Lee Sunday Evans Directs U.S. Premiere Of Stefano Massini's INTRACATBLE WOMAN

Evans's Production, with a Translation by Paula Wing, Will Feature a Cast of Three Women Bringing to Life Assassinated Journalist Anna Politkovskaya's Uncompromising Drive to Unveil Hard Truths

The Play Company (PlayCo; Founding Producer Kate Loewald, Managing Director Robert Bradshaw) presents Stefano Massini's Intractable Woman: A Theatrical Memo on Anna Politkovskaya, directed by Lee Sunday Evans (Dance Nation, PlayCo's Caught) and translated by Paula Wing. Journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow in 2006 after spending the previous seven years exposing government suppression and the atrocities of war in Chechnya. Staged at a moment when even the U.S. constitutional protection of a free press feels precarious, and swelling numbers of journalists are being jailed and even killed for their work worldwide, Intractable Woman is a vital display of the indispensability of journalism in the face of a government that views it as an enemy force to stifle. Performances take place September 13-October 14 at 122CC, 2nd Floor Theater, 150 1st Avenue.

While Intractable Woman is layered with vivid cultural detail surrounding a life that was taken over a decade ago, Politkovskaya's story also brims with immediacy and universality. In Evans's production, three actors-Nadine Malouf (PlayCo's Oh My Sweet Land; queens at LCT3), Nicole Shalhoub (China Doll on Broadway; The Clean House at Lincoln Center Theater), and Stacey Yen (PlayCo's Enjoy; Miles for Mary at Playwrights Horizons)-will deliver this interpretation of her experiences reporting on and living within the Second Chechen war. Theatre cannot resurrect the dead, but it can tap into the desires that compelled them in life-and Intractable Woman mines Politkovskaya's uncompromising desire to unveil the truths behind authoritarian power. Massini's take on Politkovskaya, inspired by her life and her writing, illuminates the resilience it takes to question governments simply by stating facts.

Evans, who returns to PlayCo following 2016's Caught, which she directed with "exquisite precision" (The New York Times) says, "There's something about the granular, everyday detail of life in a warzone that takes it out of sensationalism and really makes it about the experience of living and existing there. With this cast of three women, I want audiences to feel the tension between the incredible and courageous things she was doing when she was alive, while also feeling that her life was cut short. We are never attempting to recreate her, but we are honoring her spirit and sense of duty to report what was happening, no matter the cost."

PlayCo is unique in its commitment to producing an international program of new plays, from both the U.S. and around the world, to advance a dynamic, global experience of contemporary theater and expand the American repertoire.The production marks a U.S. debut for Massini, a prominent Italian writer, director, and artistic head of Milan's renowned Piccolo Teatro. Massini's play offers a window into the political landscape of Putin's Russia, the ravages of the Second Chechen War, and Chechnya under the authoritarian rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, approaching all forms of sociopolitical detail with wrenching clarity. The Theatre Times writes that Massini's text "transmits the lively attitude of Anna Politkovskaya's writing...[how] she never stopped feeling surprise and disbelief at the human rights violations she documented."

Performance Schedule and Ticketing

Performances of Intractable Woman will take place September 13 - October 14 on the second floor of 122CC, located at 150 1st Avenue, New York, NY. Critics are welcome as of Thursday, September 20 for an official opening on Sunday, September 23. Regular performances will take place from September 22 at 7:30pm. Sunday matinees will take place at 3pm.

Tickets will be on sale to the public beginning June 25 and can be purchased by visiting playco.org or calling 866 811 4111. Regular prices are $35 General Admission/$45 Premium Reserved.

PlayCo has launched a new ticketing initiative with multiple pricing levels to increase accessibility. On this initiative, Kate Loewald says, "PlayCo is committed to maintaining affordable access as part of our mission. We always maintain modest ticket prices, and our new OpenHouse Access Program will advance our efforts to remove price as a barrier." As part ofthe program, there will be a limited number of $15 "Theater for Everyone" tickets available for FOUR WEEKS ONLY until July 22. $15 student tickets can be purchased in advance with a valid school ID presented at will call. Group rates and discounts for teachers, librarians, first responders, and active duty personnel will also be available-call 212.389.2977 for details.

About the Artists

Lee Sunday Evans is an Obie Award winning Director + Choreographer. Select production credits include: Dance Nation by Clare Barron (Playwrights Horizons). HOME by Geoff Sobelle (BAM Next Wave), Farmhouse/Whorehouse by Suzanne Bocanegra (BAM Next Wave), Miller, Mississippi by Boo Killebrew (Dallas Theater Center), The Winter's Tale (Public Theater, Mobile Unit), [Porto] by Kate Benson (Bushwick Starr/Women's Project), Bull in a China Shop by Bryna Turner (LCT3), Caught by Christopher Chen (Play Co.), Macbeth (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), Wellesley Girl by Brendan Pelsue (Humana Festival), D Deb Debbie Deborah by Jerry Lieblich (Clubbed Thumb), A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks... by Kate Benson (OBIE Award - New Georges/Women's Project), The Play About My Dad by Boo Killebrew (59E59), God's Ear by Jenny Schwartz (Juilliard), Family Play (1979 to Present) by CollaborationTown, The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht with original music by Nicholas C. Williams. Her work has been presented/developed at: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theater Lab, BAX, CATCH, LMCC, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, Juilliard. Lee received the 2017 SDC Breakout Award, and the 2016 Susan Stroman Directing Award from The Vineyard Theater.

