TNC's 2016 Dream Up Festival to Present MOTHER IN LAW

Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival Presents
"Mother-in-Law"
A Comedy About the Classic Cult Figure with a Caribbean Twist

"Mother-in-Law" is a comedy by Nandi Jacob, author of the AUDELCO Award-winning "Flambeaux; A Caribbean Musical." The play follows Philo and Petra as they rapidly approach their wedding day. When the Philo's mother arrives early for the wedding, the engagement is threatened by a woman with secret motives and a talent for manipulation. E. Wayne McDonald will direct.

The narrative follows Philo and Petra, who are marrying for love and for Petra to obtain a green card and legally stay in the country. Philo's mother arrives for the wedding, accompanied by the shady Battica, and begins sowing seeds of distrust between Philo and Petra. After nearly breaking off their engagement, Philo and Petra are forced to confront the faults they find in each other and to deduce the motivations behind the Mother-in-Law's and Battica's attempts to thwart their marriage. In doing so, they discover a plot of familial intrigue with roots in their home nation of Trinidad.

WHERE AND WHEN:
August 28 at 8:00 PM, August 30 at 6:30 PM, September 1 at 9:00 PM, September 3 at 8:00 PM, September 8 at 6:30 PM, September 17 at 2:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
Community Theater, Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave. (at East 10th Street)
Presented by Theater for the New City (Crystal Field, Artistic Director) as part of the Dream Up Festival 2016.
Ticket Price: $20.00
Box office: (212) 254-1109, www.dreamupfestival.org
Runs for 1:20. Reviewers are invited to all performances.

Nandi B. Jacob is an accomplished playwright and a past participant in the Dream Up Festival. Her musical "Flambeaux; A Caribbean musical," premiered at the Dream Up Festival in 2013. A later production of "Flambeaux" went on to win six AUDELCO awards in 2015, including the award for Musical Production of the Year. Her works have been published and anthologized under the names Nandi Keyi and Nandi Jacob. Her plays have been produced in the United States and the Caribbean. Jacob heads the Ashenandi Stage Company, dedicated to exploring "the Caribbean space" through theater and other mediums.

E. Wayne McDonald (Director) is the artistic director of the Caribbean Cultural Theatre. A Caribbean national born in Jamaica, McDonald has three decades of experience in the theater industry, mainly dealing with works that address Caribbean culture. He is the founder and curator of the Poets & Passions Literary Series, which has featured the works of Booker Prize winning author Marlon James, Flaherty Dunnan Award winner Tiphanie Yanique, and the famed Caribbean author Earl Lovelace. He has also directed a production of "Pantomime" by Nobel Prize winner Derek Walcott at the Actor Fund Arts Center in Brooklyn.

The seventh annual Dream Up Festival is dedicated to new works. Presented by Theater for the New City, the Festival will run from August 28 to September 18, 2016 and will feature a variety of original dramas, comedies, musicals, adaptations and experimental plays. The Festival celebrates the arts in a time when cultural and arts funding is in sharp decline due to a number of social and market forces. Now an East Village tradition, it challenges the audience to reflect on the innovative and imaginative ways that they interact with the theater.

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