| Waterwell Announces US & English-language Premiere of 7 Minutes | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 09:26 am EST 02/03/22 | |
|
|
|
| Waterwell in association with Working Theater to Present the U.S. Premiere of 7 Minutes Written by Stefano Massini Translated by Francesca Spedalieri Directed by Mei Ann Teo Performances begin March 17, 2022 at HERE (New York, NY) - Waterwell is proud to announce the U.S. premiere of 7 Minutes, produced in association with Working Theater. Originally written in Italian by Stefano Massini (The Lehman Trilogy), this production is also the English-language premiere of the play, with a translation by Francesca Spedalieri commissioned by Waterwell. Directed by Mei Ann Teo (SKiNFoLK: An American Show), 7 Minutes will play March 17 through April 10, 2022 at HERE in Manhattan. Based on actual events, 7 Minutes depicts an urgent meeting of the 11 women elected to the union council of their rural Connecticut textile factory. Changes at the factory seem inevitable when new owners take over, giving the council only 90 minutes to vote on a decision with serious consequences for everyone at the factory. Tempers flare and anxieties boil over as individual needs, perspectives and suspicions vie for position while the clock runs down. A razor-sharp portrait of unionized factory workers grappling in real time with the power imbalance they depend on for their very livelihoods, 7 Minutes scrutinizes the individual impact of the economic forces and labor practices currently under debate in the United States. Best known in New York for his acclaimed play The Lehman Trilogy - a searing study in the unfettered pursuit of wealth by early captains of American industry - Massini tracks in 7 Minutes the lasting effects of the capitalist system they helped build on the workers of today, who bear the brunt of ever-tightening productivity demands and decades of government policy and business interest weakening the labor movement. 7 Minutes has been produced around the world, including in Italy, France, Germany and Iran. In translating the play to English, Spedalieri and Waterwell Artistic Director Lee Sunday Evans chose to set it in an area of the U.S. where a small number of long-standing textile factories that rely on intricate craftsmanship and skilled physical labor are still in operation today. Evans said in a statement, "In working on Stefano's plays, I've been deeply inspired by his ability to craft riveting, emotional stories about how global economic forces affect everyday people. 7 Minutes lets audiences in on a thorny debate among unionized workers facing both employers and a culture that have worn down the power of many unions since the 1970s. Our shared cultural understanding of collective action is in a state of flux; workers across the U.S. are asking, 'How much can we risk? What will we tolerate? What could we accomplish together?.'" 7 Minutes will feature scenic design by You-Shin Chen, costume design by Asa Benally, lighting and sound design by Hao Bai, and props design by Patricia Marjorie. Taylor Williams is the casting director, victor cervantes jr. is the line producer, and Brittany Coyne is the production manager. AriDy Nox serves as dramaturg. Casting for 7 Minutes will be announced later. This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE: a curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as a technical liaison. Tickets are priced according to a Sliding Scale Ticketing Initiative, reflecting Waterwell and Working Theater's commitment to accessibility. For tickets, visit here.org. HERE is located at 145 6th Avenue in Manhattan (Enter on Dominick Street, one block south of Spring Street). To learn more about 7 Minutes, visit waterwell.org. Follow Waterwell on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. BIOGRAPHIES Stefano Massini (Playwright) is an internationally renowned novelist and playwright. His work, including his celebrated The Lehman Trilogy , has been translated into 27 languages, and his plays have been performed in more theatres around the world (from the U.S. to South America, from Canada to Africa, as well as in the main theatres of the great European capitals), than any other living Italian writer, staged by such directors as Luca Ronconi, Lluìs Pasqual, Declan Donnellan and Sam Mendes. He has won multiple awards of the most prestigious theatre prizes, among them the Vittorio Tondelli Prize and the Ubu award, in Italy. Qualcosa sui Lehman (The Lehman Trilogy) has been among the most acclaimed novels published in Italy in recent years and won the Premio Selezione Campiello, the Premio Super Mondello, the Premio De Sica, the Prix Médicis Essai, and the Prix Meilleur Livre Étranger. Francesca Spedalieri (Translator). Born and raised in southern Italy, Dr. Spedalieri