Starcatcher Productions Opens World Premiere of THE KING'S WHORE at Walkerspace Tonight

Starcatcher Productions is a new, daring, innovative and commercially provocative theatre company on the New York skyline whose mission is to create new works and produce existing pieces that profoundly move people, challenge deeply-entrenched stereotypes, promote the stories of women, and contextualize the modern day experience through an understanding of the past.

The World Premiere of Rob Santana's THE KING'S WHORE will be the company's premiere presentation. The Two-Act explosive theatrical detonation will have its World Premiere tonight, July 28 at the new WALKERSPACE THEATER in Tribeca at 46 Walker Street (2 blocks South of Canal Street between Broadway and Church).

Jen Wineman will direct the fireworks. Her designers are: Deb O (Scenery), Aaron Mastin (Costumes), Alan Edwards (Lighting) and Jessica Paz (Sound). Lynde Rosario is the Dramaturg. Hunter A. Johnson is the Production Stage Manager. Daniel O'Phalen is the Casting Director. Meghan Pressman is the Associate Producer.

THE KING'S WHORE is the lightning-paced, electrically-charged, politically informed and sexually laced true story of one of the most famous wives in the Western Hemisphere's history, Anne Boleyn, and her disastrous relationship with one of the most famous husbands in the Western Hemisphere's history, His Majesty Henry the Eighth, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head. It took Anne Boleyn ten years to get everything on earth. It took Henry eighteen days to reclaim it. Not a fair fight. Scored by the Billboard Top Ten Hits of 1536 and 2013, this is an extremely daring play about those ten years and eighteen days.

Anne Boleyn was nineteen years old when Henry began his pursuit which culminated in her decapitation ten years later during which time she erotically kidnapped the King, overturned the power of the Roman Catholic Church in England, gave birth to a daughter who would become the greatest monarch in the history of Great Britain, deposed of her Royal predecessor and the old cow's daughter acquiring their 250 servants as her own, re-established diplomatic relations with France, spent millions of pounds amassing a staggeringly glamorous wardrobe and five times as much re-decorating her three castles, became fluent in most of the languages in Europe, married the already married King five months pregnant, re-married him after triumphing over the Pope, established her father as the most powerful Duke in the Kingdom, advanced her womanizing brother to the King's Privy Council, eradicated the terrifyingly powerful Cardinal Wolsey, ended the life of the great Saint and scholar, Thomas Moore and ushered in the Protestant Reformation all the while transforming the dowdy English Court with glittering French fashion and sensual anthropology.

The Players:
Anne Boleyn will be played by Kate O'Phalen.
Henry VIII will be played by Carl Hendrick Louis.
Mary Boleyn will be played by Lauren Orkus
George Boleyn will be played by Paul Notice
Thomas Boleyn will be played by Nick Hetherington
Madame Marguerite de Navarre will be played by Claire Brownell
Catherine of Aragon will be played by Laura Esposito
Henry Percy, Cromwell & Cardinal Wolsey will be played by Slate Holmgren
Lady-In-Waiting Joan will be played by Rebeca Miller
Lady-In-Waiting Agnes will be played by Donna Augustin

THE PLAYING SCHEDULE:
Friday, 7/26 - FIRST PREVIEW 8pm
Saturday, 7/27 - SECOND PREVIEW 8pm
Sunday, 7/28 - OPENING NIGHT 7pm
Wednesday, 7/31 - 7:30pm
Thursday, 8/1 - 7:30pm
Friday, 8/2 - 8pm
Saturday, 8/3 - 2pm and 8pm
Sunday, 8/4 - 7pm
Tuesday, 8/6 - 7:30pm
Wednesday, 8/7 - 7:30pm
Thursday, 8/8 - 7:30pm
Friday, 8/9 - 8pm
Saturday, 8/10 - 2pm and 8pm
Sunday, 8/11 - 2pm

WALKERSPACE THEATER is located in Tribeca at 46 Walker Street (2 blocks South of Canal Street between Broadway and Church).

