This preview performance of The Great Gatsby, written in 1924 is a deeply moving and honest portrayal of class, racism, and prejudice in American society. In what was originally titled, Under the Red White and Blue, F. Scott Fitzgerald painted a vivid picture of how the quest for the American dream in the absence of true equality can lead to devastating effects. This timely story reveals a culture where success seems to be defined only by wealth, obsession masquerades as love, and prejudice is used as a weapon to bolster one’s fragile sense of self. The story centers around a “self-made” Jay Gatsby, a man from a working-class background, who had previously fallen in love with wealthy heiress, Daisy Buchanan. After returning from his military service he finds that Daisy had married blue-blood, Tom Buchanan. Gatsby, determined to win her back, does whatever it takes to reinvent himself into the man he thinks Daisy will want.

Aquila Theatre’s Desiree Sanchez is creating a new theatrical adaptation that will speak to how this book resonates within our current culture. With its clever and impactful designs, superb actors and insightful direction, Aquila’s production of The Great Gatsby is sure to be the must see show of the season. The New Yorker has raved that Aquila Theatre productions are beautifully spoken, dramatically revealing and crystalline in effect, and The New York Theatre Guide states of Ms. Sanchez’s more recent productions:  Desiree Sanchez has masterfully crafted yet another piece of theatrical genius. Her direction is polished and laser sharp. She gets the maximum amount of potential out of every stage moment, has exceptional attention to detail, and is a demiurge of direction.

Aquila Theatre Company was founded in London by Peter Meineck in 1991 with a production of Aeschylus’s Agamemnon at the Bridge Lane Theatre in London before touring in the United States to a few universities. The company, along with its founder moved to the United States in 1994, and in 1998, Aquila Theatre became a U.S. based non-profit theatre company. It went on to build up an extensive international touring circuit while becoming an established part of the New York City theater scene with its productions of Iliad: Book One at the Clark Studio at Lincoln Center, followed by long running Off-Broadway productions of Comedy of Errors and Much Ado About Nothing. Aquila has also had the pleasure of working with the acclaimed Olympia Dukakis and Louis Zorich in its 2004 production of Agamemnon.

Aquila is now one of the foremost producers of classical theater in the United States visiting 50 – 60 American cities per year with a program of two plays, workshops and educational programming, and is under the Artistic Directorship of Desiree Sanchez since 2012. The company has been awarded numerous grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities, from which it received a Chairman’s Special Award, the New York State Councils for the Arts and Humanities, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Aquila has performed at the White House under the Bush and Obama administrations, and has performed for the U.S Supreme Court and for the National Council on the Arts. Aquila was also recently invited by Lin-Manuel Miranda to perform at the U.S. Capitol in support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, for its groundbreaking theatre and humanities program: The Warrior Chorus.