Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam: Post-Show Conversations

Join us for the ‘Second Act’ of PRC².
Come for the stunning performance – stay for insightful conversation.

PRC² is a venue for stimulating artistic presentations and a gathering place to talk about the themes they raise pertaining to topical issues.

Expert panelists joining artist Trieu Tran and co-author/director Robert Egan following performances Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam include:

Wednesday, Aug 26
We begin concentrating on the artists, performer/playwright Trieu Tran and his collaborator, co-author/director Robert Egan.

Thursday, Aug 27
Professor Christian Lentz
Christian C. Lentz is Assistant Professor of Geography at UNC. He holds a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell and a Master’s of Enviromental Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Specializing in Southeast Asia, his interests include agrarian studies, development, state formation, nationalism, and nature-society relations. His publications have appeared in Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Political Geography and Journal of Peasant Studies. His book manuscript Bounded Revolutions: Dien Bien Phu and the Making of Northwest Vietnam explores hidden histories and local politics during and after the battle that toppled French Indochina in 1954.

Friday, Aug 28

Henry Nguyen, President, Vietnamese American Association of Raleigh
Henry Nguyễn is the president of the Vietnamese American Association of Raleigh. Born and raised in Vietnam, he has been a resident of Raleigh for over 20 years. A graduate of NC State University, Henry works as a software engineer in the telecommunications industry in Research Triangle Park. He served on the Board of Directors of VeNguon Foundation, which organized VeNguon Camp, one of the largest Vietnamese cultural camps in the US. Locally, he is active working with the community and other charitable organizations.

Saturday, Aug 29
Pearl Nguyen & Vimy Dang, Executive Board Members, UNC Vietnamese Student Association

Sunday, Aug 30 (7:30pm)
Brittany Darst, Program Associate, Carolina Asia Center
Brittany Darst provides administrative and logistical support to Carolina Asia Center programs, including event planning, student group coordination and community outreach. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna with a double major in Public Relations and Asian Studies.

All are welcome for these discussions - join us!

These post-show conversations are free and open to the public (beginning 5 minutes after the end of each 90-minute performance of Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam), however, space is limited.

Call the Box Office at 919.962.7529 to reserve your seat!

Creating Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam - Part 2: Taking the Story Onstage

Trieu Tran shares some thoughts on taking his autobiographical play from "page to stage."

Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam is Trieu’s first solo play, written with co-author Robert Egan. They developed the piece in 2011 at the Ojai Playwrights Conference, where Robert is Artistic Director/Producer. Then they took it to Seattle where ACT/A Contemporary Theatre mounted the world premiere production in Fall 2012. It has gone on to play for Center Theatre Group at Los Angeles' Kirk Douglas Theatre and at Shakespeare Orange County.

Click below for a look behind the scenes as they readied the play to for the premiere at ACT:



Trieu says, "The audiences taught us immensely, particularly in Seattle, where we premiered the play."

"Robert and I would go out after each preview performance and have a glass of wine and read the audience response sheets. They give out these sheets at each preview with specific questions and we would be given them after each of our first ten previews prior to official opening.

"We discovered out of 400 people a night that huge numbers were writing to us. It was overwhelming, the response and impact the play was having on them. Second, we discovered they were having an issue with the end of the play where I perform a ritual of healing. We did not have it right yet. There was some exquisite balance between understanding and forgiveness; between looking back and moving forward; between my journey and the audience’s journey being linked. We found it as a result of the audience questions and restlessness. There were many ways the audience helped shape Robert’s and my perception of the finished work."

For a look at "a moment from" the world premiere performance, click below:


Join us when Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam opens this season's PRC2 stage August 26-30.

Click here or call 919-962-7529 for tickets or more information.

Creating Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam - Part 1: Inspiration and Conception

In this season's PRC² opener, Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam, creator/performer Trieu Tran shares an intense autobiographical journey. How did he and collaborator/director Robert Egan turn his true story into a riveting theatrical performance?
"Robert and I were doing a play together in New York about the aftermath of the Viet Nam War on a group of American veterans. I played a character who was a memory figure from a GI’s time in Viet Nam. Robert was my director on that play. We used to spend most of our break time together talking about sports and Los Angeles and, of course, the Viet Nam War. I have a very personal history in relation to that war and so does Robert. I lost family and friends and a country. Robert lost friends and parts of his country. Robert and I talked long and hard and in a most complicated way about both of our experiences. He suggested I had a real story to tell.

