Kuperman Brothers Star in Columbia Stages' OVER THERE, Running Now thru 10/18 at HERE

Columbia Stages is proud to present OVER THERE, a playful drama by Mark Ravenhill (Shopping and f-ing) and an allegory of competing ideologies set across both the Berlin Wall and consumer driven America.

Directed by 2014 Princess Grace Award Honoree Christopher Murrah, a third year MFA director at Columbia University's School of the Arts, produced by Natalie Gershtein (Artistic Producer, Beautiful City Theatre) and starring the Kuperman Brothers (choreographers of The Light Princess at A.R.T.), OVER THERE will be presented at HERE from today, October 15 - 18, 2014.

"I found you. You're here. And I was over there. But now I'm over here. I'm here. You're my brother. I love you."

When the mother of identical twins, Franz and Karl, defects to the West, she escapes only with Franz, leaving Karl behind. Twenty-five years later, Karl crosses the border from East to West Germany to find his other half. The two men have an intense shared connection. They know scraps of each other's lives without speaking or seeing each other, they speak in unison, yet the gulf of ideology and upbringing between them is insurmountable. When the Berlin Wall comes down, the physical barrier between them is removed, but the struggle to connect and find unity lives on. Ravenhill's chilling play examines the urges and hungers released when two ideologies, two brothers, from opposite sides of the wall meet again.

"We are so excited to bring this play to New York, now at the 25th Anniversary of the fall of The Wall." says director, Christopher Murrah. "It provides a reflection, through the personal story of two brothers trying desperately to reconnect, of the ideas and policies that surrounded that period of time, and how they continue to resonate today and into the future."

OVER THERE
By Mark Ravenhill
OCTOBER 15 - 18, 2014
At HERE, 145 Avenue of the Americas, New York (Enter on Dominick, 1 block south of Spring)

Showtimes:
Wednesday October 15 @ 8:30pm
Thursday October 16 @ 8:30pm
Friday October 17 @ 8:30pm
Saturday October 18 @ 4pm and 8:30pm

This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE, HERE's curated rental program, which provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as technical support.

Tickets: $15/ $5 Seniors/ FREE with Student ID (enter code: "STUDENT"). For tickets visit here.org or call 212-352-3101. Box Office open after 5pm on show days or 2 hours before any performance. Show Info: HERE Webpage.

Production Team of OVER THERE: Scenic Design by D. Schuyler Burks. Costume Design by Christopher Metzger. Lighting Design by Jennifer Schriever. Sound Design by Jack Cummins. Properties by Shayna Strype. Dramaturgy by Jocelyn Shratter. Production Stage Management by Garrett Dean Rollins.

Director - Christopher Murrah: Christopher Murrah is a 2014 recipient of the Princess Grace Theater Honoraria. His work includes classic and contemporary plays and musicals including The Crucible (Miller), Pericles and Hamlet (Shakespeare), Into the Woods (Sondheim/Lapine), Children of Eden (Schwartz/Caird), and Three Sisters (Chekhov). New plays and collaborations have included Peter Pan or The Boy Who Hated Mothers (Michael Lluberes), Alphabetical (Tingying Ma), The Sounds of My People (Tabia Lau) and development of works by Matthew Minnicino, Daaimah Mubashshir, and David Kimple. Other credits include serving as assistant director for A Man's A Man (Classic Stage Company) and Pump Boys and Dinettes (Encores Off-Center Series). He is an MFA candidate at Columbia University under Anne Bogart (SITI Company) and Brian Kulick (Classic Stage Company). www.christophermurrah.com

Producer - Natalie Gershtein: Natalie Gershtein is working towards her M.F.A in Theatre Management & Producing at Columbia University. She is the co-founder and Artistic Producer of Beautiful City Theatre in Montreal. In New York, Natalie has worked with Lincoln Center Festival; The Public Theater on the Under the Radar Festival; Ars Nova Theater; Joey Parnes Productions as the Company Management Assistant for Here Lies Love; 101 Productions on the Broadway openings of Annie and The Heiress; Snug Harbor Productions during the Off-Broadway opening of Emotional Creature - Eve Ensler's new play (writer of The Vagina Monologues); and Bucks County Playhouse as the Company Manager for the 75th anniversary season.

