Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Announces Dates For Dael Orlandersmith's UNTIL THE FLOOD And Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's DRAW THE CIRCLE

Tickets for the next two Mainstage productions of the 2017/2018 season at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (Daniella Topol, Artistic Director; Annie Middleton, Managing Director; Victor Cervantes, Jr., Associate Producer) are now on sale and can be purchased by visiting www.rattlestick.org. Following the sold-out run of Diana Oh's {my lingerie play} 2017: THE CONCERT AND CALL TO ARMS!!!!!!!!! The Final Installation, Rattlestick will present Pulitzer Prize finalist Dael Orlandersmith's play UNTIL THE FLOOD beginning January 6, 2018 with an opening night set for January 18, 2018; and Mashuq Mushtaq Deen's DRAW THE CIRCLE beginning previews on January 24, 2018 with an opening night set for February 2, 2018.

Both shows will play Wednesday through Monday at 7:30 with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2pm, in repertory for a limited engagement through February 18, 2018 at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (224 Waverly Place). All performances will be followed by a post-show conversation.

"There was never any doubt that we wanted to present Dael and Deen's plays in rep with one another," said Rattlestick Artistic Director Daniella Topol. "Both of these innovative writer-performers not only portray a multitude of voices and stories on stage, but they do so with great humanity and great respect, letting us watch and listen to perspectives different from our own. These are portraits of real people grappling with change and violence in a divisive society, and Dael and Deen are doing their part to bridge that toxic divide of otherness in our culture."

"Dael and Deen give me HOPE," said Rattlestick 2017-2018 Tow Playwright-in-Residence Diana Oh. "Because they are so unrelentingly their full authentic selves and who they are as people is HUGE and EPIC and can very easily save the world if we all listen to them."

Rattlestick welcomes back alumni writer Dael Orlandersmith (Horsedreams, Pulitzer-Prize Finalist Yellowman) with the New York premiere of her piece UNTIL THE FLOOD, written in response to Michael Brown's death and commissioned by St. Louis Repertory. Having interviewed scores of St. Louis residents, Orlandersmith portrays the many faces found within the community, giving each a chance to take center stage and holding no one viewpoint above others.

UNTIL THE FLOOD will be directed by Neel Keller (Forever at NYTW, Associate Artistic Director at Center Theater Group in Los Angeles).

UNTIL THE FLOOD will feature set design by Takeshi Kata (Office Hour, Man from Nebraska), costume design by Kaye Voyce (The Antipodes, The Real Thing), lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger (The Constant Wife, The Liar), sound design by Justin Ellington (Primer for a New Superpower, Syncing Ink), and projection design by Nick Hussong (Skeleton Crew, These Paper Bullets!).

"As a writer, performer and friend, Dael always surprises and confounds me. In Until The Flood she does it again, wading into the divisive, polarized enmity swirling around Darren Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown and returning with stories and characters who reveal how bound together we actually are, all of us caught up in the same roiling, painful currents of emotion, history, race and politics," said Keller.

The performance schedule for UNTIL THE FLOOD is as follows: Performances on January 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 27, 29 and February 3, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18 will be at 7:30pm. Performances on January 28 and February 4 will be at 2 pm.

Mashuq Mushtaq Deen (The Betterment Society, Resident Playwright at New Dramatists), is making his New York debut in the New York premiere of DRAW THE CIRCLE. The hilarious and moving story of his transition, DRAW THE CIRCLE is told entirely from the point of view of Deen's family and friends, as portrayed by Deen, bringing to life the often-ignored struggle that a family goes through when their child transitions from one gender to another.

DRAW THE CIRCLE will be directed by Chay Yew (Oedipus El Rey, Durango, AD of Victory Garden Theater in Chicago).

"DRAW THE CIRCLE is one of the most courageous testimonial theatre works I've collaborated on in my career. Written and performed by a trans playwright and actor, Deen brings to vivid life the intersectionality of being South Asian, Muslim and transgender, immigration, and the import of family, love and self-acceptance," said Yew. "This is the new American narrative."

DRAW THE CIRCLE will feature set design by Yew, lighting design by Mary Louise Geiger (Office Hour, The Constant Wife, The Liar), and sound design by Matthew M. Nielson (Shakespeare's Villians, Lakawanna Blues). DRAW THE CIRCLE premiered at PlayMakers Repertory Theatre in North Carolina and is currently playing at Mosaic Theatre in Washington DC.

The performance schedule for DRAW THE CIRCLE is as follows: Performances on January 24, 25, 26, 28, 31 and February 1, 2, 4, 7 9, 14, 16 will be at 7:30pm. Performances on February 3, 10, 11, 17, 18 will be at 2pm.

During previews, tickets for UNTIL THE FLOOD and DRAW THE CIRCLE are $30, with $20 tickets for artists and $10 tickets for students. After opening the tickets will be $40, $25, and $15, respectively. Tickets for both shows can be purchased at www.rattlestick.org and by phone at 212-627-2556. Standard ticketing fees apply to all orders. Pay-what-you-can performances will be held on January 7 and 19 for UNTIL THE FLOOD and January 25 and February 3 for DRAW THE CIRCLE.

Founded in 1994, RATTLESTICK PLAYWRIGHTS THEATER is an Obie-Award winning theater that has created, developed and produced over 100 World Premieres. Our mission is to present diverse, challenging and provocative plays that might not otherwise be produced and to foster the future voices of the American theater. When we take on a playwright, we guarantee him or her a second production, regardless of the reception of the first. We have produced the first plays and early works of some of today's leading voices, including Annie Baker (The Aliens), Sheila Callaghan (That Pretty, Pretty), Jesse Eisenberg (The Revisionist), Martyna Majok (Ironbound), Adam Rapp (The Hallway Trilogy), Lucy Thurber (The Hilltown Plays), Jonathan Tolins (Buyer and Cellar) and Craig Wright (The Pavilion). We have also produced works by some of our nation's most important playwrights, including Craig Lucas (Ode to Joy), Dael Orlandersmith (Horsedreams), and José Rivera (Massacre, Sing to Your Children). We produce theater to inspire empathy and provoke conversations in response to the complexities of our culture. For more info visit www.rattlestick.org.

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