Rose Valley Theatre Group's Inaugural Production is the English-Language World Premiere of SUNDAY EVENING

The newly formed Rose Valley Theatre Group, with producer Magura Bulgarian Cultural Center, is proud to announce the English-language world premiere of Zachary Karabashliev's award-winning Sunday Evening, directed by Artistic Director Zlatomir Moldovanski, in the Upstairs Studio at the Greenhouse Theater Center, January 16 - February 9, 2020. Opening night is Thursday, Jan. 16, at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 - $35 and are available at GreenHouseTheater.org. For more information on the production go to MagurABCs.com/Sunday-Evening.

Can you really make the life you want for yourself? Two families struggle and grapple with what they want and what they'll have to do to get it in this piercing family drama. Sunday Evening won the most respected theater award in Bulgaria in 2009, an Askeer, for "Best New Bulgarian Play," with its story hitting close to home, challenging the American Dream and the concept of "happily ever after."

Rose and Nick are an immigrant couple trapped between the demons of their past and betrayal of the present. Their neighbor and best friend Stella, an actress with a vibrant past but without any recent successes, witnesses their turmoil. The main reminder of Stella's glorious early days is their victim, her daughter Jenny, who must resort to manipulation in order to receive love, understanding and affection that are long overdue.

The Sunday Evening cast features Maria Margaglione, "Stella;" Rachel Sepiashvili,"Rose;" Logan Hulick, "Nick;" Melanie McNulty, "Jenny;" Whitney Pipes, ensemble; Grant Johnson, ensemble and Jordan Kulow, ensemble.

The design team includes Zlatomir Moldovanski, director; Reginald Robinson, associate director; Chloe Baldwin, intimacy and fight choreographer; Chas Mathieu scenic designer; Scott Wagner lighting designer; Julia Stoyanova, costume designer and Bernard Balbot, dialect coach.

ABOUT ZACHARY KARABASHLIEV, playwright

Zachary Karabashliev is a Bulgarian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. His debut novel, "18% Gray," is a bestselling title in Bulgaria and published in the United States, France, Poland, Croatia and Slovakia. It won "Novel of the Year" in Bulgaria and was chosen by anonymous vote to be among the 100 most loved books by Bulgarians in the BBC-format campaign "The Big Read." His short stories included in the collections "A Brief History of the Airplane" and "Symmetry" are translated and published in numerous languages. Karabashliev's stage plays have won many prestigious awards, among which are Sunday Evening (2009 Best New Bulgarian Play) and Recoil (Audience Award of the festival "New Plays from Europe" at Wiesbaden Theatre, Germany). His play Lissabon was staged at the legendary La Mamma Theatre in New York City in April 2014. Havra, his latest novel, became an instant bestseller and won the two most prestigious literary awards in Bulgaria: "Novel of the Year" and "H.G. Danov". His short story Metastases is included in "Best European Fiction 2018" (Dalkey Press). After living in the United States for 17 years, Karabashliev moved to Sofia, Bulgaria. He is the editor-in-chief of the publishing house Ciela.

ABOUT ZLATOMIR MOLDOVANSKI, director

Zlatomir Moldovanski is the artistic director for Rose Valley Theatre Group and a Bulgarian-American theatre artist who started his professional journey at the Plovdiv Drama Theatre, one of the oldest and most prominent theatre companies of the Balkans. In North America, he has worked for the Stratford Festival of Canada, Lookingglass Theatre, The Shakespeare Project of Chicago, Creede Repertory Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Profiles Theatre, The Drilling Company for New Plays, New Stage Collective, Level 11 Theatre, the CBS Primetime Series "Madam Secretary" and the Canadian film Romeo and Juliet, among others. He has performed his one-man play Is It Feasible?, based on the short stories of Bulgarian writers Chudomir and Elin Pelin, in Florida, New York, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Ontario. He is also an acting instructor, specializing in the Nikolai Demidov Organic Technique, brought to North America by Professor Andrei Malaev-Babel. Moldovanski teaches Demidov at institutions such as the Asolo Conservatory, the Ringling College of Art and Design, the University of Cincinnati, the New College of Florida and the State College of Florida. He is a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre, the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training (MFA) and the College-Conservatory of Music (BFA). He is a proud member of AEA and CAEA.

ABOUT ROSE VALLEY THEATRE GROUP

Rose Valley Theatre Group is an assembled collective of multi-disciplinary professional theatre artists committed to bridging the international divide by adapting and producing plays by underrepresented voices abroad and within the US. The company provides a platform for vital new international work, previously unknown to Chicago audiences.

The newly formed Rose Valley Theatre Group, with producer Magura Bulgarian Cultural Center, is proud to announce the English-language world premiere of Zachary Karabashliev's award-winning Sunday Evening, directed by Artistic Director Zlatomir Moldovanski, in the Upstairs Studio at the Greenhouse Theater Center, January 16 - February 9, 2020. Opening night is Thursday, Jan. 16, at 7:30 p.m. The performance schedule is Thursdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 - $35 and are available at GreenHouseTheater.org. For more information on the production go to MagurABCs.com/Sunday-Evening.

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