Pan Asian Rep Announces Cast of DAYBREAK

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre (Tisa Chang, Founding Artistic Producing Director), continuing its 41st milestone season on themes of social justice and historic amnesia, presents the world premiere of the new play Daybreak by Joyce van Dyke (A Girl's War). Performances are set to begin Saturday, April 21, 2018for a limited engagement through Sunday, May 13, 2018 at The Beckett Theatre at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd Street). Opening Night is set for Thursday, April 26, 2018 at 7:30 p.m.

Directed by Lucie Tiberghein (The Pavilion), the six-member cast will feature Melis Aker (Manar), Nicole Ansari (Rock 'n' Roll), Robert Najarian (Sleep No More), Angela Pierce (Oslo), Michael Irvin Pollard (The Apple), and Tamara Sevunts (The Good Girl).

Daybreak is a lyrical story of two Armenian women friends, survivors from 1915, who are transported with their families into the 21st century. Set in three-time periods, the play is inspired by the true stories of Victoria and Varter, survivors driven from their homeland of Armenia, and using memory, dreams, and music, carries the story of these women through three generations to celebrate love, beauty and the endurance of the human spirit.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre Founding Artistic Producing Director Tisa Chang shared "We are so proud to collaborate with Joyce Van Dyke to bring the world premiere ofDaybreak to diverse community groups, high school students, and the larger populace in New York City, and have been awarded a prestigious grant from the National Endowment for the Arts." She went on to add, "Pan Asian Rep builds on explorations of probing stories seldom told: 2017's Acquittal by Shahid Nadeem, about four women unjustly imprisoned during the 1980's military regime in Pakistan, and the recent iconic return engagement of No-No Boy by Ken Narasaki, about post WWII re-settlement."

The creative team includes sets by Sheryl Liu (A Dream of Red Pavilions), costumes by Dina El-Aziz (Wayward), lights by Marie Yokoyama (Sayonara), and sound by Kate Marvin (Ugly Lies the Bone). The Stage Manager is Kristine Schlachter with Sabrina Morabito.

Davbreak will play the following performance schedule: Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Saturday & Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

NOW ON SALE, tickets are priced at $62.25 for all performances and may be purchased through Telecharge at www.telecharge.com, or by calling 212-239-6200. Groups of 10 or more are available at $47.25 with Code TRDAYGrp, and may be purchased online at www.telechargeOffers.com, or by calling (212) 947-8844. Opening Night (Thursday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m.) tickets are available at $122.25 and include post-show reception.

For information about group Talk Backs/ or 11:00 a.m. H.S. school performances, email info@panasianrep.org or call (212) 868-4030.

For additional information, please visit the website at www.panasianrep.org.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Joyce Van Dyke (Playwright) was inspired to write Daybreak by the stories of her Armenian maternal grandparents. Her other plays on Armenian themes include A Girl's War, produced by Golden Thread Productions (2009), New Repertory Theatre (2003), and Boston Playwrights' Theatre (2001), winner of the Gassner Award and the Boston Globe's "Top Ten" plays of 2001. Her new play, The Women Who Mapped the Stars, was co-commissioned by The Poets' Theatre and by Central Square Theater which will produce the world premiere in 2018 as part of The Brit D'Arbeloff Women in Science Production Series. Her other plays include The Oil Thief, commissioned by the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Project, produced by Boston Playwrights' Theatre, and winner of the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding New Script (2009). She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and Huntington Theatre Playwriting Fellow, and teaches playwriting and Shakespeare at Northeastern and Harvard. www.joycevandyke.com

Lucie Tiberghien (Director). Upcoming: Terminus by Gabriel Jason Dean (NYTW Next Door). In development: Resurrection City, a new musical by Stew (Passing Strange). New York credits: The Other Thing, by Emily Schwend (Second Stage); Soldier X by Rehana Mirza (Ma-Yi Theater Company); Don't Go Gentle by Stephen Belber (MCC); Blind and The Pavilion by Craig Wright (Rattlestick Theater Company); Hoodoo Love by Katori Hall (Cherry Lane Theater); A Small Melodramatic Story and Geometry of Fire by Stephen Belber (LAByrinth Theater Company, Rattlestick). Regional: Queens for a Year by T.D. Mitchell (Hartford Stage); Pen/Man/Ship and The Ashes Under Gait City by Christina Anderson (Portland Playhouse, Contemporary American Theater Festival); Blueprints to Freedom by Michael Benjamin Washington (La Jolla Playhouse, and Kansas City Rep); Love in Afghanistan by Charles Randolph Wright (Arena Stage, DC); The Invisible Hand by Ayad Akhtar (Milwaukee Rep); Water by the Spoonful by Quiara Alegria Hudes (Arden Theater);Blood and Gifts by JT Rogers (La Jolla Playhouse); Great Falls and Flag Day by Lee Blessing (Humana Festival, CATF). Education: Webster University, Geneva, Switzerland, BA in International Studies. www.lucietiberghien.com

Tisa Chang (Pan Asian Rep Founding Artistic Producing Director) has led the company since inception, promoting stories seldom told and voices seldom heard. She is a theatre professional for 5 decades as actor, dancer director whose highlights include: 2015's Sayonara; 2007's The Joy Luck Club, intercultural epic Cambodia Agonistes which toured nationally and to Cairo and Johannesburg, Kwatz! The Tibetan Project, and Rashomon which was invited to Havana Theatre Festival in 2003 and bi-lingual premieres, in English and Mandarin Chinese, of the Peking opera, Return of the Phoenix, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Asian Repertory Theatre, celebrating its 41st Milestone, was founded in 1977 by Tisa Chang and core artists at Ellen Stewart's La Mama, where she used Artistry in Actionto counter stereotyped casting, and to broaden the theatrical vocabulary of American theatre. PAN ASIAN is the most veteran Asian American theatre on the East Coast, at the forefront of promoting pan-Asian cultural stories not seen before on the American stage - with an off Broadway Season, Training/Outreach, Play Development. Mel Gussow of The New York Times described it as "A Stage for All the World of Asian-Americans" and wrote that "Before Asian Rep, Asian Americans had severely limited opportunities in the theater..." The company has nurtured thousands of artists and is a "who-is-who" of Asian-American theatre history with notable alumni including Lucy Liu. Daniel Dae Kim, and seminal first-generation writers: Philip Gotanda, Momoko Iko, David Henry Hwang, Cherylene Lee, and the newer generation: Lauren Yee, Damon Chua, and Jeremy Tiang.

Pan Asian Rep Programs are made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; City Council member Margaret Chin, and Coalition for Theaters of Color; and major support from the Ford, Shubert, Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels, Lucille Lortel, and Richtenthal Foundations; and the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU).

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