Whitefire Theatre Presents World Premiere of NEW EYES, 1/8

Josepel Productions is proud to present a world premiere play, NEW EYES, written by Yafit Josephson and Suzanne Bressler, directed by Sammie Wayne, produced by Eliad Josephson and starring Yafit Josephson. NEW EYES will preview on Thursday, January 6 and will open on Saturday, January 8 and run through Sunday, February 13 at the Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks.

NEW EYES tells the true story of Yafit Josephson, a young woman living in Israel who joins the Israeli army to serve heroically for her country. Upon completing her service, she moves to Los Angeles to follow her dream of becoming an actress but finds herself constantly cast only as a Middle Eastern villain.

Just as her native country wrestles with the world's false perceptions, Yafit must decide how far she's willing to go to challenge, change, or accept how others see her, and what she is willing to risk to fulfill her dreams and destiny. NEW EYES explores universal themes of self-esteem, family, identity and cultural differences. Yafit Josephson portrays over 18 characters from over 5 different countries as she conveys her riveting and uplifting story, as she sees the world, and it sees her, through NEW EYES.

YAFIT JOSEPHSON (Actress & Co-Writer) was born in Los Angeles and raised in Ramat-Hasharon, Israel. As a daughter of an Israeli filmmaker, who produced two classic Israeli movies, "Charlie Va'hetzi" and "Hagiga Ba'Snuker", Yafit was exposed to the entertainment industry at an early age. As a little girl, she recalls looking at the movie set pictures of her father's films and imagining herself as an actress. She started practicing by reciting famous lines from both of the movies, as all Israelis do to this day, and promised to herself that she will pursue acting professionaLly one of these days. At the age of 18, she began to serve in the Israeli Defense Force as part of her mandatory service to her country. After two years of service, Yafit decided to move to Los Angeles in 2003 to study acting and purse her lifelong dream of becoming an actress. Shortly after, Yafit got accepted to USC School of Theatre with a full scholarship and graduated in May of 2008.

Throughout her time at USC, she acted in a number of productions, such as The Threepenny Opera, The Ash Girl, Our Country's Good, The Vagina Monologues, Medea and Pentecost. Yafit learned about the art of Solo Performing and received her training at USC. She wrote and performed two solo performance pieces, The Skies of Tel-Aviv and I've Gotta Go, that describe her journey as an Israeli soldier. Yafit's recent role was with The Jewish Hebrew Stage, where she played the lead role of the Prime Minister, Praxagora, in the Israeli play Memshelet Nashim (Women in Council).

SUZANNE BRESSLER (Co-Writer) has been writing since she was four years old, starting on her parents' living room walls. Much later in life, she gave up her jumbo crayons but not her desire to challenge her audience. As an undergraduate activist at Washington University, Suzanne founded and led "Students to End Poverty," a homeless advocacy group. In this role, she combined her interest in social justice with her passion for writing, developing a play as her honors thesis and producing it with Hydeware and the Black Repertory Theater of St. Louis. Suzanne continued her education at USC where she earned a Masters in Professional Writing. She recently had a production at the Santa Monica Playhouse of her political comedy, "Asses and Elephants". Suzanne is currently teaching at Wilshire Blvd. Temple's religious school where she offers a script writing elective to high school students as well as general Jewish education classes to middle school and high school students.

SAMMIE WAYNE (Director/Lighting Design) is a director, actor, stage manager, lighting designer and producer. He has a B.S. in Computer Science from DePaul University. Some of his stage credits include The Blacks, Salome, and One Woman Two Lives, for which he won the 2010 NAACP Theatre Award for Best Supporting Male Actor. TV and film credits include "Judging Amy", "Diagnosis Murder", "Danger in Paradise and Soulmates". Sammie has stage managed and lit one person shows for Emmy Award Winning Actor, Glynn Turman, Loretta Devine, Kim Wayans, and Ella Joyce. He is the director and lighting designer for Helie Lee's, "Macho Like Me".
Sammie also co-produces, stage manages and designs the lights for Giving Back Corporations Annual Toast/Roast. Prior to his career in entertainment, Sammie spent more than 11 years in corporate America as a software engineer for General Motors - Electronic Data Systems and Northrop Grumman.

ELIAD JOSEPHSON (Producer) is the CEO of RCR Media, a private equity film financing company located in Beverly Hills. RCR Media is co-financing worldwide releases of high quality commercial films produced and distributed by the major studios in Los Angeles. They currently have a deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to finance their Direct-to-DVD releases.
In 2009, Josephson relocated to Los Angeles to establish RCR Media, using his economic experience to finance and produce a range of first-class cinema. Prior to RCR, he worked on Wall Street and was a successful International Private Banker at one of the world's leading Investment Banks, Merrill Lynch.

Josephson grew up in Israel and in 1998, after his service as a paratrooper in the Israeli Army, he relocated to New York where he gained a B.B.A Magna cum laude degree from Baruch College, City University of New York.

ABOUT THE SCHEDULE AND PRICING
NEW EYES will preview on Thursday, January 6 at 8pm and will open on Saturday, January 8 at 8pm and run through Sunday, February 13 at the Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks.

Performances are Thursdays and Saturdays at 8:00pm; Sundays at 3:00pm. Ticket prices are $25.00 for all performances. Tickets are available online at www.plays411.com/neweyes or by calling 1-323-960-7712.

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