BAY STREET

June 16, 2014 (Sag Harbor, NY) – Bay Street Theater’s 2014 Mainstage Season continues with Tom Stoppard’s, Tony Award Winning Comedy, TRAVESTIES, now through July 20. The play is directed by Gregory Boyd.

Stoppard creates a smashing theatrical extravaganza with the wit of Oscar Wilde crashing headlong into song-and-dance, strip-tease,
pie-fights, and brilliant wordplay. Set in 1917 and 1974 in Zurich, Switzerland, the play fantasizes how a British consul named Henry Carr (Richard Kind) encounters some of the most famous figures of the 20th century, including James Joyce, Tristan Tzara and Lenin, through an amateur production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Stoppard takes on the role of the artist in society in this exuberant and freewheeling comedy about art and revolution that is as fresh and thought-provoking as it is uproarious.

Michael Benz who will be playing Tristan Tzara, has been in numerous productions worldwide. He has appeared in two productions through London’s West End: The Tempest and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Michael has also had the title role in Shakespeare’s Globe production in the London and the US tour of Hamlet, for which he was nominated for the Helen Hayes Award as an Outstanding Lead Actor. He has also performed in other productions at Shakespeare’s Globe including: The Winter’s Tale, As You Like It, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and A New World. Benz has also been involved in Romeo and Juliet through the Royal Shakespeare Company, Hay Fever through West Yorkshire Playhouse, as well as Oohrah! and The American Clock through the Finborough Theatre located in London. Apart from theatre, Michael is known for his television appearances in shows such as Downton Abbey, BBC Prefaces to Shakespeare: As You Like It, Hamlet, The Tempest, Mike and Angelo, and Little Lord Fauntleroy. Michael is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and has a BA from Georgetown University in Washington, DC.