GEORGE R CARR

..the story of a man's search for the answer to "to be or not to be"...

PMT House of Dance, New York, NY: World Premier 2007
Cast: Mark M. Thomas, Natalia Klimas, Derrick Korn, Courtney Allen, Denise K. Fiore, Jonathan Holtzman
Understudies: Steven Capo, Nailah Daaj, Kelly Betts, Peter Donato, Olivia Julien, David Chase
Mistress of Ceremonies: Elaine Shipman
Choreographer: Ned Williams
Stage Managers: David Chase, Connie Xanthopoulos
Art Direction: Keith Carroll
Photographer: Bobby Kelly, Richard Hand Creative Services
Publicity/Advertising: Lanie Zipoy, Avec Productions
Director: George R Carr

James Byron Dean was born in Marion, Indiana February 8, 1931. After moving to Santa Monica, California in 1935, his mother Mildred Dean died from cancer in 1940. His father Winton Dean sent him back to Fairmount, Indiana to be raised by his paternal aunt and uncle on their farm…

In the early 1950s, James Dean came to New York City to pursue a career in acting and took African dance classes at The Katherine Dunham Dance Studio. Miss Dunham was the matriarch of African American dance and a voodoo priestess. Dean’s teacher was Eartha Kitt. She called him Jamie…

On September 30, 1955, after completing the movies East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant, James Dean died at 24 years old in a car crash near Los Angeles, California…

It is September 30, 1956. New York City is unusually silent. Chaotic clouds are moving in from the West. A brooding, Byron-esque full white moon rises privately in the East behind dark black skies as night begins to bloom. At 69 W 14th Street below a building holding a billboard with a giant pair of glasses staring down, a lone stray dog sees a figure pacing atop the roof. The dog starts to bark but remains silent. A woman in a dark trench coat passes the dog as she walks. She and the dog look into each other’s eyes. The dog sits and waits. The woman continues on and joins a girl, a guy, and a man reading a letter. Suddenly, a gust of wind blows his letter skyward. The man shivers. At 9 PM, they enter Studio A of The Dunham Dance Studio in hopes of one last meeting with their beloved Jamie from another side…

Jamie…another side of Dean portrays the Dante-esque journey for love, truth, and faith of the American icon James Dean. On the first anniversay of his untimely death, James Dean appears to his dance teacher and mentor Eartha Kitt and beseeches her to release him from his purgatorial existence and take him to another side. This six character one-act surrealistic drama powerfully blends elements of the Quaker faith, in which Dean was raised; African dance and voodoo; and Brechtian constructs into a dreamlike theatrical experience. According to playwright George R. Carr, “This rebel definitely has a cause.”