Cast - Kuperman Brothers:

Rick Kuperman (Franz) is a performer, director, and choreographer. Recent theater credits include the role of "Frank" in My Machine (Ice Factory/New Ohio), Wearing Lorca's Bowtie (The Duke on 42nd Street), "Donald" in A Broken Liver and a Cataract (Bridge Theater), One Arm and a Leg (HERE/Theater for the New City), and "Adam" in The Space Between (ART). Film and TV work: Nureyev (Bravo!), Turn the Beat Around (MTV), King of the Camp (YTV), and "Alex" in his own film Rules of the Game (Film Society of Lincoln Center). He has also danced for Alison Chase/Performance and the Steps Repertory Ensemble. Favorite directing credits include Smile (FringeNYC), and the Good and Ready music video for Anthony D'Amato. Rick is a graduate of Harvard University, where he was named both a Russell Shaw Fellow and an Artist Development Fellow. He often collaborates with his brother, Jeff. www.kupermanbrothers.com

Jeff Kuperman (Karl) is a performer and director/choreographer. Recent performance credits include "Grampa" in My Machine (New Ohio Theater), "Walter" in A Broken Liver and a Cataract (Bridge Theater), "Sef" in Roll! (Ars Nova/ANT fest), "Matt" in One Arm and a Leg (HERE/Theater for the New City) and "Yang Sun" in The Good Person of Szechuan (Berlind Theater). He has also danced in films for MTV and YTV, as well as in music videos for Capital Cities ("Safe and Sound") and Evolver ("Sci-fi Queen"). Favorite directing credits include "Rules of the Game" (Film Society of Lincoln Center), Smile (FringeNYC), and The 39 Steps (PST). Favorite choreography credits include The Light Princess at the American Repertory Theater (upcoming at the New Victory Theater) and Tit for Tat (Ailey Citigroup Theater). Jeff graduated from Princeton and is a recipient of the Louis Sudler prize in the Arts. He often collaborates with his brother, Rick. www.kupermanbrothers.com

Creative Team:

D. Schuyler Burks (Scenic Designer) is a New York Stage Designer originally from Denver, CO [B.F.A. Savannah College of Art & Design, 2011]. NYC Credits: I'm Miserable but Change Scares Me, Cooking to Me Is Poetry [New Saloon], Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers [Columbia University], Antigone [Bergen Academies], James and the Giant Peach, Working, Alice in Wonderland [St. Johns University], The Pillowman, Doubt [T. Schreiber Studios], Children of the Future Age [Calliope Theater Company]. Burks is the Scenic Designer for Acting Manitou in Waterville, ME. Upcoming projects include: Philadelphia, Here I Come [T. Schreiber], andThe Seventh Son [Bergen Academies].

Christopher Metzger (Costume Designer). A Brooklyn based designer for theatre, dance and film, Christopher most recently worked with designer, Susan Hilferty and director, Daniel Sullivan on this summer's Shakespeare in the Park production of King Lear (The Public). Upcoming: Mare in the Men's Room (Off-Broadway, The Araca Project), Three Sisters (NYU, dir. Mark Wing-Davey). Costume Design Credits Include: RU (Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, designs featured in Dance Teacher Magazine, Sept. 2014), The Comedy of Errors (Williamstown Theatre Festival, dir. Johanna McKeon), Pale Fires (NYU, dir. Alex Harvey & Jim Calder), Hamletmachine (Columbia University Stages, dir. Dara Malina), Mercy and the Firefly (Luna Stage, dir. Cheryl Katz, Premier). Assistant credits include works at, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Juilliard School, The Playwright's Realm; and numerous productions with designer Moria Sine-Clinton. M.F.A., NYU Tisch (confirmed May 2015).

