Michael Feingold Play Kicks Off Direct Art Take Two Programming

Direct Arts is proud to announce the new season of its acclaimed double bill of theater and film, Take Two, which will begin on Tuesday, January 11th at 7PM with a presentation of Jeff Sousa's short film THE HIROSAKI PLAYERS and a staged reading of JAPANOIR by noted Village Voice theater critic Michael Feingold. Following the double bill, former Japan Society film curator Kyoko Hirano will lead a discussion with Feingold and Sousa on the connection between theater and film in Japan.

Continuing the second Tuesday every month through June, Take Two 2011 promises to be even more diverse, more ambitious and more daring than previous years with plays and films exploring provocative issues and the human condition - it's all here, even the KITCHEN SINK and Werner Herzog as a plastic bag going through an existential crisis. All Take Two presentations begin with a happy hour mixer, followed by a short film, and then a staged reading of a full-length play. A provocative discussion will often conclude the event. Other highlights of the season include Ashvin Kumar's Academy Award-nominated short LITTLE TERRORIST, Cannes Festival winner Alison MacLean's KITCHEN SINK, Anna Ziegler's THE MINOTAUR (McCarter Theatre's Lab Festival 2010) and Kenneth Lin's SAID SAïD, directed by Obie Award winner Christopher McElroen.

The full 2011 season schedule can be found below:

January 11, 2011
THE HIROSAKI PLAYERS by Jeff Sousa
JAPANOIR by Michael Feingold, directed by Nancy Robillard
Take Two sees double in this intriguing evening featuring a film about a theater group and a play dissecting the career of a Japanese film director. As in America, film in Japan evolved from theater, specifically the realist theater movement shingeki. Following the screening and reading, Jeff Sousa and Michael Feingold will discuss their inspiration for these pieces and trace the connection between film and Western theater in Japan with former Japan Society film curator Kyoko Hirano.

February 8, 2011
DRY CLEAN ONLY written and directed by J.P. Chan
THE GRIND written and directed by Victoria Linchong
The things we do for money....abet murderers, take off our clothes. J.P. Chan's delightful comedy starring Aaron Yoo and the always hilarious Debargo Sanyal is followed by a reading of the "pilot episode" of THE GRIND by Victoria Linchong, a performance series (and forthcoming web series) about two girls who work in a topless bar circa 1997, when Giuliani was shutting down sex shops around the city.

March 8, 2011
LITTLE TERRORIST written and directed by Ashvin Kumar
NOWHERE ON THE BORDER by Carlos Lacámara
Ashvin Kumar's Academy Award nominated short film LITTLE TERRORIST follows a Pakistani child who attempts to fetch a cricket ball that he's lobbed right onto the heavily guarded border of India. Following the short, Carlos Lacámara's NOWHERE ON THE BORDER depicts the encounter between a border vigilante and a Mexican man searching for his missing daughter in the Arizona desert.

April 12, 2011
KITCHEN SINK written and directed by Alison MacLean
THE MINOTAUR by Anna Ziegler, directed by Nancy Robillard
Winner of a 1989 Cannes Film Award, KITCHEN SINK by Alison MacLean (JESUS' SON) is a surreal suburban nightmare about a woman who finds a monster in her kitchen sink. Anna Ziegler's unique play THE MINOTAUR also focuses on a woman's intimate relationship with a monster, examining love, loss and our primal selves through a quirky retelling of the Theseus/Ariadne myth.

May 10, 2011
IN THE NAME OF THE SON by Harun Mehmedinovic
said SAïD by Kenneth Lin, directed by Christopher McElroen
The long shadow of war haunts the protagonists of this double bill. In Harun Mehmedinovic's IN THE NAME OF THE SON, a Bosnian prisoner of war escapes execution and immigrates to the United States looking to leave his past behind. Years later, the man who spared his life shows up on his doorstep asking for a favor. In Kenneth Lin's powerful play said SAïD, a former Algerian prisoner of war and his French torturer are re-united, years later, to decipher a message written in a dying language that only they understand.

June 14, 2011
PLASTIC BAG written and directed by Ramin Bahrini, with Werner Herzog
THE DESERT PLAY by Eric Dufault
A plastic bag (voiced by Werner Herzog) has an existential crisis as he searches for his maker in PLASTIC BAG by Ramin Bahrini (MAN PUSH CART, CHOP SHOP). This unique short film will be followed by THE DESERT PLAY, another wacky ecology parable (oh you thought there was only one?) in which Coyote attempts to please the Sun and stave off the extinction of the world by trapping children with talking cacti and other amazing and irresistible child-bait.
Direct Arts is a new intercultural company, dedicated to producing plays and films that explore the intersection between different cultures. Founded by award-winning producer/writer/director/actor Victoria Linchong, Direct Arts first stepped out into the world at P.S. 122 with a short play written for NY Theatre Review and has since workshopped a multimedia production of Genny Lim's play PAPER ANGELS featuring Obie Award winner Jojo Gonzalez, which won Best of San Fransico Fringe in 2010.

Since 2007, Direct Arts has presented 30 plays and films through its flagship program Take Two, a monthly double bill of intercultural theater and film. Through provocative plays and films that share sociopolitical concerns and that feature different ethnic groups, the program unites the film community, the film community, disparate cultural groups and the social activist community in the belief that each has much to the other. Take Two has featured the prodigious talents of the late great Howard Zinn, Obie Award winners George Bartenieff and Ching Valdes Aran, cable TV star Meital Dohan (Weeds), Sundance filmmakers Tze Chun and Prashant Bhargava and 2010 Susan Smith Blackburn winner Julia Cho, among other phenomenons of the indie theater and film world. Take Two is supported in 2011 by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs.

 

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