Howard Fishman/Connie Converse/Paul Lazar
A STAR HAS BURNT MY EYE
NOV 9- 12 2016
IN RESIDENCE: October 25-30, 2016
Written by Howard Fishman
Music and lyrics by Connie Converse
Directed by Paul Lazar
In 1961, the polymathic songwriter Connie Converse grew disillusioned with music and New York, packed her bags for Ann Arbor, and eventually disappeared. Her home recordings from the 50s have only recently come to light—vulnerable, literary songs about loneliness, sexual longing, and bad credit—but they were unclassifiable at the time and she vanished without an audience or album to her name.
In this new play by songwriter and guitarist Howard Fishman, four musicians in a Brooklyn living room prepare for a concert of Converse’s music, rehearsing her songs, reflecting over lyrics, and pondering what it meant, and still means, to be an outsider artist. A treasure trove of recently discovered artifacts—personal letters, diary entries, poems, along with first-person recollections—come to life alongside intimate performances on guitar, piano, and accordion, in tribute to this enigmatic songstress whose fate still eludes.
PERFORMANCES:NOV 9—NOV 12, 2016
LENGTH OF SHOW: 1hr 35min
PRICE: SUBSCRIPTIONS START AT $17.50, FULL PRICE TICKETS START AT $25, Buy four or more events and save 15—30%
Venue:BAM Fisher 321 Ashland Place Brooklyn, NY 11217
Dramaturgy by James Harrison Monaco
Set and costume design by Christopher Heilman
Lighting design by Megan Lang and Megan Estes
“Incredible, as was she; the show had me transfixed, joyful, and grateful. It reminded me, yet again, what art is for.”
— The New Yorker
IRT Theater is a grassroots laboratory for independent theater and performance in New York City, providing space and support to a new generation of artists. Tucked away in the old Archive Building in Greenwich Village, IRT’s mission is to build a community of emerging and established artists by creating a home for the development and presentation of new work. Some of the artists we have supported include Young Jean Lee, Reggie Watts and Mike Daisey.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Office of Council Member Corey Johnson and The Nancy Quinn Fund, a project of ART-NY.