Smokefall, (South Coast Rep); Nikolai and the Others, Mitzi Newhouse, LCT; Somewhere Fun, (Vineyard Theater).
(Costume Design) [Broadway] Wicked (Tony, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama Desk awards and Olivier nom), Annie, Road to Mecca, Spring Awakening (Tony nom), Radio Golf, Lestat (Tony nom), Assassins, Into the Woods (Tony and Drama Desk noms; Hewes Award), Wonderland. [Off Broadway] If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet, Jitney, Conversations in Tusculum. [Regional] Manon (LA Opera). [International] Manon (Berlin Staatsoper). [Awards] Obie (Sustained Excellence in Design), Ruth Morley Design Award (League of Professional Theatre Women). [Education] Chair, Department of Design for Stage and Film, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.
(Lighting Design) At Women’s Project Theater: How The World Began and Freshwater. As a SITI Company member and has designed lighting for Cafe Variations (Emerson College, Boston), Trojan Women (Getty Villa), American Document (Martha Graham company), Under Construction, WhoDoYouThinkYouAre, Hotel Cassioepia, Death and the Ploughman, bobrauschenbergamerica (Henry Hewes Design Award 2004), War of the Worlds Radio Play. He is currently working on designinglight for Ann Hamilton: The Event of a Thread (Park Avenue Armory). Recently he designedlighting or Death Tax (Actors Theatre Louisville), Dead Man’s Cellphone (Playwright’s Horizon), The Importance of Being Earnest (Arena Stage). As a member of Austin based Rude Mechanicals, he has designed numerous productions including Method Gun, Now Now Oh Now, I’ve Never Been So Happy, How Late It Was How Late, Lipstick Traces, Requium for Tesla, and Matchplay.
(Composer, Sound Design) At Women’s Project Theater: Crooked and Wapato. Recent productions include: Food and Fadwa and Red Dog Howls (New York Theater Workshop), Breath and Imagination (Hartford Stage), Katie Roche (Mint), Figaro (Pearl),The Catch (Denver Center, Henry Award), In the Next Room…or the vibrator play (Cleveland Playhouse), Red (Maltz Jupiter, Asolo Rep), En el tiempo de las mariposas (Premios Ace 2012 award, Repertorio Español), and co-composed Murakami’s Windup Bird with Bora Yoon, Edinburgh International Festival. Regional: City Theater (Pittsburgh), Yale Repertory, Williamstown Theater Festival, Dorset Theater Festival, Merrimack Repertory Theatre. Recipient: NEA-TCG Career Development Grant, Meet the Composer, Bessie (2010, Big Dance Theater), Lortel nomination (Mint). Graduate: Harvard, Yale School of Drama.
JACKIE with Tina Benko
Photo by Carol Rosegg
JACKIE with Tina Benko
Photo by Carol Rosegg
JACKIE with Tina Benko
Photo by Carol Rosegg
JACKIE with Tina Benko
Photo by Carol Rosegg
JACKIE with Tina Benko
Photo by Carol Rosegg