Jennifer Schriever (Lighting Designer) Designs include: BROADWAY: John Leguizamo's Ghetto Klown, also filmed for HBO. OPERA: Die Fledermaus (Metropolitan), Faust, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mariinsky, Russia), The Pearl Fishers (ENO, London). OFF BROADWAY: Mala Hierba, American Hero (Second Stage); A Second Chance (Public); Sunset Baby (Labyrinth); Triassic Parq (Soho Playhouse); Bullet for Adolf (New World Stages), Stuffed and UnStrung (Union Square) An Evening Without Monty Python (Town Hall). REGIONAL/OTHER: Marie Antoinette (Woolly Mammoth),Sunday in the Park with George (Signature, VA), The Other Josh Cohen (Papermill); Romeo And Juliet, The Conference of the Birds, A Taming of the Shrew (Folger), Stones in his Pockets (CenterStage), American Hero (Williamstown) DANCE: Liz Lerman: Healing Wars. Adjunct Professor Purchase College. ASSOCIATE DESIGN BROADWAY: A Raisin in the Sun, Betrayal, Death of A Salesman, The Mountaintop, The House of Blue Leaves, The Book of Mormon, Fences, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, You're Welcome America. www.jenschriever.com

Jack Cummins (Sound Designer) - New York: King's River (Foxhole), Kamikaze/Crash and Burn (Floodlight), After the Circuit (FringeNYC), Adrift, Mountain Song (Sam French Festival). Regional: Go Dog, Go, 2011 and 2013 Seventh Inning Stretch (Mile Square Theatre), The Being (Floodlight). University: Face Forward (Muhlenberg College), Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Rutgers). Jack was the Audio Intern on the UK Premiere of Neil Labute's Reason's to be Pretty at the Almeida Theatre. Education: BFA Stage Management, Rutgers University.

Shayna Strype (Properties) is a theater-maker and performer based in New York City. She is interested in objects, puppetry, and multimedia performance. She has performed at La MaMa E.T.C, Dixon Place, American Dance Institute, The Riverside Theater, and The Davis Square Theater, among others. She has worked with Ping Chong & Company, both as a performer and administrative assistant. This Fall, she will be assisting on Basil Twist's "Rite of Spring" at Lincoln Center's "White Light Festival". In 2010 and 2012, Shayna traveled to Bolivia to work on two documentaries about "Teatro Trono," a theater for social change in the revolutionary city of El Alto. She currently teaches drama at Friends Seminary in Manhattan and holds her MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College.

Jocelyn Shratter (Dramaturg) is in her 3rd year at Columbia University, as a Dramaturgy MFA student. She has previously worked with Santa Cruz Shakespeare, Red Egg Theatre, and San Jose Repertory Theater in California. Previous dramaturgical work for new plays at Columbia include: The Sounds of My People by Tabia Lau; More Than One Good Way to Drown by Laura Zlatos; and devised pieces: SIRENS, directed by Maridee Slater; and The Weird Tree, directed by Peter Petkovšek. Currently, she works at the Public Theater as an intern with Under the Radar.

Garrett Rollins (Production Stage Manager) is a second-year MFA candidate in the Stage Management concentration at Columbia. Recent credits include Piece of My Heart (Off-Broadway), Wake (CU Stages), Sirens (CU Stages), Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers (CU Stages), and Three Sisters (CU Stages). Garrett also worked this past spring as a stage management intern at Wicked (Broadway).

About Columbia Stages: Columbia Stages is the producing arm of the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University School of the Arts. Columbia Stages presents annually a season of graduate actor and director productions as well as a festival of new plays by emerging playwrights. The Theatre Program at Columbia University School of the Arts offers MFA degrees in: Acting, Directing, Playwriting, Dramaturgy, Stage Management, and Theatre Management & Producing. For more information about the Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Program visit arts.columbia.edu/theatre.

For tickets and up-to-date information, visit columbiastages.org.

Pictured: Jeff Kuperman and Rick Kuperman. Photo by Matthew Dunivan.

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