Event: The Bunner Sisters reading in New York on April 3, 2024

The Bunner Sisters reading in New York on April 3, 2024

A reading of The Bunner Sisters, adapted by Richard Alleman and directed by Anthony Newfield, will be presented April 3, 2024, at 6:30 p.m., at the historic House of the Redeemer, 7 East 95th Street, New York. Tickets: $25 at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-bunner-sisters-tickets-817375671637

Based on the little-known Edith Wharton novella, The Bunner Sisters is a far cry from Wharton’s better-known upper-class Gilded Age territory. Adapted by journalist/playwright Richard Alleman, The Bunner Sisters tracks the lives of two spinster sisters eking out a living as seamstresses in a tenement basement in Lower Manhattan in the 1880s. When an unattached man enters the picture, the sisters’ complacent existence is upended. Sensitively brought to the stage by Alleman, The Bunner Sisters takes audiences on a dramatic journey to a not-so-innocent age, with many of the same problems we face today, including income inequality, the precarious status of women, even addiction.

Alleman completed his adaptation of the novella in 2015, at which time he and director Anthony Newfield co-produced a staged reading in San Francisco with the Re:ACT theater company. This was followed in 2016 by a fully mounted production in San Francisco that played to sold-out houses. Returning to New York, Alleman and Newfield continued to fine-tune the play, with more workshops and readings, including a very successful production at Wharton’s landmark Massachusetts home, The Mount. Back in New York, in the spring of 2020, an Off-Broadway production was being prepared. Unfortunately this production had to be cancelled due to COVID.

In the midst of the pandemic, however, a surprising development:  The Bunner Sisters was translated into Italian by University of Pisa professor and Wharton aficionado Simone Pratelli. This Italian version was presented last September by San Francisco’s Museo Italo Americano. Now, the House of the Redeemer’s I Fabbristi is pleased to present this reading of the play…in English.

The cast includes Anne (Les Misérables) Buelteman, Katie (A Day by the Sea) Firth, Erin (Fellow Travelers) Neufer, Josiah (Mad Men) Polhemus, Amy (The Heiress) Prosser, and Jo (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) Yang.

The Bunner Sisters (Le sorelle Bunner) in San Francisco (September 17, 2023)

The Bunner Sisters (Le sorelle Bunner) in San Francisco

From l. to r.: Richard Alleman (playwright), Anne Buelteman (Mrs. Mellins), Bianca Friundi (Ann Eliza), Anthony Newfield (director/Mr. Ramy/narrator), Sandra Bagnatori (Mrs. Goldfarb/narrator), Maracella Comparini (Evelina), Simone I.M. Pratelli (translator); sitting: Josiah Polhemus (artistic director, Re:Act)

With Edith Wharton seemingly everywhere these days—a production of her “lost” play, The Shadow of a Doubt at Canada’s Shaw Festival…Sofia Coppola developing The Custom of the Country for film…the New York Times writing about villages and art Wharton visited and wrote about in Italian Backgrounds—we were pleased to present a reading of Wharton’s Bunner Sisters—in Italian—at San Francisco’s Museo Italo-Americano on September 17, adapted for the stage by American playwright and former Vogue editor Richard Alleman, translated by Simone I.M. Pratelli, and directed by Anthony Newfield.

Pratelli flew from Italy to San Francisco to attend the reading. It was not only his first time in San Francisco but his first time in America.

The cast included Sandra Bagnatori, Anne Buelteman, Bianca Friundi, Marcella Comparini, and Newfield.

The Bunner Sisters follows the lives of two spinster sisters trying to eke out an existence as seamstresses in 1880s New York—a haunting portrait of the dark side of the Gilded Age. The play’s English version had its world premiere with the Re:ACT theater company in San Francisco in 2016.

Bunner Sisters Adaptation Staged in San Francisco

Bunner Sisters Adaptation Staged in San Francisco:

Dear Members of the Edith Wharton Society, 

Please see below the announcement for a reading of Le sorelle Bunner, the Italian translation of Richard Alleman’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s novella Bunner Sisters at the Museo Italo Americano, Fort Mason Center, 2 Marina Blvd., Building C, San Francisco, California, on Sunday, September 17, at 4:00 p.m. For information about tickets, please go to the website:
https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmuseoitaloamericano.org%2Fevent%2Fthe-bunner-sisters-2%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cmyrto.drizou%40nord.no%7C2bc223a739f64f98960c08dba8d2eddf%7Cfed13d9f21df485d909a231f3c6d16f0%7C1%7C0%7C638289396120019523%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=2pNMfaCizAFgEOrvoRS0wHFePa8vzdj317xYmOsCvHQ%3D&reserved=0<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__https%3A%2F%2Fmuseoitaloamericano.org%2Fevent%2Fthe-bunner-sisters-2%2F__%3B!!KIFmrYtlezdzESbnm_I!AQ3vurD9LOO1dTVe2fYO81_A1iH02l-Pso8XKEFWlkCN8x5cFceunfXQg0hYqFvaC0N24pNVak9fUSfNkxE%24&data=05%7C01%7Cmyrto.drizou%40nord.no%7C2bc223a739f64f98960c08dba8d2eddf%7Cfed13d9f21df485d909a231f3c6d16f0%7C1%7C0%7C638289396120019523%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=2qQrkJZiz%2Bp4%2F8iPFrGsM%2BoLnF4iCTgC7iW7htw85ak%3D&reserved=0>

A little background on the project:

The Bunner Sisters, writer Richard Alleman’s adaptation of the novella, was completed in 2015, after which we held a reading of it in San Francisco with Re:ACT, a small new company in the city that I directed. Several months later, we mounted a successful production there. Returning to New York, Alleman continued to work on the play, and we held more readings, including a very successful one at The Mount in 2017. We were in the process of mounting an off-Broadway production of the play in the spring of 2020 when the pandemic closed us down.

