Arsht Center Presents Tenth Anniversary Production Of NE 2ND AVENUE

THE Adrienne Arsht CENTER

FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS OF MIAMI-DADE COUNTY

PRESENTS 

THE 10^th ANNIVERSARY PRODUCTION OF

NE 2^ND AVENUE 

Written and performed by Miami artist Teo Castellanos 

Winner of the prestigious Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 

January 19-21, 2012

Tickets $35

Theater Up Close Season in Carnival Studio Theater
in the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House 

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County presents the 10^th anniversary production of NE 2^ND AVENUE, an award-winning emotional, often humorous one-man play portraying the profoundly rich and textured mix of real Miami neighborhoods. Created and performed by Miami's Teo Castellanos, NE 2^ND AVENUE plays in the intimate Carnival Studio Theater (Ziff Ballet Opera House) from January 19-21, 2012 as part of the Theater Up Close season. 

Directed by Michael Garces, NE 2^ND AVENUE depicts the lives of eight distinct characters: a Puerto Rican small-time drug dealer, a deprived African-American young lady, a Haitian jitney driver, a Cuban-Jewish grandfather, a Rasta Man, an African-American adolescent trying to find his footing in life, a Cuban rafter and a gay man, who each take the audience on a memorable journey through the intense streets of Miami. Through its characters, NE 2^ND AVENUE brings voice to Miami's marginalized urban populations, exploring underlying issues of racism and social injustice, acknowledging the differences among us and ultimately discovering The Common threads that bind us together. 

Originally commissioned and produced by Miami Light Project as part of their 2001-2002 Contemporary Performance Series, NE 2^ND AVENUE was awarded the International Cultural Exchange Grant by Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs, which allowed Castellanos to bring it to the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it won the Fringe First Award, the most prestigious theater award of the festival (past winners include Emma Thompson, Rowan Atkinson and Danny Hoch). It was also nominated for a South Florida Carbonell Award for Best New Work and was awarded Best Solo Performance by Miami New Times, and Best Original Play by The SunPost. NE 2^ND AVENUE has toured throughout the U.S., the Caribbean and Europe. 

Tickets to NE 2^ND AVENUE are $35 may be purchased through the Adrienne Arsht Center box office by calling (305) 949-6722, or online at www.arshtcenter.org. Theater Up Close 3-Show packages are also available for $75 and include tickets to NE 2^nd Avenue, Moscow and Death and Harry Houdini. 

"As one of South Florida's premier performing arts institutions, it is key to the Arsht Center's mission to showcase local talent and Miami-made productions such as NE 2^nd Avenue," said M. John Richard, president and CEO of the Adrienne Arsht Center. "We're certain Teo Castellanos' critically-acclaimed play will once again resonate with our city's melting pot of cultures." 

Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Miami, Teo Castellanos is an actor/writer/director who works in theater, film and television. Castellanos received his B.F.A. in theater from Florida Atlantic University under a full scholarship where he studied with four-time Tony Award winner Zoe Caldwell. Castellanos was awarded Playwright of the Year by City Link Magazine in 2006 and has been nominated for the Alpert Award and twice for the United States Artist Award. 

Castellanos is the Founder and Artistic Director of Teo Castellanos D-Projects, a contemporary dance/theater company, whose original work fuses world cultures, ritual and music, examining social issues through performance. He is also coach of the Tigertail Productions Spoken Word Team that competes annually at Brave New Voices, a national competition produced by Youth Speaks. In addition to NE 2^ND AVENUE, he is the author of War, Revolution, and the Projects, a one-man trilogy. His most recent D-Projects work, Fat Boy, was showcased at the Arsht Center's 2011 Miami-Made weekend, premiered at The Light Box at the Goldman Warehouse and will begin touring February 2012. 

NE 2^ND AVENUE is the fourth installment in the 2011-12 season as part of the Arsht Center's Theater Up Close series which features artistic collaborations from stellar local theater ensembles and nationally acclaimed theater companies. Upcoming performances include the world premiere of Michael McKeever's play Moscow and the return of The House Theatre of Chicago with Nathan Allen's Death and Harry Houdini.

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