Andrew's life ticks away in the Room of the Missing. Trapped between space and time, he futilely awaits his real-life captor's final move. Ilan's life ticks rapidly towards him. Deep into his fifth year as Israeli prisoner of war, he feels that his freedom is nearly in sight. As their fates tangle together, Ilan must convince Andrew to keep his mind alive and face the circumstances surrounding his captivity-before they both go missing forever.
"My heart was tugged by the story of Israeli Prisoner of War Gilad Shalit and his five years in captivity, and I wanted to understand how someone could mentally survive that," says Seinuk, who lives in Somerville, Mass. "After hearing more stories of young, successful, seemingly happy students disappearing, my need to know what happens to these people led me to the idea for From the Deep."
Winner of the 2014 Boston University Jewish Cultural Endowment Grant, and a second place winner of the Latinidad Playwriting Award at the 2014 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, From The Deep explores where we go when we're in captivity, and what we do to survive. The cast features Charles Linshaw (AEA, SAG) as Ilan and Jeff Marcus as Andrew. The director is Lindsay Eagle, and the creative team includes Sara Bookin-Weiner (Dramaturg) and Nick Medvescek (Producer). The production stage manager is Erin Baglole.
From the Deep was previously developed with Interim Writers; The Accomplice Writers' Group; and in Lesley University's MFA program on Writing for Stage and Screen, mentored by Jami Brandli and Kate Snodgrass. "Cassie is an exceptionally strong dramatist who isn't afraid to tackle big issues in her plays," applauds Jami Brandli, a Stage and Screen faculty member in Lesley University's MFA program. "From the Deep is one of those plays that has complex characters: it's highly theatrical, and it's emotionally honest."
From the Deep is the second project undertaken by Boston Public Works, a playwright-driven theater collective that?s forgoing the traditional routes for play development by producing their own plays and leaving a road-map for like-minded playwrights to follow. Over the next two years, Boston Public Works will present one fully-staged productions of plays written by each of its seven playwrights: John Greiner-Ferris, Cassie M. Seinuk, Emily Kaye Lazzaro, Jess Foster, Kevin Mullins, Jim Dalglish, and Laura Neubauer. They will disband after all of the playwrights' works have premiered.
ABOUT BOSTON PUBLIC WORKS
Boston Public Works was founded by two Boston playwrights who passionately feel that all playwrights should have an outlet for their voices and have control over the production of their work. Using the model of groundbreaking New York playwriting collective 13P-whose members included Sarah Ruhl, Anne Washburn, and Young Jean Lee-as a departure point, Boston Public Works infuses a DIY-attitude into every aspect of their productions. With the help of online resources like social media, crowd-sourced fundraising, and email marketing services, Boston Public Works puts its playwrights at the center of bringing their art from page to stage-starting with having each playwright serve as artistic director while his or her play is in production.
For more information, visit www.bostonpublicworks.org.
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