Butoh Medea to Open United Solo 2015 at Theatre Row

Butoh Medea opens United Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre Row this year. United Solo, the world's largest solo theatre festival in its 6th season, presents over 130 productions from 6 different continents. Butoh Medea received four awards at United Solo 2014: Best One-Woman Show, Best Lighting Design, Best Costume Design and Best Choreography. Moreover, the show was selected to United Solo Europe to present the work in Warsaw, Poland this June. It played sold out show and received much acclaim. In August it will appear at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for twenty-one shows. It will return to NYC to open United Solo 2015. The Studio Theatre, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City. TICKETS for $19.25 (includes a $1.25 theatre restoration charge) are available at the Theatre Row Box Office and online through Telecharge at www.telecharge.com or call 212-239-6200.

Using the Japanese dance of Butoh and an adapted telling, Japanese actress Yokko tells the story of Medea through solo performance. This fusion of Western drama and Eastern dance draws the audience into Medea's spirit. They experience the world she is trapped in where love, hate, despair and the struggle between her humanity and inhumanity take hold. Writer: Sean Michael Welch. Director: Brian Rhinehart* **. Co-Choreographer: Jordan Rosin. Costume Design: Deepsikha Chatterjee. Lighting Design: Derek Van Heel. Assistant Director: Cihangir Duman.

Brian Rhinehart (Director) is an actor, director, professor and Fulbright scholar. An expert in devised theatre and collaborative playmaking, he has worked as a freelance theatre director in Florida and New York for the last seventeen years. He holds an M.F.A. in Directing from The Actors Studio Drama School, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida. He is a Member of AEA and SDC.

Sean Michael Welch (Writer) was awarded the 1999 Kennedy Center / American College Theatre Festival John Cauble Short Play Award for Earl the Vampire, and won the 2000 KC/ACTF Region III Ten-Minute Play Competition for Charleston's Finger. His novel 1897: Aliens! Vampires! Zombies! is set to be released in October.

Yokko (Performer, Choreographer and writer) is an actress, a movement and Butoh artist, and a solo-performer from Japan.She has acted in, devised and choreographed a variety of local and international shows and films, having won several awards including Best One-Woman show and Best Choreography for Butoh Medea. She debuted at United Solo in 2013 with her first one-woman show BALDY, which had also been featured on both coasts and nominated for awards. She is a member of The Ume Group, The Void Theatre Company as well as the producer and the artistic director of Ren Gyo Soh in NYC. She holds a B.A. in Theatre (Ualbany) and an MFA in Acting (Actors Studio). www.yokko-online.com