MultiStages' COMIDA DE PUTA Begins at The West Side Theatre Today

MULTISTAGES THEATRE presents the world premiere of Desi Moreno-Penson's Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food), directed by producing artistic director Lorca Peress.

Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food) plays a limited engagement at The West End Theatre (Church of St Paul and St Andrew at 263 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024). Performances begin today, April 8th and continue through Sunday, April 26th. Opening Night is Friday, April 10th at 8 p.m.

Sex, magic, and spoken-word poetry illuminate this dark erotic tale of Phaedra on the gritty streets of the Bronx. A bodega owner's new wife becomes strangely obsessed with her husband's son, the lunch counter boy. Driven by lust, she invokes the vengeful power of the Santeria Gods who set off a vicious chain of events that no one can stop. Performed in English.

Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food) began as a ten-minute play in the 2011 Going To The River Festival (plays by women of color) at NYC's Ensemble Studio Theatre. Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food) was selected as a finalist for the 2014 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference and is the winner of MultiStages 2013 New Works Contest.

Featuring Roseanne Almanzar* as Rosalia, Darlenis Duran as Alcidia, Alex Hernandez as Sotero, Gustavo Heredia as Viejo, Mariana Parma* as LaLuz, and Marcos Sotomayor as Manny and the Chorus. With multimedia appearances by Dennis Gagomiros, Mykal Monroe, Suni Reyes, Laura Santiago, Anita Velez, and featuring Jane Velez-Mitchell (Emmy award winning journalist and NY Times bestselling author) as news reporter.

Live music performed by drummer LaFrae Sci.

The production features scenic design by Justin Swader and Christopher Swader, costume and mask design by Lisa Renee Jordan, lighting design by Alex Moore (HOLA Award winner), sound design by David Margolin Lawson, projection design by Jan Hartley (Obie Award Winner, Henry Hewes Design Award winner), and video design by Christopher Marston. With choreography by Sunilda Caraballo, and fight choreography by Logan McCoy. Production stage management by Andrea Wales, dramaturgy by A.J. Muhammad. Kimille Howard is the assistant director and Kampfire PR is the press agent.

Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food) plays the following performances through Sun, April 26: Wednesday, April 8th at 8pm; Thursday, April 9th at 8pm; Friday, April 10th at 8pm (Opening Night); Saturday, April 11th at 8pm; Sunday, April 12th at 3pm (followed by Talkback); Tuesday, April 14th at 8pm; Wednesday, April 15th at 8pm; Thursday, April 16th at 8pm (Benefit performance, reception at 7pm); Friday, April 17th at 8pm; Saturday, April 18th at 8pm; Sunday, April 19th at 3pm; Wednesday, April 22nd at 8pm; Thursday, April 23rd at 8pm; Friday, April 24th at 8pm; Saturday, April 25th at 8pm; and Sunday, April 26th at 3pm.

Classical Adaptations by Artists of Color special talkback following the Sunday, April 12th at 3pm performance with playwrights Desi Moreno-Penson, Patricia Ione Lloyd, Carlos J. Serrano and dramaturg A.J. Muhammad. Moderated by MultiStages producing artistic director Lorca Peress.

Tickets range from $15-75 and are now available online at www.SmartTix.com or by calling 212-868-4444. Tickets may also be purchased in-person at the theater a ½ hour prior to performance. Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes with one intermission. The West End Theatre is located at the Church of St Paul and St Andrew at 263 West 86th Street, New York, NY 10024. For more information, visit www.multistages.org.

*Appearing courtesy of Actors' Equity Association. Equity Approved Showcase.

BIOGRAPHIES:

