Black Sea Follies
- Written by Paul Schmidt
- Directed by Stanley Silverman
Paul Schmidt was a playwright, translator and libbretist. After studying at Colgate University and Harvard University, he was drafted and served in the U.S. Army Intelligence for two years. After his service, he began his career as a translator. He has translated the works of Anton Chekhov, Bertolt Brecht, and Euripedes, among others. After gaining recognition for his translations, he went on to write in a variety of forms, from poetry to essays to plays. He also wrote a libretto for an opera based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Schmidt passed away in 1999 at the age of 65 due to complications from AIDS.
Stanley Silverman is an award-winning American composer, who has enjoyed several decades in both the classical and popular music worlds, as well as in theater and film.
He has collaborated with well-known pop artists and musicians, such as James Taylor, Paul Simon, Sting, Elton John, and the British rock band Procol Harum. His classical compositions have been performed by Pierre Boulezand the New York Philharmonic, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, Richard Stolzman, Michael Tilson Thomas, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
As a winner of the Obie, Drama Desk, Naumburg, and Koussevitsky Foundation Awards, and both a Tony andGrammy Award Nominee, Silverman worked both On and Off-Broadway with stage luminaries including playwrights Richard Foreman, Arthur Miller, Anthony Burgess, and directors Mike Nichols, Arthur Penn, Michael Langham and Dan Sullivan. Broadway Credits Include, Ah, Wilderness! (1998), The Capeman (1998), Uncle Vanya (1995), The Government Inspector (1994) Timon of Athens (1993), Othello (1982), The Little Foxes (1981), Bent (1979), Stages (1978), Galileo(1967), The Alchemist (1966), and the 1976 Joseph Papp and Lincoln Center revival of Three Penny Opera (starring Raul Julia, directed by Richard Foreman). Off-broadway credits include, The Merry Wives of Windsor (1994), Black Sea Follies (1986), The Golem (1984), Up from Paradise (1983), Coriolanus (1979), Julius Caesar (1979), Dr. Selavy's Magic Theatre (1972), and Ten Nights in a Baroom (1962). Not limited to the stage, Stanley Silverman's film scores include, Nanook of the North (1975), Simon (1979),Eyewitness (1981) and I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can (1982).
Twice commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and a receiver of two Guggenheim Fellowships, Stanley Silverman is also the winner of several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
Silverman's compositions have been featured at international festivals such as the Autumn Festival of Paris and Madrid, theStratford Festival of Canada, the RSC, the Royal Exchange, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, and the Delphi Festival of Greece.
In 2004, Stanley Silverman was honored by the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education, where he served as a founding board member for over three decades.
Featuring
David Chandler
David Dusing
Robert Osbome
Carmen Pelton
Alan Scarfe
Henry Stram
Playwrights Horizons: To Peter Pan on her 70th Birthday, Doris to Darlene, Black Sea Follies. Broadway: Death of a Salesman, Lost in Yonkers, American Clock. Off-Broadway: Underneath the Lintel, Slavs!, The Swan, Cellini, Private Jokes and Public Places, Phaedra, Watbanaland, The Peninsula. Regional: Berkeley Rep, Williamstown, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Guthrie Theater, McCarter, Actors Theatre of Louisville, etc. Film: The Grey Zone, The Undeserved, Hide and Seek. TV: “Death of a Salesman,” “Seinfeld,” “Third Rock from the Sun,” “Law & Order.”
Playwrights Horizons: Black Sea Follies, Jack’s Holiday. Broadway: Inherit the Wind, The Crucible, Titanic. Other Off-Broadway: Antony and Cleopatra, The Illusion, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, See What I Wanna See, Unwrap Your Candy, The Winter’s Tale, Waste, Timon of Athens, Henry V, The Grey Zone, Troilus and Cressida, On the Open Road, A Bright Room Called Day, The Cradle Will Rock, King Lear, Mother Courage and Her Children. 1996 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Performance.
Creative Team
James Noone
Scenic DesignerJim Buff
Costume DesignerKen Tabachnick
Lighting DesignerRoy Harris
Production Stage ManagerPhoto by Clemens Kalischer