NYTW Presents AFTERMATH, Performances Begin 9/1

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW) Artistic Director James C. Nicola and Managing Director William Russo have announced that Aftermath, written by Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, and directed by Ms. Blank, will begin performances Tuesday, September 1, at 7pm, at NYTW, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. Opening night is scheduled for Tuesday, September 15 at 7:00pm. The production will run through Sunday, October 4.

With Aftermath, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the award winning creators of The Exonerated, return to the genre of documentary theatre with a powerful exploration of the Iraq war from the perspective of everyday Iraqi citizens and how their lives changed forever the day the Americans arrived in their country.

In June of 2008, New York Theatre Workshop sent Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, to Jordan where they interviewed Iraqis who fled the chaos and violence that befell their country for the relative safety of Jordan. Following their visit to Amman, they crafted these conversations into Aftermath. The people whose stories are told include a dermatologist, a husband and wife team of cooks, an Imam, an Iraqi Christian young mother, a husband and wife theatre director and visual artist, and a pharmacist.

Commenting on Aftermath, Ms. Blank and Mr. Jensen say, "Aftermath depicts the real people behind the phrase ‘collateral damage.' In our interviews with Iraqi civilians, we explored their hopes, fears, backgrounds, families, professions, and loves, as well as what they have endured throughout the war. The play is steeped in our belief that theatre has a distinct ability to create connections among individuals normally separated by geography, experience, nationality, or beliefs. Through the simple act of speaking to an audience, the characters portrayed in this play reveal the experiences of a community of people with which we, as Americans, are indelibly connected."

The cast of Aftermath is Fajer Al Kaisi, Amir Arison, Leila Buck, Maha Chehlaoui, Demosthenes Chrysan, Daoud Heidami, Omar Koury, Laith Nakli, and Rasha Zamamiri Wescott.

Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen are writers, actors, and directors. Together, they are authors of The Exonerated, a play based on interviews they conducted with over 40 wrongfully convicted death row inmates across the United States. Erik and Jessica co-directed the first production of The Exonerated at Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang Theater, which was nominated for five Ovation Awards and three NAACP Awards, winning the Ovation for Best World Premiere Play. Under Bob Balaban's direction, the New York (Culture Project) and London (Riverside Studios) production of The Exonerated ran for over 600 performances Off-Broadway, toured nationally, won Lucille Lortel, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Fringe First, and Herald Angel Awards, and was nominated for the Dramatists'Guild's Hull-Warriner Award and the John Gassner Playwriting Award. The play received awards from Amnesty International, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Death Penalty Focus, and Court TV. The Exonerated enjoyed sold-out runs in London and at the Dublin International Theater Festival and has been translated into Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese. An award-winning movie for Court TV, the film version featured Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, Brian Dennehy, Aidan Quinn, and Delroy Lindo.

As writing partners, Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen's work has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Soros Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New World Foundation, and the Ethel and Abe Lapides Foundation. Their writing has been published in several magazines and journals, including The Believer, The Dramatist, Another Magazine, and Theater History Studies. Living Justice, their book on the making of The Exonerated, was published in 2005 by Simon and Schuster. Erik's graphic novel The Reconcilers, developed in conjunction with legendary Batman artist Neal Adams, will be published in 2009.

As an actor, Jessica Blank has appeared on film, TV, and in theaters throughout New York City. Television credits include HBO's Bored to Death, The Bronx Is Burning, Law and Order: CI, Rescue Me, One Life to Live, and Guiding Light; film credits include The Namesake (dir. Mira Nair), The Exonerated (dir. Bob Balaban), You're Nobody Till Somebody Kills You (exec. prod. Spike Lee), On the Road With Judas (Sundance 2007), and Undermind. Liberty City, which Jessica co-wrote with April Yvette Thompson, was produced in 2008 by NYTW (with Jessica directing), and was nominated for Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Her first novel, Almost Home, about homeless youth in Los Angeles, was published by Hyperion in 2007, and is currently being developed for feature film by Jon Bon Jovi's film Production Company, with Jessica and Erik adapting the screenplay. Her second novel, Karma for Beginners, will be published by Hyperion on August 18.

As an actor, Erik Jensen has co-starred in over twenty feature films, including Black Knight and The Love Letter. He starred as NY Yankee legend Thurman Munson in the ESPN miniseries The Bronx is Burning, and stars in Virtuality, the critically acclaimed new telefilm by the creators of Battlestar Galactica (dir. Peter Berg). He has appeared regularly on CSI, and Love Monkey, as well as guest-starred on Alias, Law and Order, and Century City, among others. Notable stage appearances include Tracey Scott Wilson's The Good Negro at The Public Theater, Arthur Kopit's Y2K at MTC, and Terrance McNally's Corpus Christi, also at MTC. He is currently at work directing Main Street, a documentary film about corporate farming's impact on small-town America.

The set design for Aftermath is by Richard Hoover; the costume design is by Gabriel Berry; the lighting design is by David Lander; the sound design is by David Robbins.

New York Theatre Workshop (NYTW), now celebrating its 26th season, is a leading voice in the world of Off-Broadway and within the theatre community in New York and around the world. NYTW has emerged as a premiere incubator of important new theatre, honoring its mission to explore perspectives on our collective history and respond to the events and institutions that shape our lives. In addition, NYTW is known for its innovative adaptations of classic repertory. Each season, from its home in New York's East Village neighborhood, NYTW presents three to five new productions, over 80 readings, and numerous workshop productions, for over 45,000 audience members. Over the past 26 years, NYTW has developed and produced over 100 new, fully staged works, including Jonathan Larson's Rent, Tony Kushner's Slavs! and Homebody/Kabul, Doug Wright's Quills, Claudia Shear's Blown Sideways Through Life and Dirty Blonde, Paul Rudnick's The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told and Valhalla, and Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest, Far Away, and A Number. The 2002 remounting of Martha Clarke's seminal work Vienna: Lusthaus and subsequent American tour was one of the longest-running productions in NYTW's history. NYTW supports artists in all stages of their careers by maintaining a series of workshop programs including work-in-progress readings, summer residencies, and minority artist fellowships. In 1991, NYTW received an OBIE Award for Sustained Achievement and in 2000 was designated to be part of the Leading National Theatres Program by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Aftermath plays at New York Theatre Workshop, 79 East 4th Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery. The regular performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:00pm, Wednesday through Friday at 8:00pm, Saturday at 3:00pm and 8:00pm, and Sunday at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. There will be a special student matinee on Wednesday, September 23 at 1pm and there is no matinee on Saturday, September 26. Aftermath runs through Sunday, October 4. Tickets are $65 and may be purchased online at www.telecharge.com, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or by phoning Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200. For exact dates and times of performance, visit www.nytw.org.

Maintaining its commitment to making theatre accessible to all theatergoers, NYTW continues its CheapTix Sundays program in which all tickets for all Sunday evening performances at 7:00pm will cost $20. Tickets may be purchased in advance, payable in cash only, and are available in person only at the NYTW Box Office. And for all performances, student tickets cost $20, based on availability, and can be purchased in advance from the NYTW Box Office with valid student identification. The NYTW Box Office is open 1:00pm to 6:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

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