Featured here are some beautiful rehearsal photographs of THE UGLY ONE cast, as well as director Daniel Aukin. The photographer is Jon Carr. Also populating these black-and-white beauties are the staff of The Play Company and Soho Rep. We are excited to share these with you. Enjoy the show!

Learn more about THE UGLY ONE from the marvelous cast who are in it! In this video – shot by our co-producers The Play Company – each cast members speaks a bit about the play. We hope it will serve as a delectable taster to what should be a wonderfully twisty farce.

The cast for this Daniel Aukin directed piece is Alfredo Narciso, Andrew Garman, Lisa Joyce and Steve Boyer.

We are extremely happy to announce our new book celebrating thirty-five years of theater-making has been published today.

The book is made up of a complete list of all plays Soho Rep has produced; a collection of amazing essays by previous artists, friends of the theater and others who have done significant work here; and the play text to David Adjmi’s ELECTIVE AFFINITIES. Contributors include actor Kathleen Turner, composer Michael John LaChiusa, playwright Will Eno, actor Marin Ireland and playwrights Quincy Long and Len Jenkin, to name but a few. The book looks super spiffy and we hope you like it as much as we do. BUY OUR BOOK HERE.

Now available for pre-order. THE UGLY ONE book will ship after February 1, 2012.

Lette thought he was normal. When the extent of his ugliness is revealed he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. But after the bandages come off, Lette soon learns that there is such a thing as too beautiful.

“Owing glancing debts to Mary Shelley and HG Wells, Mayenburg’s 60-minute play squarely hits any number of targets: our society’s obsession with external beauty, the brutality of capitalism, and the danger of treating defining organs like mechanical parts. But, deftly translated from German by Maja Zade, the play makes its points with the lightest of touches.” - The Guardian

The Ugly One is a scalpel-sharp comedy on beauty, identity and getting ahead in life.

The play had its English-language premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 13 September 2007.

This is the Soho Rep edition of the text.

Special Sunday performances are just 99¢!

Soho Rep is thrilled to offer 99¢ Sundays to make our shows accessible to the widest audiences possible.  We welcome anyone and everyone, no matter if it’s your first time to Soho Rep or your 20th time!

Here’s how it works:

• 99¢ tickets are only available at the door on the day of the performance
• A line will form outside the theatre doors as early as one hour before curtain
• Tickets will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning a half hour before curtain
• Please use the honor system when forming and waiting on line (you are not able to save a space for friends)
• Limit of 2 tickets per person
• Cash only please

Enjoy the show!

99¢ Sunday performances for THE UGLY ONE will be February 12, 19 & 26
99¢ Sunday performances for UNCLE VANYA will be June 10 & 24

Marius von Mayenburg’s play brings together notions of individualism versus conformity, beauty and capitalism, self-improvement and the group mentality. We delve into these topics with great gusto and detail. All events are free and open to the public and begin immediately after the evening performances.

Saturday February 4th, 2012: Marius von Mayenburg in conversation (after the matinee performance)
The playwright in conversation with Dr. Frank Hentschker (City University of New York, Martin E. Segal Theater Center)

Friday February 17, 2012: Creative Team Talk
Join members of THE UGLY ONE Creative Team as they discuss the production. Moderated by Soho Rep’s Literary & Humanities Manager Raphael Martin.

Saturday February 18, 2012: The World of Self-Betterment
Why do we in America feel an obsessive desire to better ourselves with therapy, pills, surgery and positive thinking? Join Harvard professor Nancy Etcoff (author of the book Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty) as she examines this issue and more.

Thursday February 23, 2012: The Economy of Beauty
Is Beauty spurred by Capitalism? What is the role of  big-business, the magazine industry and popular concensus in defining what is beautiful? Join a conversation lead by University of Rochester and Slate magazine economist Steven Landsburg (author of the book The Armchair Economist) and featuring Boston University sociology professor and former runway model Ashley Mears (author of the book Pricing Beauty).

Our book is made up of a complete list of all plays Soho Rep has produced; a collection of amazing essays by previous artists, friends of the theater and others who have done significant work here; as well as the play text to David Adjmi’s ELECTIVE AFFINITIES. Contributors include actor Kathleen Turner, composer Michael John LaChiusa, playwright Will Eno, actor Marin Ireland and playwrights Quincy Long and Len Jenkin, to name but a few. Edited by Literary & Humanities Manager Raphael Martin. A fitting tribute to New York City’s “big small theater”.

