Son of Semele Ensemble Opens West Coast Premiere of OUR CLASS Tonight

Award-winning theatre company, Son of Semele Ensemble (SOSE), will present the west coast premiere of Our Class, by Polish playwright Tadeusz Sobodzianek, in an English version by Ryan Craig. Directed by Matthew McCray, Our Class opens April 6th at the Atwater Village Theatre.

Inspired by the Jedwabne pogrom a hotly contested, tragic, historic event in Poland in 1941, Our Class chronicles the lives of 10 classmates as they grow up in tumultuous times. From 1925 to the new millennium, 5 Catholic and 5 Jewish classmates lives take dramatic and unexpected turns as their town is invaded first by the Soviet army, then Nazi forces and then again by the Soviets. Peaceful neighbors turn against one another as violence escalates and these seemingly friendly neighbors are changed by unimaginable and unfortunate circumstances.

Our Class is an uncompromising examination of wartime mob mentality coupled with the driving forces of religious and national identity. This rich and layered work highlights how an entire community is rendered powerless by traumatic events and how the horrors of war influence our allegiances, our values and our survival. Our Class is a story of the ambiguity of right and wrong in times of extreme conflict and how a person can be changed by fear.

The Son of Semele production will also feature a new score composed by Matthew McCray and Sage Lewis, winner of Center Theatre Group's 2009 Sherwood Award. The score will be played live by the ensemble cast, who will accompany themselves throughout the performance. Also featured in the production are traditional Polish dances choreographed by Edward Hoffman of Krakusy, a Los Angeles-based Polish dance company.

Our Class will be directed by SOSE Founding Artistic Director Matthew McCray. The cast includes Melina Bielefelt, Sharyn Gabriel, Matt Kirkwood, Michael Nehring, Gary Patent, Gavin Peretti, Sarah Rosenberg, Kiff Scholl, Dan Via and Alexander Wells. The set is designed by Sarah Kranin, with costumes by Jenny Foldenauer, lighting by Anna Cecelia Martín and sound by Cricket S. Myers.

Playwright, Tadeusz S?obodzianek worked as a theatre critic, a dramaturg, and a director before he started to write plays. His plays include: Car Miko?aj (Tsar Nikolai, 1985), Obywatel Pekosiewicz (Citizen Pekosiewicz, 1986), Turlajgroszek (The Pea-Roller, 1990, Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival) with Piotr Tomaszuk, Prorok Ilya (Prophet Ilya, 1991), Merlin (1992, Fringe First Award), Kowal Malambo (Malambo the Blacksmith, 1992), Sen pluskwy (A Bug's Dream, 2001) and Nasza klasa (Our Class, 2007). In 2003, Tadeusz S?obodzianek founded Laboratorium Dramatu (Drama Laboratory) in Warsaw, a Polish equivalent of The Royal Court Theatre in London ' a combination of a theatre-studio with drama workshops held throughout the year. Some of the most successful Polish playwrights today such as Magda Fertacz, Tomasz Man, Elzbieta Chowaniec, Piotr Rowicki, Joanna Owsianko, Pawe? Jurek and Ma'gorzata Sikorska Miszczuk developed their plays there. He also opened The School of Drama, where he teaches playwriting for young students.

Ryan Craig's plays include The Glass Room at Hampstead Theatre; What We Did to Weinstein at the Menier Chocolate Factory, which was nominated for the Charles Wintour Award for Most Promising Playwright ' Evening Standard Awards 2005; Broken Road at the Edinburgh Fringe (Winner of a Fringe First Award); Happy Savages at the Lyric Studio; and The Sins of Dalia Baumgarten at the Etcetera Theatre. He has also translated Portugal for The National Theatre as part of the Channels Season and adapted Tom Sharpe's novel Vintage Stuff for a UK tour. His work in television includes Saddam's Tribe and episodes of Robin Hood and Night and Day. He was Writer-in-Residence at BBC Radio Drama in 2005 and his radio plays include The Lysistrata Project, Hold My Breath, The Great Pursuit, Portugal and Looking for Danny.

Son of Semele Ensemble was profiled in 2004 as one of the 'hippest, hottest, most innovative theatre troupes in the U.S.' by American Theatre, and featured on the magazine's cover. Over the past ten years the company's work has received 22 regional awards and award nominations including the Ovation Award, the L.A. Weekly Theatre Award and the NAACP Theatre Award. For the past four years, SOSE has been developing its own company-devised plays, one of which was created in collaboration with Center Theatre Group. SOSE has become a resource for and a presenter of progressive theater makers in Los Angeles whose work is supported through SOSE's Company Creation Festival and a year-round curated guest-production program called SOSEhost.

Performances of Our Class begin tonight, April 6th, playing Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Two "theatre community" performances will be offered on Monday, April 15th and 22th at 7:00 p.m. Admission ranges from $14-25. Discounted group tickets are available for groups of 5 or more. Unsold seats at the time of curtain will be sold to local residents of zip codes 90004 and 90026 for $15.00 (I.D. required). Tickets are available through the SOSE website at www.sonofsemele.org. The box office opens one half hour prior to curtain. Atwater Village Theatre is located in Atwater Village at 3269 Casitas Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90039. For more information visit www.sonofsemele.org.

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