Alfred Preisser
Encyclopedia
Career
Preisser is the founder and artistic director of APPI, a New York-based theatrical production company that creates dance, music and theater pieces with universal themes and aggressive interpretations of classics. He is a visiting artist and professor of theatre and directing at City College of New YorkCity College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
(CCNY), and is working with Professor Eugene Nesmith, Associate Professor, and Chair in the Department of Theater at CCNY, to create CityArts Theatre (CAT), a professional summer theatre company for the school. He is directing Jeff Cohen
Jeff Cohen
Jeffrey Bertan Cohen, JD is an American attorney and the founding partner of Cohen & Gardner LLP. In his youth, he was a child actor best remembered for appearing as Chunk in the 1985 Steven Spielberg production The Goonies....
's new play The Man Who Ate Michael Rockefeller, based on the short story by Christopher Stokes, which has its world premiere in an Off Broadway production at the West End Theatre in New York this Fall.
Preisser was the founding artistic director of The Classical Theatre of Harlem
Classical Theatre of Harlem
The Classical Theatre of Harlem is a professional theatre company founded in 1999 at the Harlem School for the Arts. CTH is the only year round theatre company operating on an AEA LORT contract in Harlem, and presents a world repertory ranging from Euripides to Derek Walcott...
from 1999–2009, and the director of the Theatre Division at The Harlem School of the Arts
The Harlem School of the Arts
The Harlem School of the Arts is a school in Harlem, New York. It was founded in 1964 by the soprano Dorothy Maynor, and offers its programs to students of all ages. Mezzo-soprano Betty Allen succeeded Maynor as director in 1979. Other directors include Camille Akeju, Kakuna Karina and DeeDee...
from 1999-2007.
Plays by Preisser include ARCHBISHOP SUPREME TARTUFFE and Caligula Maximus, both co-written with Randy Weiner
Randy Weiner
Randy Weiner is an American playwright, producer and theater/nightclub owner. Weiner co-wrote the Off-Broadway musical The Donkey Show and, as one-third of EMURSIVE, produced the Drama Desk Award winning New York premiere of Punchdrunk's Sleep No More...
, Electra, BLACK NATIVITY NOW, co-written with Tracy Jack
Tracy Jack
- Notable Voice Roles :* - Goodie- Theater Credits/Choreographer :* Caligula Maximus* Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory* Day of Absence* Best of Both Worlds* Hip-Hop Monologues: Inside the Life and Mind of Jime Jones...
, Dialogues of Plato's Retreat and Blak Athena.
Award-winning and notable Preisser productions include his 2009 production of ARCHIBISHOP SUPREME TARTUFFE starring André De Shields (four Audelcos); Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin "Block" Van Peebles is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer.He is most famous for creating the acclaimed film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which heralded a new era of African American focused films...
´ Ain´t Supposed To Die a Natural Death
Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death
Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Melvin Van Peebles. The musical contains some material also on three of Van Peebles' albums, Br'er Soul, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack, some of which were yet to come...
(seven Audelcos); his 2006 production of King Lear with André De Shields which opened the 75th Anniversary season at The Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C; and his critically acclaimed original adaptations of Caligula,Medea, The Trojan Women and Electra. Other productions in New York include Macbeth, which toured Germany in 2004, Hamlet, Day of Absence, Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott
Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
’s Dream on Monkey Mountain, and Romeo and Juliet.
Preisser's theatrical productions have been recognized with the American Theatre Wing Award (Outstanding Artistic Achievement), Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
(Artistic Achievement), Edwin Booth Award] (Outstanding Contribution to NYC Theater), Lucille Lortel Award (Outstanding Body of Work), two Obie Awards (Sustained Achievement and Excellence in Theatre) and numerous Audelco Awards.
Projects in the works
Preisser and co-writer Randy WeinerRandy Weiner
Randy Weiner is an American playwright, producer and theater/nightclub owner. Weiner co-wrote the Off-Broadway musical The Donkey Show and, as one-third of EMURSIVE, produced the Drama Desk Award winning New York premiere of Punchdrunk's Sleep No More...
's Caligula Maximus, an outrageous theatrical extravaganza, combining elements of a circus, a play with music, and a nightclub installation, was helmed by Preisser in the Spring of 2010 at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre, had a twice extended run, and is in development for a commercial run this Fall. Preisser and Tracy Jack’s annual Christmas dance-concert BLACK NATIVITY NOW at Theatre at St. Clements, opens December 2010; and in 2011, Preisser will present a multi-city tour of Ain´t Supposed To Die a Natural Death
Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death
Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Melvin Van Peebles. The musical contains some material also on three of Van Peebles' albums, Br'er Soul, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack, some of which were yet to come...
by Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin Van Peebles
Melvin "Block" Van Peebles is an American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, novelist and composer.He is most famous for creating the acclaimed film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, which heralded a new era of African American focused films...
, to mark the 40th Anniversary of that seminal American spoken word musical.
External links
Penketh, Tom. With Caligula, Alfred Preisser Offers a Pleasurable Mess, Backstage.com, March 19, 2010.
Tallmer, Jerry.
- your Camus’ ‘Caligula’ La MaMa delivers ‘cockeyed daredevil history lesson, The Villager, March 3–9, 2010.