Our final FEED event in conjunction with ELECTIVE AFFINITIES explored the “idea of the Upper East Side”. What outside and inside influences would make Alice Hauptmann? FEED brings together a fascinating duo of guests: Justin Davidson, Architecture and Classical Music Critic for New York magazine and Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City, considered by many to be the quintessential New York novel of the 1980s.

Each author has written a seminal article that we used as a jumping-off point: McInereney’s article The Death (of the Idea) of The Upper East Side and Davidson’s article The New York Apartment: A Biography.

BIOGRAPHIES

JUSTIN DAVIDSON is the architecture and classical music critic of New York Magazine. Previously, Davidson was the classical music and architecture critic at Newsday for more than a decade, during which time he won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize in criticism for work published in the newspaper. Since 1994, he has been a freelance writer, contributing to The New Yorker, Salon, Slate, Los Angeles Times, Opera News, Icon, ART and Travel & Leisure, among other publications. He has appeared on WNYC’s “Soundcheck” and “Brian Lehrer Show” and contributes a monthly music column to the subscription-based Web site, E-music. Davidson received a Doctorate from Columbia University in Music Composition and a Bachelor’s from Harvard University, and has taught Humanities courses at Columbia and writing workshops in an NEA-sponsored fellowship program for professional arts journalists.

 SARA FISHKO (Moderator) is a native New Yorker whose radio features –“Fishko Files”—are a staple of cultural programming at WNYC, New York Public Radio. She was producer and host of the “Jazz Loft Project Radio Series” for WNYC and NPR. Fishko is known, as well, for her hour-long programs with the likes of Keith Jarrett, Dave Brubeck and Henry Butler. Her award-winning work has been heard on many of Public Radio’s signature programs including “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” Studio 360,” “On The Media” and “Performance Today.”

 JAY McINERNEY is the critically acclaimed author of ten books – eight of which are works of fiction. Time Magazine cited his first bestselling novel, Bright Lights, Big City (1984), as one of nine generation-defining novels of the twentieth century. Translated into more than 20 languages it has irrefutably achieved the status of a contemporary classic. “Each generation needs its Manhattan novel, and many ache to write it” noted the New York Times Book Review, “but it was McInerney who succeeded”. His other novels are Ransom (1985), Story of My Life (1988), Brightness Falls (1992), The Last of the Savages (1996), Model Behavior (1999) and The Good Life (2006). Described as “McInerney’s most fully imagined novel as it is his most ambitious and elegiac” by The New York Review of Books, McInerney’s most recent novel The Good Life also received the Grand Prix Literaire at the Deauville Film Festival in 2007. How It Ended (2009), a collection of short stories spanning his entire career, was named one of the 10 best books of the year by The New York Times. McInerney has written for numerous literary and popular publications including New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Guardian, Corriera della Serra, The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Review of Books. Since April 2010 he has written a wine column for the Wall Street Journal.  From 1996 to 2007 he wrote a monthly wine column for Conde Nast’s House and Garden. Many of those columns were collected in Bacchus and Me (2000) and A Hedonist in the Cellar (2006). In 2006 McInerney won the James Beard MFK Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing for his food and wine work. Again, successfully straddling genres, McInerney wrote the screenplay for the critically acclaimed film Gia for which Angelina Jolie won a Golden Globe and which launched her acting career. He also wrote the1988 United Artists film version of his novel, Bright Lights, Big City, which starred Michael J. Fox. Josh Schwartz, creator of Gossip Girl and the OC has optioned the rights for a contemporary remake of Bright Lights, Big City, which is currently in development. A quintessential New York voice and persona (and in the spirit George Plimpton), McInerney has performed in two cameos on the television show, Gossip Girl (2010 and 2011). Favorably comparing his work to that of F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger, The New York Times describes it as the “voice of a generation.” In 1989 McInerney was named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library. McInerney is the father of two children, Barrett and Maisie, and is married to Anne Randolph Hearst. He divides his time between Bridgehampton, New York and New York City.

The third FEED post-show chat in our series for ELECTIVE AFFINITIES was a Creative Team Talk with director Sarah Benson and designer Louisa Thompson. Benson and Thompson have a long working relationship and this play exposed that relationship to even more theatrical challenges due to the site-specific nature of the event. The chat was moderated by Raphael Martin, Soho Rep’s Literary & Humanities Manager.

