Culture Project Announces Second Extension of 'Betrayed'

Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director) today announced that, due to overwhelming demand, it will once again extend the World Premiere engagement of George Packer's captivating new play Betrayed, directed by Pippin Parker. Marking Packer's playwriting debut, Betrayed opened February 6, 2008 at Culture Project's SoHo theater (55 Mercer Street).  The show, which recently earned a Lortel nomination for Best Play, will now continue through Saturday, June 28, 2008.
 
In early 2007, George Packer published an article in The New Yorker about Iraqi interpreters who jeopardized their lives on behalf of the Americans in Iraq, with little or no U.S. protection or security.  The article drew national attention to the humanitarian crisis and moral scandal.  Betrayed, based on Mr. Packer's interviews in Baghdad, tells the story of three young Iraqis - two men and one woman - motivated to risk everything by America's promise of freedom.  Betrayed explores the complex relationships among the Iraqis themselves, and with their American supervisor, struggling to find purpose while a country collapses around them. 
 
The cast of Betrayed includes Jeremy Beck (through 4/13), Aadya Bedi, Christopher Kromer, Ramsey Faragallah, Sevan Greene, Eric TRoy Miller (beginning 4/14) and Waleed F. Zuaiter. 
 
The design team is comprised of Garin Marschall (Set and Lighting), Eric Shim (Sound) and Rabiah Troncelliti (Costumes).
 
George Packer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author, most recently, of The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq, which won several awards and was named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2005.  He has published two other works of non-fiction, The Village of Waiting (1988), a memoir about his years in the Peace Corps in West Africa and Blood of the Liberals (2000), a three-generational political history, which won the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.  He has also published two novels, The Half Man (1991) and Central Square (1998) and is the editor of The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World (2003).  His articles, essays and reviews on foreign affairs, American politics and literature have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Dissent and other publications.  He lives in Brooklyn. 
 
Pippin Parker is a founding member and former Artistic Director of Naked Angels theater company.  As a director, he has staged new pieces by playwrights including Nicole Burdette, Eduardo Machado and Frank Pugliese.  He previously worked with Culture Project as co-Artistic Director of "The Democracy Project."  As a writer, his plays include Anesthesia, Assisted Living and numerous one acts, which have been produced in New York and Los Angeles.  His radio play A Gift was broadcast on NPR's "The Next Big Thing."  Parker is currently the Chair of the graduate playwriting department at the New School for Drama.
 
Culture Project's mission is to bear witness to injustice, to stimulate challenging conversation about the most profound and urgent matters of our time and to convert interest, energy and engagement into a motivational demand for progressive change.  Culture Project has premiered celebrated shows including The Exonerated, Sarah Jones' Bridge & Tunnel, Guantanamo, AMAJUBA: Like Doves We Rise and Lawrence Wright's My Trip To Al-Qaeda and most recently presented Dan Hoyle's acclaimed solo show Tings Dey Happen, Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's Rebel Voices and their provocative A Question of Impeachment series. 
 
Performances are Monday at 8 p.m., Wednesday – Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.  Tickets are priced at $25 - $60 and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or visiting www.cultureproject.org.  Culture Project is located at 55 Mercer Street (at Broome) in the heart of SoHo.