LIVE from NYPL: Harold Bloom & Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
OPENING NIGHT: Literary critic extraordinaire Harold Bloom at 75 and Leaves of Grass at 150. A double birthday celebration with Bloom paying tribute to the poet Walt Whitman for "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed" (in the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson). Joining him are actors Michael Stuhlbarg (Tony nomination for Pillowman) and Michael Rogers who will read selected stanzas from Song of Myself. Karin Coonrod will direct the event.
About Harold Bloom:
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University, where he has taught since 1955. His thirty books include The Anxiety of Influence, The Book of J, The Western Cannon, How to Read and Why, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?, Genius, and The Names Divine: Jesus and Yahweh. He has received the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the International Prize of Catalonia, the Alfonso Reyes Prize of Mexico, and the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennial Prize of Denmark.
About Karin Coonrod:
Karin Coonrod has created memorable productions off-Broadway, nationally and internationally. Her range includes working with Shakespeare?s texts, the surrealists, prose and poetry texts to creating ex nihilo outside the box. High points include Victor or Children Take Over, Henry VI, The House of Bernarda Alba, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and Dangerous Clowns. With Harold Bloom she created the text of The Falstaffiad and directed a concert reading in which Bloom played Falstaff. Her international theater company, Compagnia Colombari, will create Laude in Urbis. Coonrod teaches Shakespeare at the Yale School of Drama and is currently preparing Mycenean with Carl Hancock Rux to be presented at BAM Festival 2006.
About Michael Rogers:
Michael Rogers was born in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He has worked around the country and internationally. Mr. Rogers is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Michael Stuhlbarg:
Michael Stuhlbarg was nominated for a 2005 Tony Award and won the 2005 Drama Desk Award for best Featured Actor in a Play as Michal in Martin McDonagh's play, The Pillowman, which culminates on September 18th after a six month run. His other Broadway credits include The Invention of Love, Cabaret, and Taking Sides. He has worked extensively off Broadway, regionally, and in film and television.