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Artistic Director Jamil Khoury and Executive Director Malik Gillani announced Silk Road Theatre Project's collaboration with San Francisco's Golden Thread Productions and New York City's Lark Play Development Center in New York to form Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative. This tri-coastal initiative represents the first-ever national effort to actively cultivate and support development of Middle Eastern American playwrights and their plays.
Khoury comments, "Silk Road was founded in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent backlash against peoples of Middle Eastern and Muslim backgrounds. In establishing Middle East America, we are taking a proactive stance in assuring that playwrights of Middle Eastern backgrounds receive the nurturing and support they deserve. It is high time that Middle Eastern American voices be heard as integral to the mosaic of American storytelling."
Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread Production's Founding Artistic Director, says of the initiative, "It is critical in ensuring that playwrights, such as Yussef El Guindi and Betty Shamieh, continue to be discovered, nurtured, and produced. Not only because the work of Middle Eastern American artists is worthy of broader audiences, but more importantly because American audiences can no longer afford not to see their work."
Middle East America will provide a $10,000 commission to a Middle Eastern American playwright to write a new play. Awarded through an application process, the prize also provides intensive developmental support from the Lark, staged readings and possible productions at Golden Thread Productions and Silk Road Theatre Project, and travel expenses for the writer to be present at all stages of the process. During the play's development and production arc, representatives of partner organizations will travel to each city-Chicago, New York, and San Francisco-to observe the process and to engage in public conversations and panel events about Middle Eastern American voices.
The initiative is designed to encourage other theatres, both American and international, to produce work from Middle Eastern American writers, and to creatively challenge the lack of representation and one dimensional, stereotypical depiction of persons of Middle Eastern descent often seen on America's stages. Lark Producing Director, John Clinton Eisner says the initiative "supports with dollars and deeds the stories and perspectives of a still-marginalized community that has the potential to change our national -and global-conversation for the good."
For more information and application guidelines on Middle East America: A National New Plays Initiative, visit: www.middleeastamerica.org. The application deadline is July 31, 2008. The selected writer will be announced in September 2008.
Nine High Schoolers To Participate In Victory Gardens' Summer Playwriting Program
The Victory Gardens Theater Arts Education Department has selected nine talented Chicago-area high school students to participate in its free, summer youth playwriting intensive program, Sound Off: Your Words/Your Voice 2008.
Now in its 6th year, Sound Off is designed for high school students to receive mentoring from a professional playwright while learning the mechanics of writing a play and having it produced for the stage. The following nine students have been selected to work Victory Gardens' resident playwright Douglas Post from a pool of more than 50 candidates:
These young writers will meet twice a week from June 24 through July 31 at the Victory Gardens Biograph Theater to work on developing their original plays. The program concludes with each nominee holding auditions for their play, which will be subsequently performed on the Biograph mainstage Sunday, August 3 at 4 pm, allowing the young playwrights to see their work performed Readers Theater-style by working actors in front of a live audience.
Candidates were nominated by their teachers and have displayed interest in theater, creative writing, and self-expression. "The goals of Sound Off include mentoring students in the craft of writing a play, and nurturing and developing their individual voices," said Victory Gardens Arts Education Director Robert Cornelius. "Being a playwrights' theater, we also want to spur interest in playwriting and the theater arts as career options. We've found helping students write their own play with guidance from a real playwright, and watching actors bring life to the students' words is a great way to do that."
Shakespeare en Español
Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST), recent recipient of the 2008 Regional Theatre Tony Award, announced that it will produce a staged reading of Romeo y Julieta, a newly commissioned, bilingual adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, in the Theatre at Little Village Lawndale High School July 25 and 26. Henry Godinez, co-founder of Teatro Vista, director of Chicago's Latino Theatre Festival and a veteran of nine productions as a member of CST's acting company, will direct a local and national cast of Latino theater artists including Elizabeth Pena, four-time winner of the American Latino Media Arts Award. Karen Zacarķas, founding artistic director of Young Playwrights' Theatre in Washington, D.C. and winner of the 2006 Francesca Primus Award, will adapt the 75-minute work. Chicago's own Luna Blues Machine, whose music blends Latin influences with modern rock, will create a live musical soundscape for the performance.
With Romeo y Julieta, director Henry Godinez re-imagines Shakespeare's story of two lovers on opposite sides of a divided city within a modern Latino community. "For many in the United States, growing up bilingual is a fact of life," said Godinez. "It cuts across the generations. Spanish at home, English at work or school, both with friends. Finding how these two headstrong teenagers fall for each other in a world divided not just by two households, but by two languages, is fascinating."
"Shakespeare's stories belong to all of us," said CST Artistic Director Barbara Gaines, "regardless of language or time. Chicago Shakespeare brings international companies and thousands of Latino students to our theater every year. We've seen how new languages can be a bridge to understanding. With Romeo y Julieta, language serves as common ground for Spanish and English speakers alike."
Romeo y Julieta will be performed July 25 and 26, 2008 at 7:00pm in the Theatre at Little Village Lawndale High School located at 3120 S. Kostner Avenue in Chicago and is recommended for both English and Spanish-speaking audiences. Admission is free. Seating is first come, first served. Reservations are not required, but may be made by calling CST's reservation line at 312.595.5460. Immediately following each performance, the director and cast will join the audience in a 30-minute discussion. For more information, visit www.chicagoshakes.com.
Second City Sets Up Shop at the Apollo
The Second City has announced the opening of The Second City Improv All-Stars on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 8:00pm & 10:00pm at The Apollo Theater Chicago (2540 N. Lincoln Avenue). The show will run every Saturday through August 30, 2008.
Comedy with no net. "The Second City's Improv All-Stars" is an evening of hilarious improvisation from the masters of the form. A collection of alumni of the famed theatre use audience suggestions to create comedy on the spot - never seen before and probably never seen again. It's a one of a night evening with the most legendary improv artists in North America.
The Second City's Improv All-Stars will be directed by Mick Napier and will feature a rotating cast including Alex Fendrich, TJ Jagodowski, Niki Lindgren, Rachael Mason, Craig Uhiler, Claudia Wallace and Steve Waltien. Musical Director is TJ Shanoff and Stage Manager is Josh Miller.
Tickets for The Second City Improv All-Stars are $25 each. To reserve tickets, call the Apollo Theater Box Office at 773-935-6100
Are High Gas Prices Keeping You Away From the Theatre?
Wicked will help get visitors to Chicago this Fouth of July by offereing a $50 Gas Card when they prurchase a pair of tickets for July 1 - July 6 performaces of Wicked. You just need to mention the code "GAS" when ordering. Tickets are availabe by calling 312-902-1400 or visiting ticketmaster.com.
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