"We went back to LA and had a 6-hour lunch where I told him much of my story. A play was born that day. We began a writing process where Robert essentially sent me topics/prompts/feelings to write about, riff about, meditate about. I wrote fully and wildly and emotionally. Robert would shape the material and send it back to me.

"We found we were writing as one, in my voice, in my sound. It was thrilling. We did this for months. We amassed about 300 pages of writing and responses. And then Robert and I kept shaping and pounding out the dramatic sculpture that is now Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam. So I guess Robert got me to believe that a play was worthy and possible.

"The deep inspiration for the play was what happened to my father, my mother, my family and me as a result of losing our country and trying desperately to find our identity and soul in a series of new worlds.

"Essentially this is the story of my journey to America from Viet Nam in the immediate aftermath of the war there. Then it is my journey through refugee camps, Canada and the United States in an attempt for my family and me to find a home that is free and fair. It's also a family drama about my father’s attempt to adjust to a world where he had lost a country; my mother’s attempts to raise a family with love and safety in foreign lands; and my attempts to find wholeness and love and a voice in a new world."

Next: Creating Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam - Part 2: Taking the Story Onstage

Join us when PlayMakers kicks off the 2015/16 Season with Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam August 26-30.

Click here or call 919-962-7529 for tickets or more information.

2015/16 Season Preview and Q&A with Joseph Haj

On June 11th at 6:30pm we’re hosting a special preview of the upcoming season including a Q&A with Producing Artistic Director Joseph Haj. WUNC’s Frank Stasio will join Joe onstage to discuss the 2015/16 lineup and what’s ahead for PlayMakers. It will be an evening of celebration for our PlayMakers family and the community.

As a prelude to our June 11th event, Joe sat down for an interview with PlayMakers dramaturg Jacqueline Lawton to discuss how he selects a season and what excites him about our new slate of plays. He also shares a few thoughts on his time at PlayMakers.

Read on for highlights from their conversation; then we hope you’ll join us on June 11th for more of Joe’s insider look at the road ahead and the chance to pose some of your own questions.

This event is FREE, but reservations are required, first come, first served, as space is limited. Please contact the Box Office at 919.962.7529 to reserve your spot today!

Click here for June 11th event details.

A conversation with Producing Artistic Director Joseph Haj & Dramaturg Jacqueline Lawton

Jacqueline Lawton (JL): What guides you when selecting a season? 

Joseph Haj (JH): A season ought to feel like a multi-course meal. If it’s all dessert, that’s no good. If it’s all meat, that’s no good either. Like any good meal, there’s a salad, a first course, an entrée, and, of course, dessert and coffee. We proportion the menu with a variety of dishes - larger to smaller cast shows, larger to smaller productions. We also want to give ample opportunities to our company – our resident acting company as well as the graduate students in technical and costume production. So, for instance, we ask - is there a play in period in the season? The students can’t just put jeans and t-shirts on characters all season long. There must be a variety of styles and approaches for educational purposes, along with providing variety onstage. So you see many factors are involved. But to answer the question narrowly, we choose a pattern of plays that make us sit up and say “THIS … this is the season we want to make.”

JL: The 2015/16 Mainstage Season opener is Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. Why did you want to produce this play?

JH: I went with my family to visit my wife’s parents in South Carolina and Disgraced was one of several scripts I read over the weekend. I finished reading and was so disturbed by it. And all the other plays all kind of vanished. All I could think about was this complicated, atypical, challenging play. It caused me to think about ideas around, not just racial prejudice, but cultural assimilation. Anything that had me thinking for so long and so deeply about these important questions had to be a part of the season.

JL: Next in the lineup is Seminar by Theresa Rebeck. Why do you feel Seminar will resonate so well here? 

JH: I love this play particularly in our world here, as a professional theatre on a university campus. The play deals with the dynamic of a brilliant, complicated teacher and four students, who pay a fair amount of money to be close to his genius and learn about writing. It says an awful lot about the dynamic between teachers and students, and the way we make heroes and knock them down. It also lines up beautifully for the magnificent actor, Ray Dooley, in the central role of the teacher, and four members of our acting company as the students.

JL: Then you selected Peter and the Starcatcher for the holidays. 

JH: I wanted a family show for the holiday season, but the challenge is to find something that’s thrilling, fun, beautifully crafted, and not just for kids. So, I’m very excited about Peter and the Starcatcher because it truly resonates on an adult level as well as with young people. It’s an absolute delight, filled with invention and will feature 13-14 members of our acting company. Brendon Fox, who led terrific productions of Opus and Angels in America at PlayMakers, will be directing for us.

