Thursday, December 22, 2011

The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Today's date: December 21, 2011

Contact:
Veronica Corpuz
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
412-471-6082
corpuz@trustarts.org

Diana Roth
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust
412-471-8717
roth@trustarts.org



Mike Daisey: The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, co-presented by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust and The Andy Warhol Museum's 2012 performance series, Off the Wall.

Saturday January 21, 2012, at 8 p.m., Byham Theater, 101 Sixth Street, downtown Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, in association with The Andy Warhol Museum's 2012 performance series, Off the Wall, presents Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the Byham Theater on January 21, 2012, at 8 p.m., as part of the Cohen & Grigsby Trust Presents series. Created and performed by Mike Daisey and directed by Jean-Michele Gregory, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs dives into the epic story of real life Willy Wonka Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple. Daisey examines how Jobs’ obsessions profoundly shape our everyday lives and recounts Jobs' journey to China to investigate the factories where millions are employed making iPhones and iPods. This presentation in Pittsburgh by Daisey is one of only a few select cities around the country on his tour.

Tickets are $18-$35 and may be purchased at the Box Office at Theater Square (655 Penn Avenue), online at www.trustarts.org, or by calling (412) 456-6666. To purchase 10 or more tickets at special discounted rates, please call group sales at (412) 471-6930.

Daisey’s journey shines a brilliant light on our love affair with our devices and the human cost of creating them. Daisey speaks of Shenzhen, China, where 52 percent of the world's consumer electronic products are manufactured, mostly by human hands. Daisey commented to Cult of Mac, “What I am interested in is telling the extemporaneous story, live. I am not playing any role. I’m using the tools of the theater, but I’m actually speaking as a person who has gone and done these things.” After risking his own life to stand outside Foxconn and interview workers -- some of whom are 13 years old and younger -- and later meeting with union organizers to find out what life is like in a Chinese factory, Daisey shows that he "dreams of a kind of theater that takes risks and speaks the truth to power.” – Los Angeles Times

Mike Daisey has been called “the master storyteller” and “one of the finest solo performers of his generation” by the New York Times for his groundbreaking monologues, which weave together autobiography, gonzo journalism and unscripted performance. These famously hilarious and heartbreaking monologues include last season’s critically acclaimed The Last Cargo Cult, the controversial How Theater Failed America, the six-hour epic Great Men of Genius, the unrepeatable series All Stories Are Fiction, the international sensation 21 Dog Years, and his latest, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. He has performed in venues on five continents, ranging from Off-Broadway at the Public Theater to remote islands in the South Pacific, from the Sydney Opera House to abandoned theaters in post-Communist Tajikistan. He’s been a commentator and contributor to WIRED, Vanity Fair, Slate, Salon, NPR and the BBC. His first film, Layover, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival this year, and a feature film of his monologue, If You See Something Say Something, was produced in 2011. He has been nominated for the Outer Critics Circle Award, two Drama League Awards, and is the recipient of the Bay Area Critics Circle Award, four Seattle Times Footlight Awards, The Sloan Foundation’s Galileo Prize, and a MacDowell Fellowship.

The Andy Warhol Museum, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, features extensive permanent collections of art and archives of one of the most influential American artists of the twentieth century. The museum, a primary resource for anyone seeking insights into contemporary art and popular culture, is also an active cultural center with a performing arts program that enables the Museum to both explore a wide range of work related to its mission and serve a diverse audience. The Museum’s Off the Wall presentations are a multi-disciplinary performance series devoted to challenging conventional perceptions of art and providing audiences with a diverse offering of unique and thought-provoking live performance experiences.
###

1 comment:

Jaye Anne said...

I saw "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs" at the Byham Theater tonight (Pittsburgh). It was the biggest waste of $81 ever. It's impossible to enjoy theater when it's inaudible. I have one word for Mike Daisey... microphone.