A new historical comedy inspired by over 2,500 pages of letters and journal entries from the controversial 19th-century poet Lord Byron.
PREMIERING AT NEW YORK THEATER FESTIVAL
CREATIVE TEAM
JOSE D. ALVAREZ (Playwright/Lord Byron) is an interdisciplinary creative based in Brooklyn. He has spoken about his work on Lord Byron at The British Association for Romantic Studies Biannual Conference (2022) sponsored by the Byron Society, and at the Experimental Humanities Symposium at NYU (2022). Jose has served on panels on Time.com, and for Pride 50 he was featured in an Aribnb nationwide campaign as a Worldpride Ambassador. Credits include the upcoming anthology series S&M Records, and the feature films Killer Unicorn (Creator, under Lionsgate), and Guys at Parties Like it (Producer).
LALIS SOLORZANO MARTINEZ (Director) is a BFA Stage Management graduate from the University of Miami. He has been Nilo Cruz's resident Assistant Director for over 10 years. Credits include: Assistant Director for The Most Amazing Story Ever Sung (Misi Art Production Company) at Lincoln Center, Stage Manager for the opening and closing shows at the South American Olympic Games, and Ass. Stage Manager for Girls Vs Boys at the Arsht Center. He also produced/directed the first official season of RENT in Colombia through his theater company CITRINO TEATRO.
CAST
Jenna Hochkammer (Ianthe) is an actor and singer from Detroit, Michigan and is thrilled to be playing Bill Fletcher/Ianthe in Jose Alvarez's xoxo, Lord Byron! She is a recent graduate from the University of Miami where she earned her BFA in Musical Theatre. Go Canes! Some of her favorite credits include Sally Bowles in Cabaret and the Baker's Wife in Into the Woods.
Clare Rea (Lady Caroline Lamb) is a New York plus size model and actor. She loves playing strong willed wacky women. She strongly encourages casting larger bodied people in all roles (not just Mrs. Potts.) You can hear her yell about this more on her social media @heyclarerea. A big thank you to Lalis and Jose!
PRODUCTION TEAM
ALEX MIGHT (Fight Choreo/Intimiacy Dir.) is a fight & intimacy director and actor and from central Ohio. Recent credits: POTUS (Assistant Fight & Intimacy Director); Thelma and Louise and the Time Machine at Breaking the Binary Festival; The Wolves at Actors Theatre of Louisville (Understudy/Associate Movement Director); This Hair I Tear is Mine at Columbia University; No Mercy with Moxie Arts (Fight & Intimacy Director); KIN at WP Theater (Associate Fight & Intimacy Director). www.alexmight.com
AMALIA RESTREPO (Production Design) is a Colombian architect and illustrator. Her work ranges from editorial illustration, books and fashion to set design where she combines both her crafts. She most recently set designed Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz’s ‘Kisses Through the Glass’; The Jimmy Fallon Show, and Citrino’s ‘Con Ella Sí’. She has produced and art directed music videos for Colombian singer, Camilo, as well as his documentary ‘El Primer Tour de Mi Vida’ and his NPR Tiny Desk concert.
LISA KRAINIK (Stage Manager) is a stage manager, producer, dancer and performer. She has performed works at Radio City Music Hall, the New York City Center, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., among others. Lisa has spent the past few years stage managing for Applause NY at The Rose Nagelberg Theater and most recently worked on Graceland Too at Teatro LATEA. When she isn’t stage managing, Krainik produces a monthly comedy show at Asylum NYC and teaches yoga.
NICOLE HUGHES (Associate Producer) is the playwright of ‘Graceland Too: The Building Elvis Never Left’ and founder of Glassable Productions. As a producer and early-career playwright, Nicole has associate produced living history theater ‘Humanity Needs Dreamers’, created and produced unscripted television series, and Diana DeGarmo music videos, and impact-produced the social justice documentary ‘Coded Bias’ on PBS & Netflix.
The three character play begins after Byron has been forced to leave England due to the tumultuous divorce from his wife, and the rumors of multiple affairs with male pages, maids, and his half-sister Augusta. The first act centers around a series of conversations between Byron and his faithful valet, Bill Fletcher, as they pack for their self-exile to Greece. But as the night progresses and their discussions get more heated, the sadomasochistic nature of their role-playing relationship is exposed. The second act of the play centers around the cult of the "Byronic hero” and the repercussions of fame, as Byron learns that he has an impersonator wreaking havoc in London who is further defaming his name, and exposing his scandalous exploits.
Known for his contentious and risqué poems, as well as for his scandalous sexual escapades–– which includes dressing his female maids as boys, and an extramarital affair with his half-sister, Augusta–– the stage play explores Lord Byron’s different private and public personas and how they intersect, contradict, and feed off of one another.
The play will run for three performances November 14th at 6 pm, November 18th at 9 pm, and November 20th at 3:30 pm ET at the New York Theater Festival, Theater Latea, 107 Suffolk St, New York, NY. The show runs for 90 minutes.