JAY SCHEIB
www.jayscheib.com

BELLONA: DESTROYER OF CITIES

Adapted and Directed by Jay Scheib

In Development: Jay Scheib’s Bellona, Destroyer of Cities after Samuel Delany’s epic science-fiction masterpiece Dhalgren.

Featuring Sarita Choudhury, Caleb Hammond, Mikeah Ernest Jennings, Jon Morris, Tanya Selvaratnam, April Sweeney, Natalie Thomas, and Greg Zuccolo

Scenic Design by Peter Ksander
Costumes by Oana Botez-Ban
Sound Design by Catherine McCurry
Lighting by Miranda Hardy;
Video and Photography by Carrie Mae Weems and Jay Scheib
Assistant Director: Laine Rettmer
Produced by Tanya Selvaratnam

Following Untitled Mars, the critically acclaimed first installment of his trilogy: Simulated Cities/Simulated Systems,visionary director Jay Scheib (named by American Theater magazine as one of the 25 Artists who will shape the future of the American Theater) brings his signature approach to Samuel Delany’s labyrinthine world.

In Bellona, Destroyer of Cities, there has been a cataclysmic event but no one is really sure how it started. An entire city that once held millions of inhabitants now numbers in the thousands. Two moons have appeared in the sky and the sun looms larger than life, and for some unknown reason, this once illustrious city has been all but forgotten by the world beyond it.

“You may ask me what place the city of Bellona holds in the minds of those who have never been here. The miracle of order has run out and I am left in an unmiraculous place where anything may happen. What use does any of us have for two moons? Objects are lost in doublelight. What makes it terrible is that in this timeless city, in this spaceless preserve any slippage can occur. Sometimes it seems as if these walls on pivots are controlled by subterranean machines, so that, after one passes, they might suddenly swing to face another direction. Parting at this corner, joining at that one, like a great maze -- forever adjustable, therefore unlearnable." from Dhalgren Bellona, Destroyer of Cities is envisioned as a part dance, part live cinema, part theater, part Urban Simulation performance for the end of cities.

The Kitchen's presentation of Bellona, Destroyer of Cities is made possible with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

“Mixing multimedia with deadpan-cool (and very sexy) actors, Scheib is forging new ways of seeing drama."
- Time Out New York, “The Best New York Theater Directors,”
March 2009