DESI MORENO-PENSON (Playwright) is a playwright/actor based in New York. Her new play, Comida de Puta (F%&king Lousy Food) was selected as a finalist for the 2014 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. The same play is the winner of the 2013 MultiStages New Works Contest. MFA in Dramaturgy and Theatre/Literary Criticism from Brooklyn College, semifinalist for the 2007 Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, and she has won two playwriting fellowships, as well as an acting fellowship, from the Bronx Council on the Arts. Selected plays: Devil Land (HotINK Theatre Festival, NYU-Tisch, Urban Stages (professional workshop), world premiere @2007 SPF Summer Play Festival, directed by Jose Zayas, NY), Ghost Light (59E59 Theatre, directed by Jose Zayas), 3 To a Session: A Monster's Tale (Teatro Coribantes, San Juan, PR, selected as Best Play at 2005 Downtown Urban Theatre Festival @Cherry Lane, directed by Jose Zayas, part of the 2004 New Works Lab @INTAR); Lazarus Disposed (14th Annual Int'l Women's Playwriting Festival @Perishable Theatre, Providence, RI), Spirit Sex & Comida de Puta (Both short plays presented as part of the 2009 & 2011 Going To The River/The River Crosses Rivers Festival @Ensemble Studio Theatre, NY). Two performance monologues, A Latina Prepares and Don't Knock It 'Til You Try It were presented as part of a solo show, Dos Mujeres, produced by terraNOVA Collective (NYC) for the 10th Annual soloNOVA Arts Festival. An excerpt of A Latina Prepares was featured in the documentary film, THE THEATER OF RICE AND BEANS (Tribeca). Her plays Devil Land, Ghost Light, Lazarus Disposed, 3 To a Session: A Monster's Tale are all published through Broadway Play Publishing and Spirit Sex was selected as part of the short plays anthology THE BEST TEN-MINUTE PLAYS OF 2010 published by Smith and Kraus. Most recently, her play, Devil Land received its Midwest premiere at Urban Theater Company in Chicago. Desi is represented by Bret Adams, Ltd. (NYC).

LORCA PERESS (Director, MultiStages Producing Artistic Director and Founder) specializes in developing new multicultural and multidisciplinary theatre, dance, multimedia, and music theatre works. A former Co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women (2011-2014) and current Member of Creative Network of Federal Affairs Administration (PRFAA) Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Selected Credits: 24 Play Fest at Public Theatre (for Bennington College Fund), Bernstein's MASS (CUNY-QC Colden Center), Temple Of The Souls (MultiStages Script Development musical, 4 HOLA Awards including Outstanding Production, West End Theater and Theater for the New City), Fengar Gael's The Island of No Tomorrows (MultiStages New Works Winner, Honorable Mention Women in Arts and Media Coalition Collaboration Award), Nichole Thompson Adams' Black Girl You've Been Gentrified (Public Theatre's Joe's Pub), Bruce Saylor Operas: The Image Maker and My Kinsman, Major Molineaux (Goldstein Theatre, QC-CUNY, National Opera Assoc. 2nd Prize Professional Div.), Jamuna Yvette Sirker's Hell and High Water, or Lessons for When the Sky Falls (MultiStages New Works Winner, MCAF Award), Arden Kass' Appetite (w/ Tovah Feldshuh, Lynn Cohen, MultiStages Development, Honorable Mention Women in Arts and Media Coalition Collaboration Award), Fengar Gael's Morpho-Genesis (w/ Kathryn Layng, LPTW), Fengar Gael's The Judas Tree (MultiStages New Works Winner, MCAF Award, Dramatists Guild Fund), Anne Hamilton's And Then I Went Inside (w/ Kathleen Chalfant, LPTW), Earl Robinson's The Lonesome Train (w/ Ruby Dee, Sam Waterston, Riverside Church). Panels and Contests: NOPE, NYU-Tisch, TRU, Ohio Counsel on the Arts, Repertorio Espanol MET Life. Faculty: Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Inst., NYU Tisch-Strasberg Studio. Graduate of Bennington College (BA Drama), National Theatre Institute, she studied under Gene Frankel, Shelly Winters and at LSTFI. Member AEA, SAG-AFTRA, SDC. She will be honored with the Taino Areyto Award in Dance/Drama at the Bronx Museum of Art on April 18, 2015.

MULTISTAGES THEATRE was founded in 1997 by Lorca Peress, MultiStages' mission is to encourage collaborations between playwrights and artists to develop multicultural and multidisciplinary new works that celebrate a fusion of art forms that enrich, explore, and reinvent today's theatre. Our New Works Contests, Script Development Series, readings and productions provide platforms for artists to collaborate in an experimental and supportive environment. MultiStages has developed over 40 new works with poets, filmmakers, composers, choreographers, musicians, visual and theatre artists who each represent an imaginative perspective. Awards: 2011 and 2013 Women in Arts and Media Collaboration Honorable Mention Awards, 4 HOLA Awards (including 2012 Gilberto Zaldivar Award for Outstanding production), Taino Award, FLAG Award, 3 Manhattan Community Arts Fund Awards (LMCC and the DOCA), Dramatists Guild Fund, N.W. Dible Foundation, Jewish Communal Fund, Materials for the Arts support from the DOCA. MultiStages is a member of Materials for the Arts through the Department of Culture Affairs, and a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization that receives grants in behalf of MultiStages, provides oversight to ensure grant funds are used in accordance with grant agreements, and provides reports as required by grantor.

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