Photo Flash: Ma-Yi's THE SUGAR HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS

The Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company - one of the country's leading Asian-American theater companies - will present the World Premiere of Carla Ching's new play THE SUGAR HOUSE AT The Edge OF THE WILDERNESS, directed by Daniella Topol featuring a cast that includes Cindy Cheung (Will Eno's MIDDLETOWN) and April Matthis (Young Jean Lee's LEAR). Preview performances of THE SUGAR HOUSE AT The Edge OF THE WILDERNESS begin November 8 prior to an official press opening of November 15 at The Connelly Theater (220 East 4th Street) in Manhattan.

THE SUGAR HOUSE AT The Edge OF THE WILDERNESS centers on Chinese adoptees Greta and Han, who are sent to live with their ex-rockstar uncle and his young girlfriend when their father dies suddenly and their mother goes on a grief pilgrimage. Wrestling with the wilds of New York and their grief, Greta gets in trouble with the law and is put in a court mandated reform program and Han runs away to play music on the street. On The Edge of the wilderness, Greta and Han must ask themselves: If I can't go home, where do I go? A play with music and a live twitter feed about kids growing up fast, children raising children, and shifting notions of home.

Directed by Daniella Topol, the cast of THE SUGAR HOUSE AT The Edge OF THE WILDERNESS includes Ali Ahn, Bjorn DuPaty, Cindy Cheung (Will Eno's MIDDLETOWN), Christopher Larkin (BACK FROM THE FRONT), April Matthis (Young Jean Lee's LEAR at Soho Rep) and David Spangler. The design team is Clint Ramos (Set Design), Japhy Weideman (Lighting Design), Shane Rettig (Sound Design), Theresa Squire (Costume Design), and Alex Koch, David Tenant, and Kate Freer (Video Design).

Carla Ching is a playwright, teaching artist and artistic director of 2g, she wrote and performed with the Pan Asian Performance group "Peeling" at venues like Second Stage Theater, The Asian American Writers Workshop, NYU, Cornell and The Puffin Room. Her plays have been produced or developed by 2g, Ma-Yi Theater Company, Desipina, Vampire Cowboys and IRT. She received a 2008 Urban Artists Initiative Fellowship, a 2009-1010 Teachers & Writers Collaborative Fellowship and a 2010 commission from EST/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to write a game theory play. She is a member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, a member of the Women's Project Lab 2008-2010. MFA, Actors Studio Drama School, BA, Vassar College. Ms. Ching is a current member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab, which was founded in 2004 by playwright Sung Rno and boasts the largest resident company of Asian American Playwrights ever assembled.

Daniella Topol is a New-York based freelance theater director primarily focused on working with writers to develop and direct relevant, theatrical and adventuresome new plays and musicals. Some recent productions include: Rajiv Joseph's MONSTER AT THE DOOR (Alley Theatre), Anna Ziegler's PHOTOGRAPH 51 (Theatre J, Washington D.C.), Willy Holtzman's THE MORINI STRAD (City Theatre, PA), Chiori Miyagawa's FIREDANCE (Bard College), Jeff Hughes and Scott Ethier's RED CLAY (NAMT Festival of New Musicals, Richard Rodgers Development Award at Queens Theatre in the Park/Playwrights Horizons under previous title ROSA PARKS), Janet Allard and Niko Tsakalakos' POOL BOY (Barrington Stage), Sheila Callaghan's LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING (Women's Project/Cherry Lane), and many others.

Founded in 1989, Ma-Yi Theater Company is a Drama Desk and Obie Award-winning, Off-Broadway not-for-profit organization whose primary mission is to develop new plays and performance works that depict Asian American experiences. Its numerous acclaimed productions include last season's acclaimed production of Michael Lew's MICROCRISIS and the revival of Ralph B. Pena's FLIPZOIDS. Other productions include: RESCUE ME by Michi Barall, Lloyd Suh's AMERICAN HWANGAP, SOUL SAMURAI, THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO, THE CHILDREN OF VONDERLY and wAve. Through successful programs such as the Writers Lab, Ma-Yi emboldens a new generation of Asian American artists to voice their experiences, while developing a steady stream of quality new works by Asian American Playwrights for its own performing repertory. Ma-Yi Theater Company productions have earned nine Obie Awards, numerous Henry Hewes Award nominations, a Drama Desk nomination and the Special Drama Desk Award for more than two decades of excellence and for nurturing Asian-American voices in stylistically varied and engaging theater.

Scheduled to run November 8 through December 4, performances of THE SUGAR HOUSE AT The Edge OF THE WILDERNESS will run Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:30pm; Saturdays at 2:00pm and 7:30pm; and Sundays at 3:00pm at The Connelly Theatre (220 East 4th Street). Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101 or online at www.ma-yitheatre.org.

For more info, visit www.ma-yitheatre.org

Photo Credit: Web Begole

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