Stefano Massini is a multiple award-winning writer and director, and the artistic director of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano. His plays have been translated and published in many languages. Intractable Woman premiered in the 2007-08 season and has been performed throughout Europe and internationally. Massini's play the The Lehman Trilogy, inspired by the 2008 banking crisis, premiered at the Piccolo is 2015 directed by Luca Ronconi. Translated into 14 languages and performed at many major European theatres, the trilogy will be staged in a new production directed by Sam Mendes at London's National Theater in July, 2018. Massini's book The Lehman Trilogy, based on the play and published in 2017, received many awards including the Mondello - Super Mondello award, the Campiello Jury of Literary Experts Award, the Giusti Award, the Fiesole Award and the De Sica award. His second novel, The Interpreter of Dreams, was adapted into a play and premiered at the Piccolo in 2018.

Paula Wing is a playwright, actor and translator. Her translation of Stefano Massini's Intractable Woman, premiered in Montréal, Québec at Imago Theatre in 2017. Her original play, Risky Phil premiered at Young Peoples Theatre in Toronto in April. Paula's stage adaptation of Ben Rice's novella Pobby and Dingan was published in 2016 through the Kennedy Centre. She is a Resident Artist at Soulpepper Theatre Company in Toronto, where she is active in their youth and community programming. Paula is a sessional professor at the University of Windsor in both the Acting and Drama in Education and Community programs. This spring her musical adaptation of Margaret Mahy's The Man Whose Mother Was A Pirate will tour Eastern Ontario with Thousand Islands Playhouse. Paula will appear as Karole at the Playhouse in their world premiere of The Canadian this summer.

About the Cast

Nadine Malouf's previous work with PlayCo saw her cooking in multiple home kitchens, in the one-woman, site specific U.S. Premiere of Oh My Sweet Land. She most recently played the leading role of Laila, in A Thousand Splendid Suns at The Old Globe, which she originated last year at A.C.T (World Premiere). This year she was also Off Broadway in Martyna Marjok's new play queens at Lincoln Center's LCT3. She also played the title role in the World Premiere of Salomé with the STC (winner of seven Helen Hayes awards). Other Off-Broadway: Today is my birthday (Page73), Ultimate Beauty Bible (Page73), School for Scandal (Redbull), The Who & the What (LCT3), Exile (Cherry Lane). Other Theatre: Scorched (Syracuse Stage), and Macbeth (RADA). New works developed at Sundance, The Public, Lincoln Center, Complicité, among others. Recent TV/Film: The Looming Tower, Resolutions, May in the Summer. Training: Syracuse University, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Nicole Shalhoub Broadway: China Doll. Off-Broadway: The Clean House (LCT), The Fifth Column (The Mint), Hell House (St. Ann's Warehouse). Regional: Failure: A Love Story (CTG), Five Mile Lake (SCR), American Night (Yale Rep), The Goodman, Berkeley Rep, Lookingglass, K.C. Rep, American Repertory Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival. TV: Elementary, Seal Team, Bull, Madame Secretary, The Gaffigan Show, New Girl, The Mentalist, Legends, Scandal, The Good Wife, L&O: CI. FILM: Sex & The City 2, The International, Wetware, Hollywood, Dr. Brinks & Dr. Brinks.

Stacey Yen appeared in PlayCo's Enjoy. Most recently, she co-authored and performed in the critically acclaimed Miles for Mary at Playwrights Horizons. NYC theater credits: The Public, Ars Nova, Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb, Under the Radar Festival, among others. Regional theater: ACT, Arena Stage, Berkeley Rep, Goodman Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, Lookingglass, Williamstown Theater Festival, among others. International theater: Kings Theater, Scotland; The Esplanade, Singapore. TV Credits: Guess Who Died (pilot by Norman Lear); The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, CSI:NY, Elementary, The Good Wife, Gossip Girl, High Maintenance, Instinct, Madame Secretary, Nurse Jackie, Treme, Ugly Betty, Unforgettable. Education: Brown University, NYU Grad Acting.

About The Play Company (PlayCo)

The Play Company is an OBIE Award-winning Off-Broadway theater Production Company. Since launching in 1999, PlayCo has produced 35 new plays from the United States, Palestine, Germany, Romania, Poland, Sweden, Japan, India, Russia, Chile, Mexico, France, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England. PlayCo develops and produces adventurous new plays from the U.S. and around the world, advancing a dynamic global experience of contemporary theater and expanding the American theater repertoire.

As the only New York company regularly producing outstanding contemporary plays from around the world alongside new American work, PlayCo's distinctive international programming links American theatre with world theater, American artists with the global creative community, and American audiences with a whole world of plays.

Previous productions by PlayCo include the sold-out run of Amir Nizar Zuabi's critically-acclaimed Oh My Sweet Land, Guillermo Calderón's Villa, Christopher Chen's Caught (Obie award for Playwriting, 2017), Maria Milisavljevic's Abyss, Kyle Jarrow & Lauren Worsham's The Wildness, Debbie Tucker Green's generations, Aya Ogawa's Ludic Proxy, Antonio Vega's The Duchamp Syndrome, and more.

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