received her PhD in Theatre from The Ohio State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the departments of English and of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at SUNY Stony Brook. As a performer, assistant director, and director, she has collaborated with professional companies and playwrights in the U.S., Italy and the U.K., including SITI Company, the Builders Association, and the London-based Palindrome Productions. Her academic research focuses on contemporary Italian theatre, Italian women theatre practitioners, and dialects on the Italian stage. Her most recent publications include mPalermu, Dancers, and Other Plays (2020) - her translations of Emma Dante's plays - and the essay "Inside Palermo: Economic Disenfranchisement and Gender Inequality in Emma Dante's mPalermu" in Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Plays by Women: The Early Twenty-First Century (2021). Mei Ann Teo (Director) (they/she) is a queer immigrant from Singapore making theatre and film at the intersection of artistic / civic / contemplative practice, creating across genres including music theatre, intermedial participatory work, reimagining classics, and documentary theatre. Their critically acclaimed work has been seen internationally at Shakespeare's Globe, Woolly Mammoth, The Bushwick Starr, The Shed, Theaterworks Hartford, National Black Theatre, History Theatre, Belgium's Festival de Liege, the Edinburgh Fringe, Beijing International Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, among others. They are the Associate Artistic Director and Director of New Work at Oregon Shakespeare Festival. ABOUT WATERWELL Waterwell (Lee Sunday Evans, Artistic Director; Adam J. Frank, Managing Director; Heather Lanza, Director of Education; Arian Moayed, co-founder and Board Chair) is a group of artists, educators and producers dedicated to telling engrossing stories in unexpected ways that deliberately wrestle with complex civic questions. Most recently, they released the short documentary Sé Lo Que Es Pandemia / I Know What Pandemic Means featuring interviews with undocumented workers in Queens, NY about their experiences during the pandemic. The short film is by Frisly Soberanis, a filmmaker and video artist from Queens via Guatemala, and co-produced with Documented, a non-profit news site devoted solely to covering New York City's immigrants and the policies that affect their lives. Another recent project, The Flores Exhibits, is a series of short videos in which artists, lawyers, and community leaders read the legal testimonies of children held in facilities at the U.S/Mexico border in June 2019. The project, which has been screened in partnership with education and advocacy organizations around the country, is designed to create transformative experiences that catalyze meaningful dialogue about new visions for immigration policy in the United States. The company's most recent in-person production, The Courtroom, which The New York Times named "Best Theater of 2019," was a verbatim re-enactment of one woman's deportation proceedings performed in active legal spaces around New York City, including the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse. Waterwell's education program has been in residence at the Professional Performing Arts School (PPAS) since 2010, where it delivers top-quality, year-round, in-school theater training to over 200 NYC public school students. The program cultivates the student-artist holistically, demands that they develop both as an interpreter and as a creator, and aims to place their work in dialogue with what is going on outside the classroom - in their homes, communities, and the world at large. www.waterwell.org ABOUT WORKING THEATER Working Theater believes the transformative experience of live theater should not be a luxury, but a staple. Now in its 37th season, Working Theater continues its mission to produce theater for and about working people -- the essential workers of any city or town -- and to make play going a regular part of our audiences' cultural lives. By making productions relevant, accessible and affordable, regardless of geography or socio-economic status, Working Theater strives to always acknowledge the city's diversity while seeking to unite us in our common humanity. Working Theater is under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Laura Carbonell Monarque. www.theworkingtheater.org |
|
| Link | http://www.theworkingtheater.org |
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | TB REGIONAL REVIEW: "THE CURE AT TROY" in PHILADELPHIA - T.B._Admin. 09:43 am EST 02/03/22 |
| Next: | "Six" Writers Toby Marlow & Lucy Moss Will Make Their Feinstein's/54 Below Debut - Official_Press_Release 09:25 am EST 02/03/22 |
| Thread: | |
Time to render: 0.007622 seconds.