The Bushwick Starr Presents [PORTO] by Kate Benson

The Bushwick Starr is thrilled to present the world premiere of [PORTO] by Kate Benson and directed by Lee Sunday Evans, their follow-up to the Obie Award-winning A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes.

A woman, Porto, walks into a bar in a gentrifying neighborhood of a major city a lot like Bushwick. She is known there. This bar has serious food. Doug the Bartender serves up a mean cocktail. Hennepin, a hot guy and new to the bar, deliberates: mango thai or foie gras sausage? Doug the Bartender settles the debate. Porto's friend Dry Sac, beautiful and bitter, arrives: Dry Sac eats nothing and drinks vodka by the gallon. Porto notices Hennepin. Hennepin does not notice Porto. Hennepin notices Dry Sac. Hennepin and Doug the Bartender discuss Dry Sac. Hennepin notices Porto. Raphael the Waiter falls in love with his own dream of the ideal woman.

Good times ensue, wrapped in a casing of food, sex, booze, and books. Gloria Steinem and Simone de Beauvoir visit Porto in the early morning to discuss feminism and the proper way to conduct an affair. Doug the Bartender and Dry Sac are up to something. We all want love, sex, and good food: but is it possible to enjoy the sausage once it is known how it is made?

[PORTO] stars Noel Joseph Allain, Kate Benson, Ugo Chukwu, Jorge Cordova, Leah Karpel, Esaú Mora, Julia Sirna-Frest and Addison Williams. The creative team includes Amith Chandrashaker (Lighting), Ásta Bennie Hostetter (Costumes), Kate Marvin (Sound), Kristen Robinson (Sets), Ed Herman (Stage Manager), Ann Marie Dorr (Production Manager), Jennifer Medina-Gray (Technical Director), Nick O'Leary (Assistant Director) and Andrew Gorelick (Production Assistant). [PORTO] is being produced by Kate Benson, Lee Sunday Evans, John Del Gaudio, and Rachel Karpf Reidy.

[PORTO] is being presented at The Bushwick Starr as part of the 2017 Exponential Festival, a festival focusing on new work in Brooklyn venues by New York Theater artists. Support for [ PORTO] includes the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; and lead support from Jody Falco and Jeffrey Steinman.

Location:

The Bushwick Starr theater: 207 Starr Street, Brooklyn, NY [between Irving and Wyckoff]

Directions:

Via Subway take the L Train to Jefferson Street, exit at Starr Street, walk against traffic on Starr, and the theater is 3/4 of a block on the right.

For detailed driving directions visit: www.thebushwickstarr.org/DIRECTIONS

Tickets are $20 at www.thebushwickstarr.org

About Kate Benson:

Kate Benson is a writer and actor in Brooklyn. Her plays include A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes (2015 OBIE Award), produced by New Georges with the Women's Project Theater in 2015, [PORTO], Lee Miller, and Radium Now. She is a member of the Jam at New Georges and the 2014-15 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab, and she is a graduate of the Brooklyn College MFA Playwriting program. She is the recipient of the Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission. She has performed at the Public, NYTW, PS 122, the Incubator, the Chocolate Factory, and LaMama.

About Lee Sunday Evans:

Lee Sunday Evans is a director and choreographer. Her recent credits include: 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). Her work has been presented/developed at: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Sundance Theater Lab, BAX, CATCH, LMCC, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, Juilliard. Lee received a 2015 Obie Award + the 2016 Susan Stroman Directing Award from The Vineyard Theater. Upcoming: Bull in a China Shop by Bryna Turner (LCT3), All the Roads Home by Jen Silverman (Cincinnati Playhouse).

About The Bushwick Starr:

The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award winning non profit theater that presents an annual Season of new work in theater, dance, and puppetry. We are an organization defined by both our artists and our community, and since 2007, we have grown into a thriving theatrical venue, a vital neighborhood arts center, and a destination for exciting and engaging performance. The Bushwick Starr's mission is to help ambitious artists and ambitious audiences find each other. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established performance companies come to experiment and innovate. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as The Mad Ones, Clare Barron, Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, the TEAM, and Half Straddle.

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