Culture Project's Women Center Stage 2012 Festival to Present the World Premiere of SWELL, 3/15-4/6

Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director) will present Women Center Stage 2012 Festival beginning March 8 and continuing through April 7 at The Living Theatre (21 Clinton Street at East Houston Street). A highlight of the Festival will be Swell, a theatrical adaptation of the graphic novel adapted by Juliacks, Kathleen Amshoff, and the company, having its World Premiere. The production will combine the novel's narrative with sound, video, architecture, and performance art, resulting in a "spectacular, character-driven reflection of loss."

The cast features Emma Galvin (seen in Our Town, Lidless Off-Broadway), Eija Ranta, Katey Parker and Dan Vidor and has Set and Prop Design by Taryn Humphrey and Damon Pelletier, Video Design by Jared Mezzocchi, Sound Design by Sam Kusnetz, and Lighting Design by Jeanette Yew.

Juliacks, the writer/illustrator, and director Kathleen Amshoff have been collaborating on the adaptation since 2008, presenting short performances and excerpts in Sweden, Finland, Pittsburgh, and New York City, including at the Women Center Stage 2011 Festival Directors' Weekend. Amshoff received this year's SDC Foundation Denham Fellowship in support of her work on the project for WCS 2012 Festival. Following its premiere, Swell will have a residency and its Canadian premiere at Atomic Centre in Winnipeg, Canada (October 31st - November 7th, 2012). For more information, visit Swell 's website: http://www.swellshow.org or read the interview with Kathleen and Juliacks at www.cultureproject.org/wcs/spotlight-juliacks-kathleen-amshoff/.

Launched before the formal incorporation of Culture Project in 1996, Women Center Stage is Culture Project’s longest-running initiative, committed to supporting and promoting the work of women artists and celebrating the unique contributions of women to social justice and human rights. The annual Women Center Stage Festival, presented each March for Women’s History Month, is a dynamic and diverse laboratory for works-in-progress from performing artists at all levels of their careers. Culture Project is committed to providing new artistic forums on wider social justice issues and galvanizing the performing arts community and its audience around supporting the voices and visions of women.

Culture Project Artistic Director Allan Buchman founded the festival in memory of his daughter, Chitra, who passed away 20 years ago. “After suffering the loss of my daughter, I wanted my life to counter the injustices she faced—many of which were gender based. I felt her life was a work in progress, and that this festival could begin to address the disparity of opportunity provided to women in various creative endeavors.”

Over the past 16 years, Women Center Stage has been an important launching pad for the projects of numerous artists, including early iterations of Heather Raffo’s Nine Parts of Desire (2003); Sarah Jones’ bridge and tunnel (2004), which went on to a sold-out Broadway run and garnered a special Tony Award; Staceyann Chin’s Border/Clash (2005); Geraldine Hughes’ Belfast Blues (2005); Lynn Redgrave’s Nightingale (2005); Lenelle Moïse’s Expatriate (2008), and most recently Daphne Rubin-Vega’s memoir-musical FUQs: Frequently Unanswered Questions (2011), which will premiere at LAByrinth Theater Company this Summer.

This WCS 2012 Festival will also feature Charity Henson-Ballard’s Pete The Girl, about an inner-city softball prodigy turned baseball superstar; and Dictee: bells fall a peal to sky adapted by Soomi Kim (Lee/gendary) from the work of Theresa Hay Kyung Cha; and new works by Lenelle Moïse (Expatriate), Anna Khaja, Dominique Morisseau, Mariah MacCarthy, Eboni Hogan, Caroline Rothstein, and the women of the First Generation Nigerian-American Project, as well as musical performances by Heloise & the Savoir Faire, Xenia Rubinos, and Rebecca Hart.

Individual tickets ($10-$18) and Festival Passes ($45 for a 3-show pass or $165 for an all-show pass) may be purchased at WomenCenterStage.org or by calling 866/811-4111. For more information, visit WomenCenterStage.org.