ABOUT Rob Santana
(Playwright)
Rob Santana studied playwriting/directing with Gene Frankel, 1980-83. He's a graduate of the Center for the Media Arts (film & television writing) 1986. He also attended The NY Institute of Photography (motion picture production unit) 1969-1975. He worked with Richard Pyatt as an Asst. Production Manager for WNYC Radio (1969-75). His play BOMBER JACKETS, was produced by Miriam Colon of the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in April, 1996 and is now a feature film making the festival rounds. His other plays professionally produced are: The Queen Bee's Last Stand, produced by Frances Hill, Urban Stages, 1999-2000, and Chained Dog, produced first at Teatro La Tea (in English) then revived as Marido Encadenado at Repertorio Espanol by Rene Buch and Robert Federico in 2004-5. He has won several playwright awards, including the Julie Harris Competition in 1994, and Emerging Playwright Award in 2000 (Urban Stages). Rob has written/directed three feature films: Bomber Jackets, Spanglish Girls, and Un-American, a 9/11 drama. He has many short films to his credits, including "5 Minutes with Frida", an official selection of the 2011 Soho Film Festival. You can find NY Times and New Yorker reviews of his play, Bomber Jackets. His web site is: http://www.robsantana.org and he's also listed on IMDB.

ABOUT Jen Wineman
(Director)
Jen Wineman is a director of theater and opera, living in New York City. Credits includes the currently running Off Broadway production of David Eric Davis and Sam Forman's F#%king Up Everything (Off Broadway Alliance Best New Musical Nomination); Naomi Iizuka'sAloha, Say the Pretty Girls (Theatre Vertigo, Portland, OR); Donald Margulies' Shipwrecked! An Entertainment (Triad Stage, Greensboro, NC); Roller Disco The Musical! (American Repertory Theater's Oberon stage, Cambridge, MA), which she co-wrote with Sam Forman and Eli Bolin and also choreographed; Sarah Gancher's Wake Up (Telluride Theatre, Telluride, CO), and the world premiere of José Rivera'sLessons for an Unaccustomed Bride (59E59, NYC). She has also developed and directed work at New Georges, Dixon Place, Ars Nova, New York Stage and Film, the Experimental Theater of Vassar College, Manhattan School of Music, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and WordBRIDGE. Jen is a co-founder of Studio 42, a New York-based theater company that focuses on producing "unproducible" new plays by emerging artists. Education: B.A. Vassar College, M.F.A. Yale School of Drama (Julian Kaufman Directing Prize). www.jenwineman.com.

ABOUT KATE O'PHALEN
(Anne Boleyn)
Graduating from Hofstra University with both a B.F.A. in Theatre Arts and a B.A. in Political Science, with minors in English and European Studies, Kate has a unique combination of artistic talent and passion for the machinations of history and politics. Her theatre credits include Christopher Durang's Betty's Summer Vacation at Bay Street Theatre directed by Trip Cullman and with Celia Keenan-Bolger, Bobby Steggert, Veanne Cox, and Heidi Shreck among other amazing actors; Amy Herzog's 4,000 Miles at GableStage in Miami,Spring's Awakening with Red Stage Theatre Company in Vermont, and The Crucible, also at Bay Street Theatre. She is a company member at New Jersey Repertory Company, as well. On camera, she has portrayed a supporting character in the soon-to-be-released webseriesParker & Steve, landed lead roles in indie films that have shown at festivals across the country, and worked on the Fox Sports Network mini-series Amazing Sports Stories. Kate is also the founder and editor-in-chief of popular showbiz blog, GreenRoomBlog.com, where nearly 20 theatre and film artists of all backgrounds and positions share their experiences of working in the entertainment industry.

ABOUT CARL HENDRICK LOUIS
(Henry VIII)
Off-Broadway: In Fields Where They Lay, In the Silence of the Heart, Marat/Sade. Film: Unknown Soldier. MFA: NYU Graduate Acting Program.
www.carlhendricklouis.com

ABOUT MEGHAN PRESSMAN
(Associate Producer)
Meghan Pressman is a theatre administrator currently working in fundraising in NewYork. She has developed and produced new plays for The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Yale Rep, Act One Studios Chicago, Chicago Theatre for Young Audiences, the Chicago Improv Festival, Pick Staiger Concert Hall, and the Northwestern Theatre and Interpretation Center. In 2010, she earned a joint degree from the Yale School of Drama Theater Management MFA program and the Yale School of Management MBA.

Pictured: Kate O'Phalen

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