JL: Following that, we have the world premiere of a new adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters. 

JH: Libby Appel, former artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is one of our great Chekhov scholars, translators, adaptors, and I love her new version of Three Sisters. I love her point of view. It’s smart and muscular. It’s not pulled out of period in any way, yet it feels contemporary in a way that feels close to us. To see Anton Chekhov’s great text through the lens of Libby’s expertise made me excited to do this play. And with a wonderful director like Vivienne Benesch, who’s been with us on multiple occasions (Red, In the Next Room, Love Alone), it will be in good hands.

JL: From there, we have We Are Proud to Present… by Jackie Sibblies Drury. What draws you to this play? 

JH: I love this play. I love it formally. I love it aesthetically. I love its politics. A group of well-minded, well-intentioned folks get together to try to put on a play - which is something ludicrously hard to do under the best of circumstances. Then, in their exploration of the topics in the play, the wheels come off, which ends up being terrifically revealing about the undercurrents of prejudice that reside even in those of us who consider ourselves progressive. The play illuminates these ideas in insightful ways in the form of a very exciting piece of theatre. We Are Proud to Present… will be directed by Desdemona Chiang, who so beautifully helmed this season’s Mainstage finale, 4000 Miles.

JL: Tell us about the Mainstage Season finale, Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. 

JH: Sondheim is hands-down one of our great playwrights; and Sweeney Todd, which is almost entirely sung, is a masterpiece. A revenge story, it’s set against the meat grinder of the Industrial Revolution. This idea of the meat grinder – in the story there are people ground into pies – is a metaphor for a society grinding its own citizens into the dust. With themes of economic disparity, it speaks to our current moment in a lot of ways. I’m thrilled to have it in the season as another look at the masterworks of Stephen Sondheim, as last season featured Into the Woods.

JL: Why did you chose Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam and Highway 47 for the PRC² second stage series?

JH: Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam follows the harrowing journey of Trieu Tran and his family from Vietnam to the United States. It’s a profound immigrant story. KJ Sanchez’s Highway 47 is another story about the American experience. KJ can track her ancestry in New Mexico back at least a dozen generations through the land given to her family through Spanish land grants. The play is about enormous battles in her family for the rights to that land. KJ is both writer and performer; as is Trieu Tran of his play.

JL: Being located in the Triangle area of North Carolina and based on a university campus, there’s a wide range of cultures, racial and gender identities, religions in our community. Can you talk about the efforts that go into making sure those communities are represented onstage in the plays and off stage in the audience? 

JH: It’s an enormous challenge. Universities are often seen as ivory towers in their broader community. And theatres, institutional theatres, are often thought of in the same way. So when you’re a professional theatre housed on a university campus, you’re talking about an ivory tower inside an ivory tower in terms of perception. We’ve worked very, very, very hard over these last nine years to make the walls of the building more porous. To offer a broader sense of invitation – to really make clear that all of our community is welcome and desired to be part of our theatre.

JL: Share with us how you work to bring greater inclusion to theatre. 

JH: The leader of an organization needs to determine whether diversity is a priority. And if it is, then you must be intentional about what you’re doing, at least some of the time. We work hard to make sure there’s inclusion of a diversity of voices across the season in terms of the work that we do. It’s a challenge when you’re a theatre dedicated to the classics, but there are ways, such as determining who gets to tell those stories, who are the directors and do you have gender and ethnic balance amongst those directors and who will design the plays. We’re very intentional about having a plurality of voices; different points of view. And not as a matter of checking boxes, but because we believe it actually makes the art better.

JL: Allow me to express a heartfelt congrats from all of us at PlayMakers on your appointment as the Guthrie Theater’s next Artistic Director. You’ve achieved so much during your tenure here. What do you feel most proud of? 

JH: Thank you. It has been an honor to serve this community. I’m proud that we’ve built an audience, a community of people, who are interested in their own growth through participation in the life of a professional theatre. That’s a beautiful gift, and I’ll miss that entirely. We have an audience who comes not only to be entertained, to have a laugh or see a show that may be forgotten by morning. Our audience members are also interested in testing themselves … testing their ideas and their ideas about themselves. And that’s been built over time. When I came here nine years ago, we were a theatre making five plays a year. And I thought of something Ben Cameron, head of TCG [Theatre Communications Group], used to say. Ben said, “A good question for an arts organization to ask itself is what would be lost from the community if it were to shutter its doors?” I firmly held that question in mind when I started here. I remember thinking, if the answer is only five well-made plays a year, then that wouldn’t be nearly enough. That’s not nearly an important enough role for a regional theatre. I think PlayMakers has become an important part of the cultural fabric of this community. And for that, I’m very proud.