In the midst of the pandemic, Richard heard from Simone Pratelli, an Italian professor in Pisa, Italy, who told him he loved Wharton’s work, that he’d found Richard’s play online, bought a copy and read it, and wondered if Richard would allow him to translate it into Italian with an eye to a possible future production in Pisa. Richard agreed, and we are now presenting a reading of a condensed version of the Italian translation (with synopsis in English for those who don’t speak Italian) at the Museo. We will begin the event with a short talk on Wharton and her love for and influence by Italy.

If by any chance you’re on the West Coast then, we hope you can attend.

Many thanks,
Anthony Newfield
anthonynewfield.com<https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Furldefense.com%2Fv3%2F__http%3A%2F%2Fanthonynewfield.com__%3B!!KIFmrYtlezdzESbnm_I!AQ3vurD9LOO1dTVe2fYO81_A1iH02l-Pso8XKEFWlkCN8x5cFceunfXQg0hYqFvaC0N24pNVak9flUU0hJE%24&data=05%7C01%7Cmyrto.drizou%40nord.no%7C2bc223a739f64f98960c08dba8d2eddf%7Cfed13d9f21df485d909a231f3c6d16f0%7C1%7C0%7C638289396120019523%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=09UG6iJBI0ITuD8rgd6PPH0HYSkriy2FPtSrfIyjWk0%3D&reserved=0>

Richard Alleman
Richard Alleman has written for American Vogue for over three decades, where he was the magazine’s longtime Travel Editor. He has also written for The Economist, British and German Vogues, Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, In-Style, and Milieu. He is the author of the classic guidebooks Hollywood: A Movie Lover’s Guide and New York: A Movie Lover’s Guide (Random House/Broadway Books), which he recently updated for their electronic editions. He co-wrote the screenplay for the film Casa Hollywood, and his play Scenario of Death was produced Off-Broadway at the Nat Horne Theatre. Based in London from 1998 to 2008, Alleman worked as an actor on both stage and television. He holds a BA in Drama from the University of California, Berkeley.

Online Performance: THE HOUSE OF MIRTH SONG CYCLE

PASTICHENYC AND THE MOUNT present THE HOUSE OF MIRTH SONG CYCLE

The tragedy of the most beautiful girl in Gilded Age New York is Edith Wharton’s revenge!

May 11, 2023

PASTICHENYC ​
​AND THE MOUNT
​Proudly present

THE HOUSE OF MIRTH SONG CYCLE
​

The tragedy of the most beautiful girl in Gilded Age New York is Edith Wharton’s revenge!

LIVE STREAMING THE COMPLETE SERIES ON MAY 18TH ​
​7:00 PM

FOLLOWED BY A TALKBACK “WHARTON, ROSEDALE, AND ANTI-SEMITISM” WITH CREATOR EMILY KING AND WHARTON SCHOLAR & AUTHOR OF “ROSEDALE IN LOVE” LEV RAPHAEL

YOUTUBE.COM/@PASTICHENYC or YOUTUBE.COM/@edithwharton167

Wharton in the News: Unearthly Visitants, A New Play Based on Ghost Stories by Edith Wharton, October 22-24, 2021, in Brooklyn, NY

UNEARTHLY VISITANTS
A New Play based on ghost stories by Edith Wharton

Adapted and Directed by Kevin Ray 
A fierce social critic and the first woman awarded the Pulitzer Prize (The Age of Innocence, 1920) Edith Wharton’s chilling short stories are the beating heart of this devised play probing the confinement of social norms and the price the living pay for ignoring the past. The performance includes the stories “Afterward”, “The Eyes”, “Miss Mary Pask” and “Bewitched”. 

Performances: Friday, October 22, 7:30 PM
Saturday, October 23, 2:00 PM*
Saturday, October 23, 7:30 PM
Sunday, October 24, 2:00 PM 

Venue: Triskelion Arts
106 Calyer Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222 

* Following 2:00 PM performance on Saturday, October 23, director Kevin Ray will host a free, interactive talk-back with audience members. Tickets are available at Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/unearthly-visitants-tickets-164011549961
Visit the project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unearthlyvisitants/
Visit the project on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevinrayworks/
Find out more on the website: https://kevinrayworks.com/unearthly_visitants/ 
UNEARTHLY VISITANTS is performed by permission of the Estate of Edith Wharton and the Watkins/Loomis Agency.

UNEARTHLY VISITANTS is a fiscally sponsored project of Brooklyn Arts Council.

UNEARTHLY VISITANTS is sponsored, in part, by the Greater New York Arts Development Fund of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, administered by Brooklyn Arts Council. Funding has also been made possible by The Puffin Foundation, Ltd. UNEARTHLY VISITANTS 
A New Play based on ghost stories by EDITH WHARTON 
Directed & Adapted by KEVIN RAY
October 22, 23 & 24, 2021CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS
Follow me on Instagram
UNEARTHLY VISITANTS Facebook Page
www.kevinrayworks.com