LCT to Offer Special Events in Conjunction with THE OLDEST BOY

Lincoln Center Theater will present two special events in conjunction with its production of THE OLDEST BOY, a new play by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Rebecca Taichman, which begins performances at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater on Thursday (October 9). These special events are being presented in association with Tibet Fund.

On Tuesday, October 28th at 6:00 pm, LCT will host Life Imitates Life, Again and Again, a discussion between Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche (Tibetan Buddhist Master and Founder of Jewel Heart), Mickey Lemle (filmmaker and Board Chairman of Tibet Fund), and Sarah Ruhl (author of The Oldest Boy). The discussion will be held in the Vivian Beaumont Theater lobby (150 West 65th Street). Admission is free and the event is open to the public; however, seating in the lobby is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis only, beginning a half hour before the talk.

Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche was born in Lhasa, Tibet, and was recognized as an incarnate lama at the age of four. He was amongst the last generation of lamas educated in Drepung Monastery before the Communist Chinese invasion of Tibet. He gained renown for his powers of memory, intellectual judgment and penetrating insight. Rimpoche was crucial to the survival of Tibetan Buddhism, and is credited with editing and printing over 170 volumes of rare Tibetan manuscripts that would have otherwise been lost. He was director of Tibet House in Delhi, India and a radio host at All India Radio where he conducted over 1000 interviews, compiling an oral history of the fall of Tibet to the Communist Chinese. In 1988, he founded Jewel Heart, a Tibetan Buddhist Center with centers in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Nebraska, and New York. His collected written works include over 32 transcripts of his teachings, numerous articles, as well as the national bestseller Good Life, Good Death (Riverhead Books 2001) and the Tara Box: Rituals for Protection and Healing from the Female Buddha (New World Library 2004). Rimpoche is a U.S. citizen and lives in Michigan.

Mickey Lemle is a producer/director whose work includes the award winning PBS series Media Probes, Emmy Award winning series ZOOM, Peabody Award winning Eye-to-Eye, and The Other Side of the Moon. Lemle produced and directed the Emmy nominated, multi award-winning documentary Compassion In Exile: The Story of the 14th Dalai Lama. Other projects include: Hasten Slowly: the Journey of Sir Laurens Van Der Post, A Woman's Place Is In The House, and Ram Das (Fierce Grace). He is developing the feature film Brilliant about Larry Brilliant. Currently, Lemle sits on the Board of Tibet Fund, Joseph Campbell Foundation, The 52nd Street Project, and The Rubin Museum.

Sarah Ruhl returns to Lincoln Center Theater where her plays The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize) and In The Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist) had their New York premieres. Her other plays include Stage Kiss; Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American Award); Dead Man's Cell Phone; Melancholy Play; Orlando; Dear Elizabeth; and Late: a cowboy song (Piven Theatre Workshop). Her plays have been produced across the country, as well as internationally, and have been translated into Polish, Russian, Spanish, Norwegian, Korean, German, French, Swedish, and Arabic.

On Tuesday, November 4th at 6:00 pm, LCT will host THE STORY OF REINCARNATION IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM, a talk by Dr. Thupten Jinpa Langri, translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The presentation will be held in the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (150 West 65th Street). All tickets are $20 and are available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office; seating is general admission. 50% of the proceeds from THE STORY OF REINCARNATION IN TIBETAN BUDDHISM will be donated to Tibet Fund.

Dr. Thupten Jinpa Langri has been the principal English interpreter to His Holiness the Dalai Lama since 1985. Dr. Jinpa received early education and training as a monk at Zongkar Chöde Monastery in South India where he received the Geshe Lharam degree. He holds a B.A. with Honors in Western Philosophy and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies, both from Cambridge University. He has translated and edited more than 10 books by the Dalai Lama including Healing Anger, Dzogchen, Path to Bliss, The World of Tibetan Buddhism, The Good Heart: The Dalai Lama Explores the Heart of Christianity, and the New York Times bestseller Ethics for the New Millennium. In addition to contributing articles to various collections and academic journals, Dr. Jinpa has edited Tibetan Songs of Spiritual Experience and written Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Thought: Tsongkhapa's Quest for the Middle View. He is currently the president of the Institute of Tibetan Classics, and sits on the board of Mind and Life Institute and Tibet Fund.

THE OLDEST BOY tells the story of Tenzin, the toddler son of an American woman and a Tibetan man, who is recognized as the reincarnation of a high Buddhist teacher. Differing cultures contend with competing ideas of faith and love when two monks seek permission to take Tenzin to a monastery in India to begin his training as a spiritual master. His parents must decide whether to send their young son away or keep him home.

THE OLDEST BOY features Ernest Abuba, Tsering Dorjee, Celia Keenan-Bolger, Takemi Kitamura, James Saito, Jon Norman Schneider, James Yaegashi and Nami Yamamoto. The production has sets by Mimi Lien, costumes by Anita Yavich, lighting by Japhy Weideman, sound by Darron L West, puppetry design/direction by Matt Acheson, and choreography by Barney O'Hanlon.

Tickets to THE OLDEST BOY, priced at $77 and $87, are available at the Lincoln Center Theater box office (150 West 65 Street), at telecharge.com, or by visiting www.lct.org. A limited number of tickets priced at $32 are available at every performance through LincTix, LCT's program for 21 to 35 year olds. For information and to enroll, visit LincTix.org.

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