TFTNC City Presents Walking From Rumania 3/26-4/19

Theater for the New City presents the premiere of Walking from Rumania, a journey to freedom in 1899, by award-winning playwright Barbara Kahn

Theater for the New City, Crystal Field, Executive Artistic Director, proudly announces the world premiere production of Walking from Rumania, a historical drama written and directed by Barbara Kahn.

Featuring Zina Anaplioti, Michelle Cohen, Robert Gonzales, Jr., Jenny Grace, Andrew Langton, Sylvia Milo, Natalie Reder, Nate Rubin, Kevyn Settle, Steph Van Vlack and Amanda Yachechak. Music by Allison Tartalia. Set design by Mark Marcante. Lighting design by Richard Reta. Costume design by Alice J. Garland.

March 26-April 19, Thursdays - Saturdays at 8 P.M., Sundays at 3 P.M. Tickets are $12. Information/Reservations: 212-254-1109. Theater for the New City, 155 1st Ave @ 10th St. Subway: L to 1st Ave, 6 to Astor Place.

www.theaterforthenewcity.net

Walking from Rumania, set in 1899, was inspired by the women-only groups of "fusgeyers" (pedestrians) who walked across Rumania to escape hardship and discrimination. Five women in a small village prepare to join a larger group that is leaving a nearby city in three months. Two of the women are drawn to each other and plan to stay together in America. A pogrom (rampage against Jews) brings tragedy and provides greater impetus for the women to risk the journey. Two Gypsies function throughout the play as a "Greek chorus," with folk tales and music that comment on the action. Walking from Rumania concludes on a hopeful note, with the fusgeyers on the verge of beginning their daring escape.

Barbara Kahn's plays have been produced in the U.S., France and Germany. She has directed in New York, Paris, and at The National Theatre in London. Theater for the New City has been the primary New York City home for Barbara's plays since 1994. Among her many awards, she was honored with the 1995 TORCH OF HOPE AWARD for lifetime achievement in non-profit theatre, following past recipients Terrence McNally, John Guare, August Wilson, Horton Foote and A.R. Gurney. Barbara was named best playwright in the 2005 Fresh Fruit International Festival for her play PEN PALS. With Jackie Freeman, she co-authored the lyrics to "Actions are the Music of the Free, music by Jennifer Giering, inspired by the speeches of Bella Abzug and performed at the United Nations Tribute to Dame Nita Barrow. A "short list of prominent post-1970's playwrights who identify as Jewish and who have written about Jews includes Jon Robin Baitz, Richard Greenburg, Alan Havis, Barbara Kahn, Tony Kushner, Barbara Lebow, Jennifer Maisel, Karen Malpede, David Mamet, Emily Mann, Donald Margulies, Elizabeth Swados, Jeffrey Sweet, Alfred Uhry, and Wendy Wasserstein." (You Should See Yourself: Jewish Identity in Postmodern American Culture. Vincent Brook. Rutgers University Press.)

THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY (TNC) is a Pulitzer Prize winning community cultural center that is known for its high artistic standards and widespread community service. One of New York's most prolific theatrical organizations, TNC produces 20-30 premieres of new American plays per year, at least 10 of which are by emerging and young playwrights. Many influential theater artists of the last quarter century have found TNC's Resident Theater Program instrumental to their careers, among them Sam Shepard, Moises Kaufman, Richard Foreman, Charles Busch, Maria Irene Fornes, Miguel Piñero and Academy Award Winners Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody. TNC also presents plays by multi-ethnic/multi-disciplinary theater companies who have no permanent home. Among the well-known companies that have been presented by TNC are Mabou Mines, The Living Theater, Bread and Puppet Theater, the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Ma-Yi Theater Company, which won an OBIE Award for its 1996 TNC production, FLIPZOIDS. TNC also produced the Yangtze Repertory Company's 1997 production of BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH, which was the only play ever produced in America by Gao Xingjian before he won the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature. TNC seeks to develop theater audiences and inspire future theater artists from the often-overlooked low-income minority communities of New York City by producing minority writers from around the world and by bringing the community into theater and theater into the community through its many free Festivals. TNC productions have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and over 40 OBIE Awards for excellence in every theatrical discipline. TNC is also the only Theatrical Organization to have won the Mayor's Stop the Violence award.

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