Charlestown Working Theater Presents THE NATASHA PLAYS, 6/8-11

The Charlestown Working Theater Presents the Final Production of Its International Contemporary Performance Series: The Natasha Plays by Russian Playwright Yaroslava Pulinovich. Directed by Stephen Nunns, Translated by John Freedman. Presented with Towson University's School of Theatre Arts. Charlestown, MA: The Charlestown Working Theater presents The Natasha Plays, a triptych of monologues by one of Russia's freshest new theatrical voices, 23-year-old Yaroslava Pulinovich. Natasha's Dream, tells the story of a 16-year-old orphan, Natasha Banina (Julia M. Smith), who finds herself experiencing the first rustlings of love-with dire consequences. The second monologue, I Won, chronicles the upward mobility of another teenager, Natasha Vernikova (Sarah Lloyd), who is a middle-class overachiever who lets nothing get in the way of her personal and professional success. Finally, there is Epilogue, a short piece in which yet another Natasha (Shannon McPhee) offers up a love letter to her favorite pop star, Dima Bilan.

"The unleashed, visceral teenage angst of these monologues is the driving force of this work. For a
moment, thanks to Pulinovich, we get the unfettered voice of a younger generation."
- John Barry, Radar Redux: Baltimore Arts and Culture The Natasha Plays were first presented in the United States as part of the Towson University Department of Theatre Arts New Russian Drama season, developed in collaboration with the Center for InterNational Theatre Development, Philip Arnoult, Director.

About the Playwright:
Yaroslava Pulinovich was born in Omsk, Russia, and lived there until she was eight years old. By the time she was 18, she had won her first award as a playwright. Between 2007 and 2009, while studying playwriting under the famous writer and educator Nikolai Kolyada, Pulinovich published six plays in the journal Ural. Now 23, she has created something of a sensation on the Russian theatre scene with readings at events such as the New Drama Festival and productions at theatres including Moscow's Playwright and Director Center and the Kiselev Young Spectator Theatre
in Saratov. In the fall of 2008, she won the debut literary prize in playwriting. By 2009, she had received a commission from the Royal Shakespeare Company. The play she created for that theatre, Beyond the Track, was produced as part of their Russian Season in September 2009. Her other plays include I Won't Come Back and a play written with Pavel Kazantsev, Washers, which won the Grand Prize at the Kolyada Play Festival in Yekaterinburg. Pulinovich and Kazantsev also collaborated on the screenplay for a comedy about youth in Russia, How to Catch a Shoplifter. The
first staged reading of Natasha's Dream was presented at the Kiselev Young Spectator Theatre in February of 2009.

In November 2009, Pulinovich received her Moscow premiere with a full production of Natasha's Dream at the Playwright and Director Center. The production, in a new translation by John Freedman, had its U.S. premiere at Towson University in 2010.

About the Director:
Stephen Nunns is an assistant professor and director of the MFA Program in Theatre Arts at Towson University. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Village Voice, Musical Quarterly, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre and other publications. From 1996 to 2000, he was an associate editor at American Theatre magazine, where he regularly covered national politics and the arts.

Before coming to Towson University, Stephen lived in New York City for fifteen years, directing, writing (mostly in collaboration with his wife, journalist Karen Houppert), and composing music for theatre pieces at a variety of off-off Broadway venues, including HERE, The Ontological-Hysteric Theater, Dance Theater Workshop and the 78th Street Theatre Lab. He was an associate artist at the seminal avant-garde theatre company Mabou Mines, where he created three theatre pieces, including the Obie Award-winning The Boys in the Basement. Stephen has taught at Brooklyn
College, New York University and Eugene Lang College. He holds a bachelor's degree in drama and literature from Bennington College, a Master in Fine Arts in dramaturgy from Brooklyn College, and a Ph.D. in performance studies from New York University.

About the Translator:
John Freedman has written or edited and translated nine books about Russian drama and theater, including "Provoking Theater" with Kama Ginkas, and has been the theater critic of The Moscow Times since 1992. His three dozen play translations have been performed in the United States, Australia, Canada, England and South Africa, and published in numerous anthologies and journals. With Jennifer Johnson and Matthew Glassman, he was co-author of "The Firebird," a summer spectacle performed at Double Edge Theater in 2010. Holder of a PhD from Harvard University, he lived in Boston from 1983 to 1988.

The Charlestown Working Theater Resident Artists Program
The CWT presents theatre companies from the U.S and abroad in its intimate 85-seat space, offering audiences the opportunity to attend performances, participate in workshops, and engage with the dynamic work of distinguished theatre companies in an immediate and personal way. CWT has presented the work of Mabou Mines (NY, NY);
Double Edge Theatre (Ashfield, MA); Teatr ZAR (Poland); Theatre Kranevit (Berlin, Germany); Grupo Jicara Teatro (Buenos Aires, Argentina); Beau Jest Moving Theatre (Boston, MA); Great Small Works (NY, NY); Armenia's National Centre for Aesthetics; and Versiliadanza (Florence, Italy) and Blair Thomas and Company (Chicago, IL) among others.

The simple and beautiful CWT space is flexible and has accommodated a diverse collection of artistic visions.

The Natasha Plays
By Yaroslava Pulinovich
Translated by John Freedman
Directed by Stephen Nunns
Presented in collaboration with the Towson University MFA Program in Theatre Arts
June 8th - 11th
Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm
Tickets $15.00 - $22.00
Tickets $10.00 Wednesday June 8th
Charlestown Working Theater
442 Bunker Hill Street
Charlestown MA
Accessible by MBTA Orange Line Sullivan Station, Bus Lines #92 and #93
Box Officie 866.811.4111
Tickets and Information: www.charlestownworkingtheater.org

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