JL: And finally, what do you think you’ll miss the most? 

JH: The greatest gift an artistic director can be given is the opportunity to make work for smart people; and we have an incredibly smart community here. Many patrons come to us as sophisticated theatre-goers and many more have become sophisticated theatre-goers by virtue of participating in our work. I’ll miss that a lot. Fortunately I’m going to the Guthrie, and the Twin Cities, an area also noted for supporting of the arts. I’m incredibly grateful for the support of this community and for what we’ve achieved at PlayMakers.

Join us on June 11th for our FREE 2015/16 Season Preview event and Q&A with Joseph Haj. Reservations are required as space is limited, so call our Box Office at 919.962.7529 to reserve your spot!

All's Fair in Love and War

By Karen O'Brien

'Tis better to have loved and lost

Than never to have loved at all.

—Lord Alfred Tennyson

Throughout the centuries the likenesses of love and war have proved intriguing. In literature, the idea that love and war belong to a distinctive sphere beyond regular rules of fairness is first attributed to poet John Lyly in his novel Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit (1579), which forthrightly states: "The rules of fair play do not apply in love and war." A quarter century later, Miguel de Cervantes famously compares the laws of love and war in Don Quixote (1604): "Love and War are the same thing, and stratagems and polity are as allowable in the one as in the other." It was in Francis Edward Smedley's novel Frank Fairleigh (1850) that the now famous maxim originally appeared: "All is fair in love and war." Today we are still fascinated by stories about the glories of love and war, particularly when the two are intermingled.

Stephen Massicotte's Mary's Wedding takes us on a poetic journey in which we are led through the intimate terrain of haunted memories that traverse majestic prairie fields, setting the scene for romantic love, and the battle-weary fields of the Great War (1914-1918). We follow young Mary Chambers and Charlie Edwards from their first meeting during a thunderstorm on the Saskatchewan prairie to Charlie's travels across the Atlantic to patriotically join Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) regiment of the Canadian Cavalry Brigade in England, where he experiences trench life in war-ravaged France. The non-linear structure of Mary's Wedding enables us to theatrically experience simultaneous locations and recurring dreamscapes, which fuse these weighty themes of love and war. The structural and thematic fluidity also imaginatively parallels the fluctuating states of mind of Mary and Charlie as they realize the fragility of love during turbulent times.

Canola Fields south of Leader Saskatchewan

First World War: French lancers preparing to chase German retreat. Their cavalry lance is the same as that used in the 18th and 19th centuries. WWI marked the end of cavalry combat roles.

Karen emphasizes the juxtaposition of the prairie field and battlefield images to symbolize love and war.

In Mary's Wedding, Mary and Charlie quote passages from the poetry of Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), whose Romantic style from the Victorian era inspires them. These allusions add to the poetic features of the play give insight into the characters' thoughts and feelings. Mary's allusion to Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott" (1833, rev. 1842) mirrors her own views regarding the complications of her war-torn love affair. Charlie alludes to "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1870), concerning the heroic but futile charge during the Battle of Balaklava (October 1854) in which two thirds of the nearly 670 men were wounded and killed to gain territory in a Russian position during the Crimean War (1853-1856). Charlie's use of this poem reveals his feelings as he recounts the frightful Battle of Moreuil Wood in which his sergeant successfully leads the patriotic charge brandishing a mere saber against German soldiers armed with rifles and machine guns. Sergeant Flowers is based on Lieutenant Gordon Muriel Flowerdew (1885-1918), who won the Victoria Cross for his valiant advance that led to the German retreat. Flowers' cavalry charge is the last in recorded military history, and the subsequent apprehension of Moreuil Wood was a milestone in the Great War. To this day, a commemoration is held annually in honor of those who fell during this battle, and plans are in progress for the centenary celebration of Moreuil Wood in 2018. Over 400,000 Canadians served overseas in the Canadian Army during World War I.

In 1915, Major John McCrae (pictured) witnessed red poppies blowing in the breeze over freshly dug graves and was inspired to write "In Flanders Fields," one of the greatest war poems ever written. In doing so, he forever made the red poppy a symbol of remembrance and honor for our war dead.