BIOGRAPHIES

Sarah Benson has been the Artistic Director of Soho Rep since 2007. New York credits include: Gregory Moss’ Orange, Hat & Grace (Soho Rep; world premiere); Polly Stenham’s That Face (Manhattan Theatre Club; American Premiere); Sarah Kane’s Blasted (Soho Rep; NY Premiere) for which Benson received a Drama Desk nomination and OBIE award. She recently directed the world premiere of Gregory Moss’ House of Gold (Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC) and Sophocles’ Ajax (A.R.T. in Boston). She has also worked on new plays at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, New York Stage & Film, and New Dramatists.  Upcoming: Futurity (a new musical with The Lisps at A.R.T. and Walker Center) and the world premiere of Richard Maxwell’s Samara (Soho Rep). At Soho Rep, Benson has commissioned and produced work by artists including Annie Baker, Dan LeFranc, Thomas Bradshaw, Cynthia Hopkins, Jomama Jones, Young Jean Lee, John Jesurun, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma and Anne Washburn.  This work has been recognized with six OBIE awards, four Drama Desk nominations, and The New York Times Outstanding Playwriting Award. Benson moved to New York from London on a Fulbright for Theatre Direction. She has served as a mentor in the directing programs at Yale University and NYU.

LOUISA THOMPSON Off-Broadway credits include: This, Manic Flight Reaction (Playwright’s Horizons); Fat Pig, The Distance from Here (MCC Theatre); The Roaring Girle, (The Foundry Theatre Company).  Other New York credits include: GATZ (Elevator Repair Service/The Public Theatre); Blasted (Obie and Hewes Award), [sic] (Obie and Hewes Awards), Suitcase, Molly’s Dream, The Year of the Baby (Soho Repertory Theatre); The Cherry Orchard (SALT Theatre); Tulpa (Target Margin Theatre); Max and Ruby, Walk Two Moons, First in Flight, Just so Stories (Theatreworks/USA); Arabian Night, Tex Arcana Waltz, No. 11 Blue and White (The Play Company).  Regional Credits: Arden Theatre; Bard Summerscape, The McCarter Theatre, The Papermill Playhouse, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, La Jolla Playhouse; The Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis; Philadelphia Theatre Company; Geva Theatre; Triad Stage; The Empty Space Theatre; Yale Repertory Theatre; The Juilliard School.  M.F.A. from Yale School of Drama. Associate Professor at Hunter College New York.

FEED now presents the second second post-show that occurred during our production of ELECTIVE AFFINITIES. In this half-hour, the issue and idea of “monumental art” was interrogated. This subject was looked at through the lens of Adjmi’s play and the fact that the play itself focuses on one particularly grotesque large sculpture called “das ding”.

The panel was made up of two fascinating artists; Zane Wilson, the fabricator of “das ding” for ELECTIVE AFFINITIES, as well as the artist Mika Tajima who has been featured in the most recent Whitney biennial. The moderator for the evening was New Museum Curator Gary Carrion-Murayari.

BIOGRAPHIES

GARY CARRION-MURAYARI (Moderator)

Since December 2010, Gary Carrion-Murayari has held the position of Associate Curator at the New Museum. In the past year he has curated the exhibitions “Spartacus Chetwynd:  Home Made Tasers,” “David Medalla: Cloud Canyon,” and “Elizabeth Price: Choir.”  He has been the editor of the New Museum publications Gustav Metzger: Historic Photographs, Apichatpong Weerasethakul: Primitive, and Carsten Höller: Experience. He also is the curator of the upcoming exhibition “Enrico David: Oral Verbal Manual.”

Carrion-Murayari joined the curatorial staff from the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he worked from 2003 to 2010. During that time he curated or co-curated exhibitions including “Television Delivers People,” “Elad Lassry: Three Films,” “Progress,” “Sites,” “Whitney on Site: Tauba Auerbach,” and “Karthik Pandian: Unearth.” Together with Francesco Bonami, he co-curated the 2010 Whitney Biennial. He has written for Flash Art, Domus, and multiple museum publications, and is the author of Rudolf Stingel at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Hatje Cantz). He has a BA from Colgate University.

