Dzieci Theatre celebrates 25th annual presentation its acclaimed holiday show.
December 2 - 16, 2023
"These misfits and lost souls, each stranger and more fascinating than the last, made up the most vivid and compelling collection of characters I have encountered in some time. Full of humor and pathos... with moments of irreverent buffoonery and moments of divine grace." -- New York Theatre Review
"The comical and maudlin feature in the Fools Mass, to be sure; but only using deft touches to illustrate the much deeper compassion which permeates the entire performance...Over and over again, the cast manages to re–center the ceremony and gather the frayed threads of dissipated attention, illogic, and irrational stupidity together into a single piece of fabric." -- Parabola
"Portrayed with heart, and innocence, and sincerity... entertainment first and foremost, and you won’t leave feeling anything but peace and good will towards men." -- Opplaud
Since 1998 Dzieci Theatre has presented their roving holiday production of FOOLS MASS at multiple churches and performance spaces throughout New York City, including a stop at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine that routinely sells out. This year, the annual holiday tradition beloved by many celebrates its 25th anniversary. Tickets are $25. For more information visit www.dziecitheatre.org.
FOOLS MASS is set during the plague years of the 14th century. When a motley group of village idiots gather for holiday mass, they discover that their beloved pastor has met an untimely death. So they decide to carry on and perform their own mass as best they can. FOOLS MASS celebrates the sacred and profane, the miracle of life and the enigma of death, all with enchanted choral singing, riotous comic buffoonery, and extraordinary dramatic invention.
FOOLS MASS will be performed:
• Saturday, December 2 at 7PM
OLD FIRST REFORMED CHURCH
729 Carroll Street @ 7th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215
• Sunday, December 3 at 10:30AM
OLD DUTCH CHURCH
272 Wall Street, Kingston, NY 12401
• Saturday, December 9 at 8PM
HOWLAND CULTURAL CENTER
477 Main Street, Beacon, NY 12508
• Friday, December 15 at 7:30PM
ST. JOHN-ST. MATTHEW EMANUEL LUTHERAN CHURCH
283 Prospect Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn 11215
• Saturday, December 16 at 7PM
CATHEDRAL OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE, CHAPEL OF ST. JAMES
1047 Amsterdam Ave @ 112th St., NYC 10025
FOOLS MASS is conceived, directed, and designed by Matt Mitler. It will be performed by Megan Bones, Ryan Castalia, Jesse Hathaway, and Matt Mitler with additional casting to be announced shortly. The production team includes Karen Hatt (costumes) Ryan Castalia and Megan Bones (assistant directors), and Jesse Hathaway (choral director).
Founded in 1997, Dzieci (pronounced "djyeh-chee") is an international experimental theatre ensemble dedicated to a search for the “sacred” through the medium of theatre. Integrating techniques garnered from such theatre masters as Jerzy Grotowski, Eugenio Barba and Peter Brook, and ritual forms derived from Native American and Eastern spiritual disciplines, Dzieci aims to create a theatre that is as equally engaged with personal transformation as it is with public presentation. Past work includes Makbet, a version of the Scottish play for four actors who spontaneously trade off roles; A Passion, the Biblical tale as set in the shadow of the Warsaw ghetto; The Devils of Loudun, inspired by Aldous Huxley's 1952 novel; Cirkus Luna!, the worst family circus act ever; and Ragnarok, the End Days fable from Norse mythology. Their work has been seen at venues including La MaMa, The Irondale Center, The Brick, P.S. 122, Rockaway Center for the Arts, St. Marks Theater, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the cell, as well as countless churches and community centers in the tri-state area and beyond. For more info, visit www.dziecitheatre.org.