No battle is ever won, he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

—William Faulkner

Mary's Wedding adds to UNC's yearlong academic conversation on the Great War centenary. Through the lens of the relentless terror and suffering of trench warfare, we come to better understand not only concepts of glory and honor but also the stakes of romanticizing them. The cast and artistic team of this production collaborated to create an inventive landscape in which dream, memory and history intertwine, delivering an inspired space to engage our imaginations in this theatrical force of love and war. The production offers an opportunity to experience on many levels—thematically, theatrically, and emotionally—the recurring dreams both of dark and devastating losses and of the great capacity of the human compassion that reverberates throughout our war-scarred histories. As we traverse the haunted memories of those who served and those who were left behind, we have the opportunity to reconsider what is fair in love and war. It is, after all, our voices that will determine the memories and histories of those taking part in our shared future.

Mary's Wedding is onstage the PRC² stage April 29-May 3.

Click here for more info or call our box office at 919.962.PLAY (7529).

Opening Night Performance of Wrestling Jerusalem

Tonight is opening night for the regional premiere of Wrestling Jerusalem, performed by Aaron Davidman on the PRC² stage. It may seem a simple thing to execute a one-man show, but Aaron Davidman, his California-based crew, and all of us here at PlayMakers have been working tirelessly on the heels of the holidays. There’s no such thing as a small show for us!

The set for Wrestling Jerusalem is simply a painted back drop. One actor. No costume changes. No props. So how is it that this production can capture the realities of 18 characters caught within one of the most consuming global conflicts of our lifetime? The answer lies greatly in the work of lighting designer Allen Willner and sound designer Bruno Louchouarn. “The lighting and sound design work together to create the different spaces that I travel in and inhabit,” Aaron explains to us. “The lighting shapes each moment, helping transform the space both in terms of physicality and mood. The sound design is also paramount to this production, creating an audio landscape, sometimes of the realistic sounds of place, other times more ethereal for mood or emotional or spiritual tone.”

With these elements in place, the work each night of course falls primarily on Aaron’s shoulders.

"The mental focus and concentration that is demanded of me is profound, and the physical endurance of this particular piece–90 minutes without pause—is very challenging. But it is the topic itself that has been the most challenge to wrestle with, so to speak."

Though he is alone onstage, Aaron did not work alone on the production. “My director Michael John Garcés and I worked very closely together—he was a wonderful dramaturg—and he helped find the performative modes that keep the piece moving and very theatrical.”

We are proud to be Aaron’s first stop on his national tour. Don’t miss your chance to see it here! Click here for more info or call our box office at 919.962.PLAY (7529).

Wrestling Jerusalem Post-Show Conversations

Join us for the 'Second Act' of PRC².

We've created PRC² as a venue for stimulating, topical artistic presentations and a safe place to talk about the themes they raise pertaining to the challenging issues of our day.

Jan 7 - 11, following each performance of Wrestling Jerusalem, expert panelists joining artist Aaron Davidman and moderator Collin Rustin include:

Panelists

Wednesday, Jan 7

Michael Figueroa
Michael A. Figueroa is an ethnomusicologist who researches the relation between music, place, and violence in the Middle East and Mediterranean regions. His current book project focuses on how national space is musically and poetically constructed in Israel/Palestine, with a focus on the critical moment of the Six-Day War of 1967. A multidisciplinary study of musical-poetic practice (including public rituals of commemoration, festivals, recording projects, and a variety of print and mass media), the monograph will explore the close relation between musical knowledge and spatial justice in the region. His additional research interests include music and memory in/of Muslim Iberia, global popular music, black music, music and violence, music and literature, hermeneutics, and the analysis of song. He holds a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Musicology from Northwestern University. His research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, American Musicological Society (Howard Mayer Brown Fellowship), and a Fulbright-IIE Fellowship. He currently serves as Co-chair of the Society for Ethnomusicology’s Special Interest Group for the Study of Music and Violence, Assistant Editor for the International Council for Traditional Music’s Mediterranean Music Studies Study Group, and Board Member for the Mayart Foundation.

