Silk Road Rising Opens NIGHT OVER ERZINGA World Premiere Tonight, 10/13

Silk Road Rising is set to present the World Premiere of Night Over Erzinga, written by Adriana Sevahn Nichols and directed by Lisa Portes. Night Over Erzinga runs now through November 11, 2012, in Pierce Hall at The Historic Chicago Temple Building, 77 W. Washington St, Chicago. Press opening is tonight, October 13 at 3:00 pm.

Spanning the Ottoman Empire to New York City, and three generations of an Armenian and Dominican family, Adriana Sevahn Nichols' Night Over Erzinga explores how a man can lose everything but his heart, and how a grandmother can reach through time, unearth an untold story, and bring her children “home.” From collective tragedy to personal triumph, ancestors reunite with the living in a breathtakingly beautiful journey toward making peace with the past and reclaiming one’s heritage.

The cast of Night Over Erzinga includes: Rom Barkhordar*, Sandra Delgado*, Diana Simonzadeh*, Martin Yurek*, Nicolas Gamboa, Carolyn Hoerdmann, Michael Salinas, Allison Torf, and Maliha A. Yousef.

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

The design team includes: Lee Keenan (Set Designer), Sarah Hughey (Lighting Designer), Elsa Hiltner (Costume Designer), Peter Storms (Sound Design), Jesse Gaffney (Prop Designer), Neal Ryan Shaw (Dramaturg), and Eva Breneman (Dialect Coach). The stage manager is Matt McMullen. Assistant Director is Azar Kazemi

The press opening is tonight, October 13 at 3:00 pm. The production runs through Sunday, November 11. Curtain times are Tuesdays+, Wednesdays+ and Thursdays at 7:30pm; Fridays at 8:00 pm; Saturdays at 3:00 pm and 8:00 pm, and Sundays at 3:00 pm.

Tickets are $30.00 - $40.00. Tickets for Night Over Erzinga ($30 for previews, $40 for regular run) are now on sale and can be purchased at www.silkroadrising.org or by phone: 312.857.1234 x 201.

+There will be one Tuesday performance on October 9, 2012.
++ There will be one Wednesday performance on October 10, 2012.

Adriana Sevahn Nichols is an award winning actress and playwright. Her one woman show, Taking Flight, a hit at the ’08 Latino Theatre Festival, at the Goodman, garnered her a San Diego Theatre Critics Circle Award and a Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival Award. Acting credits include: Law & Order, The Unit, Sex & The City, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Theatre: South Coast Repertory, The Public Theatre, San Diego Rep, Boston Court, Kirk Douglas Theatre, ACT, and Yale Rep. Her plays have been published by Samuel French, Smith & Kraus, Northwestern Press, and developed/performed at, Sundance Theater Lab, SCR, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman, Stages Theatre, The Fountain, and The Lark. She is honored to have been the first Middle East America Distinguished Playwright Award recipient and offers her deepest gratitude to Silk Road Rising, Golden Thread Productions, the Lark Play Development Center, and Daniella Topol, for their partnership in bringing Night Over Erzinga into being.

Lisa Portes is happy to be working with Silk Road Rising! Recent credits include The Piano Teacher by Julia Cho at Next Theatre, the world premieres of Ghostwritten (Goodman Theatre) and After a Hundred Years (Guthrie Theatre) both by Naomi Iizuka, Ski Dubai by Laura Jacqmin and Spare Change by Mia McCullough (Steppenwolf Theatre First Look Repertory of New Work), Elliot, A Soldiers Fugue by Quiara Hudes (Rivendell Ensemble & Teatro Vista), Permanent Collection by Thomas Gibbons (Northlight Theatre), In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks and Far Away by Caryl Churchill (Next Theatre) and Wilder by Erin Cressida Wilson and The Red Clay Ramblers (Playwrights Horizons). Lisa heads the MFA Directing Program at The Theatre School at DePaul University and serves as Artistic Director for Chicago Playworks for Families and Young Audiences.

Silk Road Rising creates live theatre and online videos that tell stories through primarily Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses. In representing communities that intersect and overlap, we advance a polycultural worldview.

Silk Road Rising was founded by life partners Jamil Khoury and Malik Gillani in 2002 under the name Silk Road Theatre Project, as a direct response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing backlash against Middle Eastern Americans and Muslim Americans.

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