Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival to present "This is Like That" with Michael Sean Cirelli
Words only have the meaning we give them...don't they?

WHERE AND WHEN
August 31 at 8 PM, September1 at 5 PM, September 2 at 6:30 PM, September 3 at 9 PM, September 4 at 6:30 PM
Theater for the New City (Community Theater) 155 1st Avenue
Presented by Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) as part of Dream Up Festival 2019
Tickets: $15 Box Office: (212) 254-1109, www.dreamupfestival.org
Running time: 45 minutes
Critics are invited to all performances
Photos are available at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8TM5hCWLmZbKzV4p9

NEW YORK July 25 -- "This is Like That," written and performed by Michael Sean Cirelli, is a show about a man in his own dream of being a professor in a lecture hall struggling to teach a lesson in English. In the beginning, the man actually forgets that the class being taught is his and spends the rest of the time to trying explain to his class (the audience) the meaning that we give to everyday words. This show is for people who have the experience of knowing what they say but still feel misunderstood. The piece will have its world premiere presented by Theater for the New City's 2019 Dream Up Festival from August 31 to September 4. Director is Emerie Snyder.

The show is set in a lecture hall complete with a desk, a slide projector, a portable projector screen and an apple. After an awkward start in his own dream about teaching a communication class, the man makes a request to the class. He says, “If we could pretend that none of what just happened has happened, I might be able to explain.” From there, he goes on to give a lecture on the meaning we assign to people, places and things, but eventually the projector takes on life of its own, revealing why this man is so desperate to find meaning. The play grapples with questions about language,
identity, religion, and the stories we tell others and ourselves.

Michael Sean Cirelli is a writer and actor based out of New York City. His other plays include "Grit" (Crashbox Theater) and "The Rogue King" (Crashbox Living Room series). He has
performed with and written sketches for Literally Everyone. As an actor, he has appeared with Crashbox Theater Company, Tiny Rhino, Horse Trade Theater and August Strindberg Rep.
His films include "Victim No.6," directed by Nancy Menagh. He is also a founding member of the improv group Herschel. He earned a BA in tTheater from DeSales University and attended the Atlantic Theater Company’s conservatory training program. www.michaelseancirelli.com

Director Emerie Snyder is an NYC based theater director and creator of new performance work, focusing on site-responsive theater, relationships between visual art and theater and solo performance. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts and she has collaborated with contemporary playwrights including Anton Dudley and Davy Rothbart.

Projection design is by Eamon O’Connor. Costume design is by Michelle Ridley.

ABOUT THE DREAMUP FESTIVAL
The tenth annual Dream Up Festival (www.dreamupfestival.org) is being presented by Theater for the New City from August 25 to September 15. An ultimate new works festival, it is dedicated to the discovery of new authors, fresh ideas and edgy, innovative performances. Audiences savor the excitement, awe, passion, challenge and intrigue of new plays from around the country and around the world.

The festival does not seek out traditional scripts that are presented in a traditional way. It selects works that push new ideas to the forefront, challenge audience expectations and make us question our understanding of how art illuminates the world around us.

In addition to traditional plays, a unique and varied selection of productions will again be offered, drawing upon a variety of performance genres including musicals and movement theater. The Festival's founders, Crystal Field and Michael Scott-Price, feel this is especially needed in our present time of declining donations to the arts, grants not being awarded due to market conditions, and arts funding cuts on almost every level across the country and abroad.

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