MY DAUGHTER KEEPS OUR HAMMER to Begin Performances 1/15 at The Flea

The Flea Theater presents the World Premiere of BrIan Watkins' My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer. It will be directed by Flea Resident Director Danya Taymor (I Hate Mexicans) featuring members of The Bats, the resident Acting Company at The Flea. Previews begin January 15 with opening slated for January 25.

My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer follows two estranged sisters, one needy mother and one intolerable sheep. Stuck in a forgotten prairie town, clashing sisters Sarah and Hannah unite when they attempt to housebreak mom's beloved sheep, Vicky, the lone survivor of the family's former flock. But family secrets make bad shepherds. And the sisters must choose: reconcile their past or sacrifice their future.

Both Artistic Director Jim Simpson and Producing Director Carol Ostrow are enamored of the playwright Brian Watkin's voice. Says Ostrow, "we haven't heard the howls of the prairie - that vast expanse of America - since the early days of Sam Shepard. Watkins is an original and he is a real find."

The production stars Hannah Finn (Sarah Flood in Salem Mass), Katherine Folk-Sullivan (Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love, These Seven Sicknesses), Layla Khoshnoudi (Job), and Kate Thulin (Sarah Flood in Salem Mass).

BrIan Watkins is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose work has been performed and developed with Rattlestick, Lesser America, Horse Trade Theatre, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, Edinburgh Fringe, FringeNYC, Wide Eyed Productions, Terra Firma and Route 66 in Chicago, among others. Plays include General Store (2012 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference), My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer, Games For An Empty Cul-de-sac, Study That House, The Bison of Kiowa, and High Plains, which recently completed its critically acclaimed UK premiere with Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe. Current commissions with b. swibel presents, as well as head writer for Divine Details, a literary/design exhibition in collaboration with downtown design studio Little Fury and AIGA. Member of the Dramatists Guild.

Danya Taymor is a New York based director originally from northern California. Past directing credits include: I Hate Mexicans (U.S. premiere/co-translator), The Shakes: Romeo and Juliet and The Honest Whore, Asking For Trouble (EST / Youngblood), American Nightcap (INTAR) and serials@theflea. She has directed readings and workshops of plays by Robert Askins, BrIan Watkins, Brett Epstein, Lily Padilla and Luis Enrique Gutierrez Ortiz Monasterio, and has developed work at Theatre for a New Audience, Play Company, The Flea Theater, and Columbia University. She has assisted on and off Broadway, and participated in directing workshops with Peter Brook, Cicely Berry, and Andrew Wade at Theatre for a New Audience. Awards/fellowships include: Van Lier Directing Fellowship; Gates Foundation Grant; Sudler Prize, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Lincoln Center Directors Lab. She is currently developing a play about Juarez, Mexico with the award-winning photographer Dominic Bracco II that will premiere at The Flea Theater, where she is a Resident Director.

The Bats are the resident Acting Company members of The Flea Theater. Each year over a thousand actors audition for a place in this unique company. The Bats perform in extended runs of challenging classic and new plays. The Bats have recently appeared in premieres by A.R. Gurney, Will Eno, Adam Rapp, Beau Willimon, Mac Wellman, Elizabeth Swados, Thomas Bradshaw, Itamar Moses, Sheila Callaghan, Julian Sheppard, Ken Urban, Tommy Smith, Jonathan Reynolds, Trista Baldwin, Laurel Haines, Qui Nguyen, Sean Graney, and Amy Freed.

The Flea Theater, under Artistic Director Jim Simpson and Producing Director Carol Ostrow, is one of New York's leading off-off-Broadway companies. Winner of a Special Drama Desk Award for outstanding achievement, Obie Awards and an Otto for political theater, The Flea has presented over 100 plays and numerous dance and live music performances since its inception in 1996. Past productions include the premieres by Steven Banks, Thomas Bradshaw, Bathsheba Doran, Will Eno, Karen Finley, Amy Freed, Sean Graney, A.R. Gurney, Hamish Linklater, Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio, Itamar Moses, Anne Nelson, Qui Nguyen, Adam Rapp, Jonathan Reynolds, Roger Rosenblatt, Adriano Shaplin, Elizabeth Swados, and Mac Wellman. Recent successes include Drama Desk nominated She Kills Monsters, These Seven Sicknesses and Restoration Comedy.

My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer runs January 15 - February 15, Wednesday - Sunday at 7pm. The Flea Theater is located at 41 White Street between Church and Broadway, three blocks south of Canal, close to the A/C/E, N/R/Q, 6, J/Z and 1 subway lines. Tickets $15 - $35 with lowest priced tickets available on a first-come, first-served basis. They can be purchased by calling 212-352-3101 or online at www.theflea.org.

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