Thursday, Jan 8

Ari Roth, Artistic Director, Mosaic Theater Company (former Artistic Director at Theater J)
Ari Roth is an American theatrical producer, playwright, director and educator. From 1997 to 2014, he served as the Artistic Director of Theater J in Washington, D.C. Roth grew up on the South Side of Chicago and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Laboratory High School and the University of Michigan where he studied playwriting and received his first of two Avery Hopwood Awards for Drama from noted Michigan alum, playwright Arthur Miller. The Washington Post has described Roth as a “maverick artistic director” noted for staging premiers of new works by both “established and budding playwrights.” The New York Times called Roth's play Born Guilty a "searing drama." The play was commissioned and produced by Arena Stage, directed by Zelda Fichandler and nominated for the 1992 Helen Hayes/Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play. As a producer, with Theater J he produced world premieres by the late Wendy Wasserstein (Welcome To My Rash & Third), Joyce Carol Oates (The Tattooed Girl), Richard Greenberg (Bal Masque), Ariel Dorfman (Picasso's Closet), and Either Or by “Schindler's List” author, Thomas Keneally. As an educator, he has taught at the University of Michigan for ten years and has lectured at Brandeis, Carnegie Mellon and New York Universities. He currently teaches a course in political theater for the University of Michigan's “Michigan in DC” internship program and is the Founding Artistic Director of Mosaic Theatre Company.

Jacqueline E. Lawton, Professor, Department of Dramatic Art, UNC-Chapel Hill
Jacqueline E. Lawton was named one of 30 of the nation's leading black playwrights by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute. Her plays include: Anna K; Blood-bound and Tongue-tied; Deep Belly Beautiful; The Devil’s Sweet Water; The Hampton Years; Ira Aldridge: the African Roscius; Lions of Industry, Mothers of Invention; Love Brothers Serenade (2013 semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference); Mad Breed; Noms de Guerre; and Our Man Beverly Snow. Ms. Lawton received her MFA in Playwriting from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a James A. Michener Fellow. She is a 2012 TCG Young Leaders of Color award recipient, National New Play Network (NNPN) Playwright Alum, and member of Arena Stage's Playwrights' Arena. She is also a proud member of the Dramatist Guild of America.

Friday, Jan 9

Layla Quran, Undergraduate, UNC-Chapel Hill
Layla Quran was born in Jerusalem and raised in Greenville, NC. She is a senior Global Studies and Journalism student at UNC. After her first year at Carolina, she visited the West Bank to complete a research project on the role of the Arts as a form of resistance in Palestine. She interviewed nearly 50 Palestinian artists throughout the West Bank.  She most recently returned from a research trip this past summer where she conducted interviews with Palestinian artists on their thoughts regarding the cultural boycott movement for her honors thesis. She hopes to pursue a career in multimedia journalism after graduation.

Itay Asaf, Israel Scholar, NC Hillel
Itay Asaf, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to Hillel, earned his BA in behavioral science from Yizrael Valley College in Israel. He grew up in kibbutz Ginossar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He worked as a counselor at an after school program for 1st through 6th graders on his kibbutz. He served in the special forces of the IDF for 3 years. He is a former basketball coach and the manager of a basketball school in Emek Yizrael valley basketball club. 

Saturday, Jan 10

Itay Asaf, Israel Scholar, NC Hillel
Itay Asaf, Jewish Agency Israel Fellow to Hillel, earned his BA in behavioral science from Yizrael Valley College in Israel. He grew up in kibbutz Ginossar, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. He worked as a counselor at an after school program for 1st through 6th graders on his kibbutz. He served in the special forces of the IDF for 3 years. He is a former basketball coach and the manager of a basketball school in Emek Yizrael valley basketball club. 

Elyse Crystall, Professor, English and Comparative Literature, UNC-Chapel Hill
Elyse Crystall, originally from Brooklyn, NY, is a long time social justice activist and human rights advocate. She teaches in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-CH, is a member of Concerned Faculty for Palestine at UNC-Chapel Hill, and co-convenes the Carolina Seminar "Rethinking Israel/Palestine." She is also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace. In the summers of 2006 and 2011, Dr. Crystall visited the West Bank to rebuild demolished Palestinian homes.
 

Sunday, January 11 (7:30pm)

Yaakov Ariel, Professor, Department of Religious Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill
Yaakov Ariel is a native of Jerusalem. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Chicago, where he obtained his doctoral degree. A scholar of Christian-Jewish relations, he teaches at the Department of Religious Studies at UNC.

Conversation Facilitator

Collin E. Rustin, Jr., President – Rustin & Associates, L.L.C.
Collin established his company to help businesses improve productivity and manage conflict; to help community organizations increase their effectiveness in handling controversial issues; and to help governmental agencies improve their efficiency by providing skill-building workshops focusing on executive coaching, diversity awareness training, mediation services and conflict resolution. Prior to operating his own business full time, Collin was director of Human Resources Counseling Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where his staff was responsible for providing confidential services, workplace mediation, resolving employee/management conflicts, and approving employment terminations to more than 5,000 staff employees.