 MIKA TAJIMA

Born in 1975 in Los Angeles, California, Tajima is a New York based artist. Tajima received an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts in 2003. Select solo exhibitions include Seattle Art Museum; Visual Arts Center, Austin; Bass Museum, Miami; X Initiative, New York; The Kitchen, New York; RISD Museum, Rhode Island; Circuit, Switzerland. Group exhibitions include 2008 Whitney Biennial; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati, OH; PS 1 Contemporary Art Center, NY; Swiss Institute Contemporary Art, NY; among others. Tajima is founding member of New Humans, a moniker for collaborative music, art, and actions. New Humans collaborations include Charles Atlas, Vito Acconci, C. Spencer Yeh, Philippe Decrauzat, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, among others. Group and Solo performances include South London Gallery, UK; ICA Philadelphia; Artissima, Italy; Ballroom Marfa; Swiss Institute, NY; Walker Art Center, MN; Whitney Museum, NY; etc.

 ZANE WILSON

Zane is a practicing sculptor working in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He has previously contributed to the fabrication of pyrotechnic and monumental props for the Braunfels’ opera Die Vogel at Spoleto Festival USA (in Charleston, SC) and for a bi-coastal Ring Cycle staged by Opera Theater of Pittsburgh and Long Beach Opera of California. Visit zanewilson.com for more information and also centotto.com to see more of Zane’s work.

FEED presents the first of four very special post-show chats that ran alongside ELECTIVE AFFINITES by David Adjmi. The first discussion looked at the politics inherent to the world of the play. Wht does most of America agree with the sentiments of Alice Hauptmann? Does the geo-political idea of a “ticking time bomb situation” actually exist within The War on Terror? Join our esteemed panelists, Amrit Singh and Baher Azmy as they discuss this contentious issue.

BIOGRAPHIES

Baher Azmy is an esteemed lawyer, professor and scholar, who has actively pursued constitutional and human rights litigation challenging policies emerging from the so-called “war on terror,” including policies related to indefinite executive detention, extraordinary rendition, and torture. Baher represented Murat Kurnaz, a German resident of Turkish descent imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay by the U.S. military as a so-called “enemy combatant,” until his release in August 2006. He visited Guantánamo numerous times and participated extensively in varied briefing that has occurred in the courts, including in the Supreme Court in Boumediene v. Bush and in the consolidated Guantánamo habeas cases. He has continued to provide leadership on issues surrounding Guantánamo cases and national security in a variety of academic, professional, and human rights forums, and has testified before Congress. He also litigated cases challenging police misconduct and violations of the rights of immigrants, prisoners, and the press. He has authored numerous legal briefs in the Courts of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court on various human rights and international law issues, and has produced substantial scholarship on issues related to access to justice. His work on the Kurnaz case and others has been featured in a number of prominent media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, CBS’ 60 Minutes, The Boston Globe, Miami Herald, Village Voice, Mother Jones and New York Magazine. Prior to his arrival at CCR, Baher was a law professor at Seton Hall University, where he directed the Civil Rights and Constitutional Litigation Clinic and taught Constitutional Law. Seton Hall students elected him Professor of the Year in 2007. Previous to his position at Seton Hall, he was in private practice in New York and clerked for then-Chief Judge Dolores K. Sloviter of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. Baher is a magna cum laude graduate of New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Snow Public Interest Scholar. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, in American History and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Amrit Singh joined the Open Society Justice Initiative in 2009 as the senior legal officer for national security and counterterrorism. Previously, she served as a staff attorney at the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. She was counsel, among other cases, in ACLU v. Dep’t of Defense, which resulted in the public disclosure of thousands of documents concerning the abuse of prisoners held by the U.S. overseas. She is co-author (with Jameel Jaffer) of Administration of Torture: A Documentary Record from Washington to Abu Ghraib and Beyond (Columbia University Press, 2007). Prior to joining the ACLU, Singh served as a law clerk to the Hon. Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Before embarking on her legal career, she was an economist at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. She is a graduate of Cambridge University, Oxford University, and the Yale Law School.

World Premiere: Soho Rep, Winter 2011

A New Year dawns.  A soul superstar returns. Jomama Jones lifts you to the stratosphere and beyond in this once in a lifetime performance.

This is the Soho Rep edition of the text which includes all song lyrics, liner notes, essays on diva culture, and an interview conducted by Pulitzer-prize nominated playwright Eisa Davis with Ms. Jones.