KERNEL OF SANITY Opens At Henry Street Settlement 4/9

Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre will present Kernel of Sanity by Kermit Frazier at their home at Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Arts Center/Recital Hall (466 Grand Street). Performances begin April 9th with Opening Night set for Thursday, April 16th. Performances continue through May 3rd only. Petronia Paley directs a cast that features Madeleine James, Joel Nagle*, and Chaz Reuben*.

Kernel of Sanity will have set design by Pavlo Bosyy, costume design by Ali Turns, lighting design by Shirley Prendergast and sound design by Sean O'Halloran.

In a small Midwestern city in the late 1970s, a young actor, on his way from New York to California, takes a detour for a surprise visit to a crucial confrontation with a veteran actor - an actor he's worked with in only one play, but to whom he's found himself inexorably, if nearly unwittingly, attached. In a taunt, tense 90 minutes, three people - a black man, a white man, and a white woman - clash over their contradictory senses of marginalization and betrayal and their contrasting perceptions of illusion and reality.

Kermit Frazier has been a playwright and television writer as well as a teacher of writing, literature, and theater for more than 30 years. His first produced was Shadows and Echoes, which was mounted in NY by the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center, garnered four AUDELCO Award nominations. He's also had three plays produced in the Ensemble Studio Theatre's Marathon of One-Act Plays: "Class Reunion," "Dinah Washington Is Dead," and "Outside the Radio." "Dinah Washington Is Dead" premiered at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, and "Class Reunion" later toured prisons and drug rehab centers under the auspices of the Theater for the Forgotten. Mr. Frazier has also been commissioned to develop new work, including Dream King, an adaptation of T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone (Center Stage's Young People's Theater); Steps in Time: Scenes from 1840 Baltimore, which ran for six seasons in Baltimore, among others. Another work, An American Journey (written with playwright John Leicht) was commissioned by the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, produced on its main stage, and subsequently produced by the Philadelphia Drama Guild. Mr. Frazier was commissioned by the Seattle Children's Theatre to write the book for Little Rock, a rock & roll musical inspired by events surrounding the desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School in 1957. The musical ran for 70 performances at SCT and has been performed in Washington, DC, Pittsburgh, and Little Rock itself. He has collaborated with three other writers on a musical cabaret called Psychedelic Sundae. A story about four young people who form a garage band in the 1960's, the piece played to packed houses for two seasons at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater. Mr. Frazier has been a recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship in playwriting.

Petronia Paley's directing credits include Medea (National Black Theatre); The I the Actor Showcases; How Many Good Byes Must We Say, Julia de Burgos; Allison Bonner's Can We Dance (Women of Color Award); Luis Chaluisan's Spic Chic at Ensemble Studio Theatre's OCTOBERFEST, Repertorio Español and the Chelsea Playhouse; To Die So Soon at the Rapt Theatre. Fool For Love at the Director's and Actor's Lab. She is the founder and artistic director of I the Actor Acting Workshop. Member: Ensemble Studio Theatre, Red Bull Theatre and the Actors Studio.

Woodie King Jr. is the Founder and Producing Director of New Federal Theatre. Woodie King Jr's New Federal Theatre has presented over 200 productions in its 39-year history. Mr. King has produced and directed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in Regional Theatres, and in universities across the United States. He co-produced For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (first produced by NFT and Joseph Papp's Public Theatre), What The Wine Sellers Buy, Reggae and The Taking of Miss Janie (Drama Critics Circle Award). His directional credits are extensive and include work in film as well as theater.

Performances of Kernel of Sanity are Wednesday through Friday evenings at 7:30 PM Saturday at 3 PM and 8 PM, and Sunday at 3 PM. No performance Easter Sunday, April 12th; special added performance Tuesday April 28th at 7:30 PM. Tickets will be $20 and can be ordered through www.henrystreet.org/arts or by phone at 212/598-0400. For more information, please visit www.newfederaltheatre.org.

Performances will be at Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Arts Center/Recital Hall, 466 Grand Street (between Pitt & Willett Streets). By subway: "F" train to Delancey Street; "M" and "J" train to Essex Street; or by "M14A" bus to Pitt Street.

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