Collin also provides management feedback and executive training services at the internationally renowned Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro and for AvoLead, LLC in Durham NC. He co-leads training modules focusing on developing high performance teams and leading people through transitions.

He has used his mediation training to help corporations and governmental agencies manage different conflict situations and reduce tensions among members of different ethnic groups.
A graduate of UNC-CH, Collin received his BA degree in Psychology and his Master of Arts degree in Public Administration/Political Science. Collin is recognized as a Board Certified Coach by the Center for Credentialing & Education, Inc.

All are welcome - join us!

These post-show discussions are free and open to the public (beginning 5 minutes after the end of each 90-minute performance of Wrestling Jerusalem), however, space is limited.

Call the Box Office at 919.962.PLAY (7529) to reserve your seat!

Regional Premiere of Wrestling Jerusalem

Turning our attention to a new year and a new show, Aaron Davidman brings us his one-man show Wrestling Jerusalem January 7 to 11. We are proud to be the first stop on his national tour, which will go to Los Angeles, Boston and New York City.

Wrestling Jerusalem grapples with identity, history and social justice, exploring the competing narratives at the center of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict that has lasted generations. The San Francisco Chronicle calls it a “remarkable solo performance” [of] “yearning beauty … deep sadness and wistful hope.”

Aaron describes it as following one man’s travels to Israel and Palestine “to try to understand the nuance and complexity that lives in the hearts of the human beings at the center of the conflict. Part personal memoir, part transformational theatre, in addition to myself, I play 17 different characters whom I meet along the way, each with his own story and perspective to share.”

We strive to bring you innovative, topical performances in our PRC² series. Earlier this season, we presented Roger Guenveur Smith’s Rodney King, which was highly relevant given the events in Ferguson, Missouri. The generations-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is the focus of Wrestling Jerusalem, remains fresh with the current situation in Gaza. The questions and dialogues these shows spark are the hallmark of PRC² enhanced by their "second act" of our engaging post-show discussions with the creative artists and expert panelists following each performance.

Performances of Wrestling Jerusalem will be 7:30 pm nightly plus 2pm on Sunday, Jan. 11 in the Kenan Theatre.

For tickets, contact the Box Office at 919.962-PLAY (7529).

“Rodney King” wraps up at PlayMakers

Roger Guenveur Smith in Rodney King at PlayMakers

PlayMakers kicked off the 2014/15 Season with its first PRC² show, Rodney King, to much acclaim. Roger Guenveur Smith explored the man behind the myth and why his plaintive "Can we all get along?" remains an open question in America's complicated relationship with race.

In The Five Points Star, Kate Dobbs Ariail wrote that, “in the manner of a jazz musician, Smith modulates and segues, again and again, through 65 minutes of variations in a minor key on the theme of the man’s life and actions. He dwells, naturally, on the horrific beating and the terrible trial, but he weaves in strand after strand of fact and makes the man, the human, more whole than 10,000 news reports could do.”

Congratulations to Roger and PlayMakers for performing this moving and timely piece.

If you missed Roger's interview on The State of Things, you can hear it here.

PlayMakers presents world premiere of Mike Daisey’s ‘The Story of the Gun’

PlayMakers Repertory Company will present the world premiere of “The Story of The Gun,” created and performed by award-winning storyteller-monologuist Mike Daisey, Jan. 8-12.

Mike Daisey, photo by Ursa Waz

The professional theater in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill specially commissioned the production as part of its PRC² series. PRC² features innovative, topical presentations coupled with engaging post-show discussions with the creative artists following each performance.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. nightly and 2 p.m. on Jan. 12 in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road. Ticket prices start at $15 and may be purchased at www.playmakersrep.org or by calling (919) 962-PLAY (7529). Tickets are also still available as part of PlayMakers subscription packages.

In “The Story of The Gun,” Daisey, no stranger to controversy, tackles his most provocative subject yet: America’s relationship with guns. Throwing easy answers and partisan bickering out the window, Daisey’s performance promises to cut through the political static with his trademark blend of hilarious comedy, brilliant observation and pitch-perfect timing.

