Magis Theatre Company Reschedules Production of THE ALCESTIAD to June 2021

The Magis Theatre Company will postpone their previously announced production of Thornton Wilder's The Alcestiad- A play in three acts with a satyr play: The Drunken Sisters. Originally scheduled to run this June, it will be presented next June 2021 (exact dates TBA). The production will still take place outdoors at Roosevelt Island's Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline, The United Nations, and the ruins of the Smallpox Hospital Roosevelt Island in New York City.

Magis' original opening date of June 20 reflects the story's taking place at the time of the solstice, However, with the State and City's directives canceling public performances in parks for the month of June, we will wait until next summer. In the meantime a new, interactive website will be launched on June 20 that will explore the world of Thornton Wilder's The Alcestaid. For updates on this production and more information, please visit www.MagisTheatre.org

"Although we are disappointed to have to postpone this timely production, the safety of our performers and patrons is our utmost priority and we look to the industry's standards to ensure everyone's safe return to theatre." Magis Theatre, director George Drance.

Magis Theatre seeks out neglected works of the past that still have something important to say to us in our present. "The Alcestiad" is one of those pieces and was brought to Magis Theatre's attention by Irene Worth in 1997. In a world where individualism and greed have been driving forces in recent years, this work of Thornton Wilder celebrates the beauty of making sacrifices for the good of others and how this kind of courageous self-giving can transform society. Alcestis learning through her pain to overcome it by understanding is a theme that is crucial for us today.

One of America's most lauded playwrights, Thorton Wilder's rarely performed play, The Alcestiad premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 1955, directed by Tyrone Guthrie and is inspired by Euripides Greek tragedy Alcestis. Wilder's third-act imagines a world after Alcestis returns from the land of the dead, her kingdom is overthrown by a tyrant and is ravaged by a plague. The play deals with the power of irrational fear in society at the hands of those who would seek to intimidate others brutally as well as askes questions about the meaning of human life and its' relationship to the divine.

Thornton Wilder said of The Alcestiad, "On one level, my play recounts the life of a woman-of many women-from bewildered bride to sorely tested wife to overburdened old age. On another level, it is a wildly romantic story of gods and men, of death and hell and resurrection, of great loves and great trials, of usurpation and revenge. On another level, however, it is a comedy about a very serious matter."