'Superheroes Are the Writers' in Downtown Urban Theater Festival 2013, 2/27-3/16

For its 11th Annual season, Downtown Urban Theater Festival (DUTF) declares, "our superheros are the writers" through a groundbreaking campaign that features vibrant and ingenious illustrations of the playwrights by Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez of Studio Edgardo. This much-anticipated season will keep audiences on The Edge of their seats with theatrical works that effortlessly swing through urban landscapes ranging from Brooklyn, USA to the Ukraine to intimate stories about Oscar Wilde to hip hop alien abduction ... and much more. DUTF rolls into HERE in SoHo, NYC for three weeks, February 27 through March 16, 2013.

DUTF 2013 schedule:

Wednesday, February 27, 2013
THE RULES OF THE WORLD
by Lavinia Roberts
Three generations of estranged women, Nico, a young transgender woman, her mother Eva, who runs a Botanica, and Sibella, Eva's spunky Italian, Catholic mother, fight to discover the sacred in a world ruled by commodification.
AND
THE LAST DAY OF Oscar Wilde'S LIFE
by Adam Esquenazi Douglas
Inches away from his deathbed, famed satirist Oscar Wilde recounts his "last day alive." But is this narrator as reliable as we hope, or are we all merely dancing?

Thursday, February 28, 2012
BUTTAFLYSOUL FOR PRESIDENT
by Leslie "ButtaFlySoul" Taylor
ButtaFlySouL for President is edgy, funny and sexy. Wildly unapologetic, ButtaFlySouL runs for President while facing some hard truths. Openly hetero-flexible, his platform is simple. "Be your dream." Why, well like the campaign slogan says "Because You Can." Party affiliations don't matter. The question is, "can you party?"

Friday, March 1, 2013
GRAVY
by Dana Tarantino
Gravy is subtitled "A Passive-Aggressive Italian-American Comedy." It is a one-woman comedy that sheds light into the central character's ("Angela") life, love family and Italian traditions. Angela comes to terms with her heritage, insecurities and family conflicts and confronts these issues as she prepares dinner in this ethnic comedy.

Saturday, March 2, 2013
PORNOGRAPHY FOR THE PEOPLE
by Ming Peiffer
Sex! Surveillance! Censorship! The wacky mash-up of interwoven stories navigates Chinese "netizens" as they act out their fantasies and lives via the Internet.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013
PRISON SONG
by Nelson Diaz-Marcano
A story about the great times two cellmates are not having as one tries to adapt to his new life and the other is attempting to forget about his past. All in the fantastic circus known as a jail cell.
AND
HELP WANTED
by Anselmo Coy Martinez
Left alone with an elderly Rich man, Peter, a young caregiver, has found himself in the middle of old, dwelling family issues when Rich's daughter, Sue, comes to visit. The question isn't what we can do to help; it's who really needs it most. This story is kind of true, kind of.

Thursday, March 7, 2013
NOVAYA ZEMLYA
by Mila Golubov
From the Ukrainian country side to Brooklyn, USA, one family mix the shocking revelation over the last ten years with a healthy dose of youth libido and they have a lot of explaining to do.

Friday, March 8, 2013
3 THE HARD WAY
by Chima Chikazunga
Three women grieving the loss of the same man unexpectedly meet and are forced to open new doors of grief, love, new life and the possibilities of moving forward in the span of a day.

Saturday, March 9, 2013
EL GRINGUITO
by Eric-Dominique Perez
El Gringuito is an autobiographical story of a redheaded Latino growing up between New York and Puerto Rico and being too Puerto Rican in one place and "too gringo" in the other. Eric-Dominique Perez explores the ups and downs of finding acceptance in a community where "you don't look like anyone around you." It's a poignant and hilarious account of looking different while trying to belong.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013
CHOSEN
by D. L. Siegel
Will and Dee are young and in love, but their interracial/interfaith relationship isn't exactly good news for Dee's parents. Told as a series of satirical vignettes, the play takes us through the history of Dee's strict Jewish family, unearthing a surprising cultural legacy.
AND
THE BRIDGE
by Kate McCamy
A Wall St. bankster is downsized. Hopeless and alone she shops at Bloomies and walks across the Brooklyn Bridge to contemplate her fate. Fate appears but is he her savior or the junkie drug dealer from her old hood?

Thursday, March 14, 2013
TRUE ASIAN HOTTIE
by Jo Shui
She's no Harvard grad, no lawyer, no doctor, no classical pianist, no Asian American over-achiever. She's elated, infuriated, temperamental ... anything but one-dimensional. Judge her by her core and not her cover. Don't get caught making assumptions about this true Asian hottie, 'cause she'll eat you up for lunch.
AND
RUDE
by Ismail Azeem
Consider a reunion with dead entertainers, a comical alien abduction where the universe is God's Rolex, and you might be able guess what's coming next. In Rude's world, Demetrius has a spirit trapped in his hand, Hipsters attempt the revolution and televisions are manufactured to watch people back.

Friday, March 15, 2013
NI****/FA****
by Keelay Gipson
A meditation on race and sexuality as viewed through the prism of workplace politics. This play puts two completely different people in a room and challenges them to move past their assumptions of one another and perceived cultural stereotypes. Somewhere in NYC this conversation is happening--Are you a part of it?

Saturday, March 16, 2013
B-BOY BLUES
by James Earl Hardy
When Bed-Stuy-born/Ivy League-educated magazine editor Mitchell Crawford and homeboy from Harlem/high school dropout/bike messenger Raheim Rivers meet, it is lust at first sight. Naturally, they hook up-and, to their surprise, get hooked on each other. B-Boy Blues is based on James Earl Hardy's best selling novel.

After each performance there will be a dialogue about the presented play(s) facilitated by Reg E. Gaines, DUTF Artistic Director and two-time Tony-nominee, and Miguel Algarin, Nuyorican Poets Café founder and Obie-winner for its theater program. The dialogues are supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities.

Now in its 11th year, DUTF is becoming New York's premiere winter/spring theatre event showcasing independent theatre artists. The three-week festival, produced by Creative Ammo, Inc., provides writers from America's burgeoning multicultural landscape the opportunity to share their stories that interpret our history and our times.

In 2001, DUTF was founded with the purpose to build a repertoire of new American theatre that echoes the true spirit of urban life and speaks to a whole new generation whose lives defy categorizing along conventional lines. That purpose has been realized many times over, as more than 100 writers have created and refined their work for the stage and thousands of inspired audience members have applauded their performances. DUTF inaugurated the festival in 2002 at HERE in SoHo to help revitalize the NYC downtown arts scene, which, at the time, was experiencing a severe downturn due to the WTC disaster. It has been recognized as "one of the world's best festivals for new works" and described as "not only prestigious, but a slice of heaven for playwrights who want the chance to freely express themselves." (Lisa Mulcahy, Theater Festivals, Allworth Press, 2005).

The 11th Annual Downtown Urban Theater Festival runs February 27 through March 16, 2013 at HERE, 145 6th Avenue, NYC, Manhattan, 10013 (enter on Dominick Street one block south of Spring). All shows start at 8:30pm and tickets are $18. Tickets are available online at www.dutfnyc.com or www.here.org or by calling (212) 352-3101. HERE Box Office is open after 5:00pm on show days or two hours before any performance.

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