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Silk Road Theatre Project Artistic Director Jamil Khoury and Executive Director Malik Gillani announce the company’s sixth season, which includes the world premiere of Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat by Yussef El Guindi, directed by Patrizia Acerra; the Midwest premiere of Durango by Julia Cho, directed by Carlos Murillo; and the Midwest premiere of Philip Kan Gotanda’s Yohen, produced in association with Goodman Theatre, directed by Steve Scott. The entire season will be performed in Pierce Hall at The Historic Chicago Temple Building, 77 West Washington Street.
Artistic Director Jamil Khoury states, “A season of Julia Cho, Philip Kan Gotanda, and Yussef El Guindi has got to be the Silk Road equivalent of a home run. They are three of the most original, exciting, and provocative voices in the American theatre today. We’re calling this season ROAD TRIPS, and all I can say is ‘fasten your seat belts Chicago!’”
Executive Director Malik Gillani adds, "2008 is a big year for Silk Road Theatre Project. Figuratively speaking, it is our ‘leap year.’ We’re increasing from two shows to three. We’re inaugurating our multi-cultural, multi-theatre subscription series Looks Like Chicago. We’re co-producing with The Goodman Theatre in our space. We’re organizing a two show package with Next Theatre Company, along with a series of panel discussions. And we’re continuing to grow our Al Kasida Staged Readings Series and our Myths to Drama education program. In 2008, Silk Road’s commitment to artistic excellence and to collaborating with other theatre companies will be ‘on stage’ like never before."
THE 2008 SILK ROAD SEASON IS:
The World Premiere of
Our Enemies: Lively Scenes of Love and Combat
By Yussef El Guindi
Previews: February 21-February 29, 2008
Regular Run: March 2-March 30, 2008
A darkly humorous and sensual look at identity, media-representation, love and lust in the Arab American community. Fueled by frustration over the limited Arab voices in the US media, a struggling writer, Gamal, engages in a prank campaign to shake up the system. But those in power have a way of turning the tables. When Gamal's lover, Noor, is convinced by a prominent publisher to alter her novel to satisfy Western hunger for "Orientalist" fare, Gamal lashes out at his own community. The results are staggering.
The Midwest Premiere of
Durango
By Julia Cho
Previews: May 1-9, 2008
Regular run: May 11-June 15, 2008
To the outside world, the Lee boys look like the perfect Korean American sons: Isaac plans to be a doctor and his younger brother, Jimmy, is a champion swimmer with a bright future. But when their widowed father, Boo-Seng, decides to take them on a road trip to Durango, Colorado, all three find themselves grappling with old memories and unhealed wounds. As tempers flare and secrets break open, the difference between who they are and who they’ve pretended to be threatens to tear the family apart.
The Midwest Premiere of
Yohen
Silk Road Theatre Project in association with Goodman Theatre
By Philip Kan Gotanda
Previews: September 18-26, 2008
Regular run: September 28 – November 2, 2008
"In an incredibly short time, the Silk Road Theatre Project has established itself as one of Chicago’s most accomplished emerging theater companies, creating powerful productions of plays that examine the Asian, Middle Eastern, and Mediterranean experiences," said Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls. "We are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with this remarkable young company and with Phillip Kan Gotanda, one of our country’s leading writers for the theater."
A divorced Japanese woman and an African American GI meet in post-World War II, fall in love, and marry. Nearly four decades later, now living in a quiet Los Angeles suburb, their seemingly durable marriage, tempered by years of fighting prejudice together, is now in danger—and the things that brought them together now threaten to tear them apart. More than a study of clashing cultures, Yohen is an intimately observed, poetically resonant story of two longtime partners who discover that the person that one perceives in a new time and culture is not necessarily the person “left behind” in one’s own.
Subscriptions are currently available for the 2008 Season, and can be purchased by calling the Silk Road Theatre Project. Subscriptions to the three-play season range in price from $43.20-$76.80. To purchase subscriptions, visit www.srtp.org.
Single tickets, available now at www.srtp.org and at 1-888- SILK TIX (745-5849), are $18-$20 previews; $28 for Thursday and Friday evenings; $30 for Saturday and Sunday matinees; $32 for Saturday evenings.