'Basic Training' Has Off-Broadway Premiere at Barrow Street Starting 9/26

Josephson Entertainment, Erich Jungwirth/VoiceChair Productions and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd announced today the Off-Broadway premiere of BASIC TRAINING (www.BasicTrainingNYC.com), a new comedy created by and starring Kahlil Ashanti. BASIC TRAINING is a hilarious story based on one soldier’s outrageous experience in the U.S. Air Force and will play the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow St. at 7th Avenue, 1 block south of Christopher Street) beginning Friday, Sept. 26th with an official opening on Monday, Oct. 13th.

BASIC TRAINING chronicles Ashanti’s amazing tour as a member of the elite entertainment troupe “Tops In Blue” in the U.S. Air Force.  A life altering event forces his attention home to face the childhood he tried to forget.  Ashanti plays twenty-three unforgettable characters that tell his funny true story.

With production supervision by Hal Brooks, the lighting design is by Tyler Micoleau.

Winner of the 2004 Montreal and Vancouver Fringe Festivals and the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival Spirit of the Fringe and Scotsman Fringe First Award, BASIC TRAINING had its premiere in October 2004 in Los Angeles.

Tickets for BASIC TRAINING are $35. The performance schedule is as follows: Monday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:00 p.m. with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.  Tickets can be purchased by visiting www.smarttix.com or calling (212) 868-4444.  For more information, please visit: www.BasicTrainingNYC.com.

Kahlil Ashanti (Writer/Performer). Born in Germany, raised in Japan, and now living in Vancouver, with many other places in between, Kahlil Ashanti has plenty of material for his dramatic endeavors.  In order to escape an abusive childhood, Kahlil enlisted in the Air Force in 1992, where he performed with Tops In Blue, an elite Air Force performance troupe that entertained troops in over 17 countries and 46 states each year.  After leaving the Air Force, Kahlil landed his own dinner theatre show at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas. Although Kahlil points to stand-up comedy as his foundation, his drama training with actor Jeffrey Tambor is still a large factor in shaping his performance.  After selling out the Edinburgh Fringe in 2005 and 2007 and winning the Scotsman Fringe First Award, "Basic Training" is receiving its Off-Broadway run.  In addition, "Basic Training" is in development as a feature film with Josephson/20th Century Fox, as well as a book and a television series. www.kahlilashanti.com

Hal Brooks (Production Supervisor) is currently directing the regional tour of Nilaja Sun’s Obie Award-winning No Child…, having directed the show’s critically-lauded run at both the Barrow Street Theatre and Epic Theatre.  Other recent productions include Widows, Life in a Marital Institution (59E59), Lonesome Hollow, Lady and Master Harold…and the Boys. He also directed the acclaimed Off-Broadway hit and Pulitzer Finalist Thom Pain (based on nothing). He was the Artistic Director of the Rude Mechanicals Theater Company of New York where he directed the Off-Broadway premieres of Don DeLillo's Valparaiso and Will Eno's The Flu Season (Oppy winner). He has worked at NYTW, New Dramatists, Naked Angels, INTAR, Magic Theater, McCarter Theater, Berkeley Rep, American Conservatory Theater, Syracuse Stage and the Virginia Stage Company.  Hal was a Drama League Fall Directing Fellow in 2003 and is a proud member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and SSDC, and is a recipient of the 2007-2009 NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors.

Barry Josephson (Producer) serves as President of his producing shingle, Josephson Entertainment, where he produced the Disney hit Enchanted, starring Patrick Dempsey and Amy Adams.  Other big screen successes have included Hide and Seek starring Robert DeNiro and Dakota Fanning, The Ladykillers, written and directed by the Coen brothers and starring Tom Hanks and Wild Wild West starring Will Smith.  Barry also helms the hit FOX drama Bones and is in post-production for 20th Century Fox's alien adventure film They Came From Upstairs being released February 13, 2009.  During his previous tenure as President of Worldwide Production for Columbia/Sony Pictures, Barry oversaw the production of Men in Black, Air Force One, The Fifth Element, Anaconda, Bad Boys, The Professional and The Craft.  Barry has also worked in personal management where he shepherded the careers of performers such as Patti LaBelle, Paula Abdul and Whoopi Goldberg.

Erich Jungwirth (Producer) is the president of the commercial Production Company, VoiceChair Productions, and has been the Producing Director of Soho Think Tank @ the Ohio Theatre (NYC) for over seven years, which has presented OBIE winning productions of Pig Iron Theatre's Hell Meets Henry Halfway, as well as John Clancy's FATBOY and won a 2003 OBIE Award for their summer festival, Ice Factory.  Erich has produced the Off-Broadway runs of Rum & Vodka by Conor McPherson, The Rude Mech's Get Your War On, Theatre O's 3 Dark Tales and was the originating producer of Nine Parts of Desire (Edinburgh/London/NYC).  He has also produced "Dora the Explorer Live! - Search for the City of Lost Toys", "Dora's Pirate Adventure" (U.S. and international tours) and "Go Diego Go Live! - The Great Jaguar Rescue" for Broadway Across America and Nickelodeon.

Richard Jordan (Producer) is the managing director of Richard Jordan Productions Ltd, a busy London and international award-winning production and theatre general management company, he has produced over 100 productions.  His previous New York and USA productions include; Nine Parts of Desire, In the Continuum, Miriam Margolyes in Dickens Women, Goodness, Rum and Vodka, Hamlet (Solo), An Oak Tree, Shylock and the U.S. transfers of Saving Tania’s Privates, Rude Mechs’ Get Your War On and Exits and Entrances.   Richard's past productions have won numerous awards including the Helen Hayes Award, the OBIE Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the John Gassner Award and the Lucille Lortel Award. In 2000 Richard was the first recipient of the TIF/Society of London Theatre Award and has been listed for three consecutive years in the UK Stage newspaper's Top 100 British Theatre professionals.

Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Design) has designed the lighting for over 250 live productions. Some of his Off-Broadway credits include God's Ear (New Georges); A Very Common Procedure (MCC) Gutenberg! The Musical! (59E59); Hell House, Hiroshima Maiden (St. Ann's Warehouse); The God Committee (Lamb's Theatre); Orson's Shadow, Eat The Taste, Bug (Barrow Street Theater); Ladies of the Corridor, Counsellor-At-Law (Peccadillo); Carnival Knowledge, Underneath the Lintel (Soho Playhouse); The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow, The Night Heron, Dublin Carol, Mojo (Atlantic Theater); and Refuge (Playwrights Horizons).  Tyler is the recipient of an Off-Broadway Lucille Lortel Award, a Village Voice OBIE and a Connecticut Critics Circle award.

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