NAATCO to Present 'Alba' & Falsettoland with Narayan, Etc.

Federico Garcia Lorca's classic play The House of Bernarda Alba, about a household of women repressed by a domineering mother, and William Finn's modern classic musical Falsettoland, about a gay/straight/divorced/married extended family of New Yorkers preparing for a son's bar mitzvah, will be presented by the Obie Award-winning National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) in June 2007 in NYC.

The House of Bernarda Alba, adapted and directed by Chay Yew, with acclaimed Obie Award-winning actress Ching Valdes-Aran in the title role, will begin previews June 1 prior to its official press opening June 4 at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (Nagelberg Theater, 55 Lexington Avenue at 25th Street) and playing through June 23. The all Asian-American cast of women features, along with Valdes-Aran, Kati Kuroda, Natsuko Ohama, Ali Ahn, Carmen Herlihy, Maile Holck, Mia Katigbak, Sue Jean Kim, Jeanne Sakata and Sophia Skiles.
 
Falsettoland, with music and lyrics by William Finn and book by Mr. Finn and James Lapine, is directed by Alan Muraoka and will begin previews June 14 prior to its official press opening June 17 at the Dimson Theatre (108 East 15th Street), through July 1. Featured in the cast of Falsettoland, portraying the merry, musical neurotics in Mr. Finn's groundbreaking work (which premiered Off-Broadway in 1990) are:  MaryAnn Hu, Christine Toy Johnson, Francis Jue (Thoroughly Modern Millie), Jason Ma, Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams), Ann Sanders (Avenue Q) and Ben Wu.
 
"Under the artistic leadership of co-founder Mia Katigbak, the National Asian American Theatre Company was founded in 1989 to give Asian American actors, (as well as directors, designers, and technicians) the opportunity to play roles in European and American classical and contemporary works for which they otherwise might not get cast. NAATCO, in fact, first presented its acclaimed production of Falsettoland in 1998 and its equally acclaimed production of Lorca's 1936 The House of Bernarda Alba in 2000," state press materials.
 
Through the years, NAATCO has delivered on that purpose with supERB Productions of plays from Albee to Wilder, with Marivaux, Chekhov, Sophocles, O'Neill, Shakespeare, Brecht/Weill, Kaufmann and Hart, Strindberg, et.al. in between.
 
The House of Bernarda Alba has set design by Mikiko Suzuki, lighting by Stephen Petrilli, costume design by Clint Ramos, original music by Fabian Obispo, and choreography by Mildred Ruiz. Chay Yew, who's written this adaptation of Alba and directs, is the author of the plays Red and A Language of Their Own. He previously directed Alba for NAATCO, and served as director of the Mark Taper Forum's Asian Theatre Workshop for 10 years.
 
Falsettoland has set design by Sarah Lambert, lighting design by Stephen Petrilli and musical direction by Brent Sawyer. Director Alan Muraoka -- who directed NAATCO's 1998 production of the musical -- has been the proprietor of "Hooper's Store" on "Sesame Street" since 1997, and has appeared on Broadway in numerous shows, including the Engineer in Miss Saigon.
 
For more information, visit www.NAATCO.org.

Photo of Manu Narayan by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.