“I programmed ‘The Story of The Gun’ this season for the same reason that I programmed ‘Assassins;’ to engage in a meaningful conversation with our community about guns and how deeply woven they are in our idea of ourselves as Americans,” says PlayMakers producing artistic director Joseph Haj. “We are a nation of roughly 300 million people and 300 million guns. I think that’s worthy of interrogation.”

The New York Times calls Mike Daisey “the master storyteller...one of the finest solo performers of his generation.” “A monologuist who always threatens to burst out of his chosen form—funny, literate and provocative,” says the Chicago Tribune. “A mesmerizing performer who spins words into comic and emotional gold,” agrees The Oakland Tribune.

“Mike is one of the most clear-eyed, artistically courageous and compelling artists around,” Haj added. “I knew, by commissioning him to wrestle with this issue, he’d create something that challenges our assumptions with scathing, hilarious and insightful observations from multiple points of view. To share the work of two master storytellers in Mike Daisey and Stephen Sondheim, each of them looking at the question of guns in our culture using their own unique talents, allows us to put together two plays that are both thought-provoking and hugely entertaining.”

PlayMakers will present Stephen Sondheim’s multiple Tony Award-winner “Assassins” April 2-20. The musical blends stunning lyrics and beautiful music with a panoramic story of our nation’s culture of celebrity and the violent means some will use to obtain it, embodied by America’s four successful and five would-be presidential assassins.

Rounding out this season’s PRC² lineup will be “Hold These Truths” by Jeanne Sakata (April 23-27). Next in PlayMakers’ Mainstage Season is Noel Coward comedy classic “Private Lives” (Jan. 22-Feb. 9.)

PlayMakers is based in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences. The Drama League of New York has named PlayMakers one of the best regional theaters in America and INDY Week calls PlayMakers the best live theater company in the Triangle.



For more information about Mike Daisey: www.mikedaisey.blogspot.com .

The Design of "A Number"

What was the inspiration for the haunting set design for A Number, the first PRC² production of the season? Costume and set designer Jan Chambers reveals that her design process began upon discovering the backstory actor Ray Dooley created for his character.

After learning that Dooley decided that his character's emotional problems arose from a traumatic experience in Vietnam, Chambers happened to encounter a painting that she said spoke to her of the character's "haunted stated of mind."

"The resemblance to Ray is uncanny, and the painting emotionally cemented his character for both of us," Chambers said. "The play, of course, takes place some 35-40 years after that moment, but his past and present state of mind definitely played a part in the design of the space - a small, confined, claustropobic world where something massive is slowly closing in."

Josh Barrett and Ray Dooley in A Number by Caryl Churchill.
(Photo by Andrea Akin.)

Chambers incorporated that tension into the space. She said of her design, "Skewing the angles of the room and pulling the space into the audience's lap further helped create a visceral environment that played as a counterpoint to the measured and suppressed dialogue of denial and avoidance."

A Number is now playing through Sunday, September 11. Click here for more details.

Announcing our 2011/2012 Season!

We're thrilled to announce our terrific 2011/2012 season! Watch the video below to see Producing Artistic Director Joseph Haj give an overview of each of next year's plays.



Mainstage Season:

In The Next Room
(or the vibrator play) 
by Sarah Ruhl
September 21 - October 9, 2011

The Parchman Hour
written and directed by Mike Wiley
October 26 - November 13, 2011

TBA
November 30 - December 18, 2011
An exciting production to be announced soon. Are you on our email list? That's the very best way to stay up to date on production announcements, special events, and discounts. Click Here to sign up!

The Making of a King
Henry IV & Henry V
by William Shakespeare
in rotating repertory
January 28 - March 4, 2012

Noises Off
by Michael Frayn
April 4 - 22, 2012

PRC² Season

A Number
by Caryl Churchill
September 7 - 11, 2011

TBA
January 11 - 15, 2012

Penelope
written and performed by Ellen McLaughlin
music composed by Sarah Kirkland Snider
April 25 - 29, 2012

Beckett's Happy Days Opens Tonight!

Today we're taking a detour from our Mainstage production to bring you these "hot-off-the-presses" photos from PRC² 's Happy Days, which opens tonight. Longtime company member Julie Fishell portrays Winnie, one of the great female roles of the American theatre, while fellow company member Ray Dooley plays her husband Willie.

Happy Days is Samuel Beckett's absurdist comedy masterpiece - at times whimsical and fantastical, while at others poignant and moving. It's rumored that the Nobel Prize winning playwright wrote it in response to a friend's request that he "write a happy play." You'll want to see this one if you can!