Student Matinee FEATHERS OF FIRE Is Now A Free Performance

Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) announces that its Student Matinee for Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic will now be free and open to any students in the greater Houston area. Students in grades K - 12 in public or private schools, along with college students and those who are home-schooled, are encourage to attend the performance on Apr. 20 at 10 a.m. at Cullen Performance Hall on the University of Houston campus. Feathers of Fire is a visually breathtaking cinematic shadow play for all ages, presented as part of SPA's Education and Community Engagement initiative.

"We encourage students, teachers and parents to take advantage of this beautiful production, which is making its Houston debut after sold-out performances at Brooklyn Academy Of Music (BAM), New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and UCLA's Freud Playhouse," says Shannon Crider, SPA's Director of Education and Community Engagement. "Originally the tickets were $10, but we wanted to create an opportunity where as many students as possible could participate. By offering a free performance, we hope to attract a wider audience."

Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic is a visually breathtaking cinematic shadow play for all ages, created by Hamid Rahmanian, a 2014 Guggenheim fellowship-winning filmmaker/visual artist. The play unfolds an action-packed magical tale of star-crossed lovers from the 10th-century Persian epic Shahnameh ("The Book of Kings"), - Zaul and Rudabeh, who triumph at the end against all odds.

Rahmanian's graphics, derived from the visual tradition of the region, will be rendered as puppets, costumes, masks, scenography and digital animation, all of which will come to life in a "live animation" shadow casting technique perfected by shadow master Larry Reed on a cinema-size screen. The play also features an original score by the acclaimed musical team, Loga Ramin Torkian and Azam Ali. Feathers of Fire had its world premiere at the Brooklyn Academy Of Music in 2016.

For information about the free student performance, please call 713-632-8112. Tickets are available for the 7:30 p.m. performance of Feathers of Fire, also at Cullen Performance Hall that evening. They can be purchased online at spahouston.org, by phone at 713-227-4722.

About Society for the Performing Arts

Founded in 1966, Society for the Performing Arts (SPA) is the largest independent non-profit presenting organization in the Southwest. Since its inception, SPA has sponsored more than 1,000 performances of the world's finest music, dance and theater events, in adherence to the belief that the arts are fundamental to the overall enrichment and quality of life within a community. In addition to presenting artists, SPA seeks to provide a variety of learning experiences for adults and children through master classes, lectures and special student performances, as well as build relationships between the performing arts and other interests within the greater Houston area and throughout the state of Texas.

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