Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Winner DISGRACED Comes to Capital Stage Tonight

Capital Stage continues its 2015/16 Season with a Pulitzer Prize winner, Obie Award winner, Tony Award nominee and Sacramento premiere.

DISGRACED by Ayad Akhtar will be directed by Capital Stage Producing Artistic Director Michael Stevenson. DISGRACED will run from tonight, May 4, through June 5, 2016 with a Press Opening on Saturday, May 7 at 8pm.

Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning play centers around a dinner party between four people with very different backgrounds. Amir Kapoor is a successful Pakistani-American lawyer who is rapidly moving up the corporate ladder while distancing himself from his cultural roots. Emily, his wife, is white; she's an artist, and her work is influenced by Islamic imagery. When the couple hosts a dinner party, what starts out as a friendly conversation escalates into something far more damaging. As discussion turns to politics and religion, the mood quickly becomes heated. Focusing on sociopolitical themes such as Islamophobia and the self-identity of Muslim-American citizens, Disgraced is a powder keg of identity politics. The play exposes racial and ethnic prejudices that persist just below the surface of the everyday politically correct dinner conversation.

Ayad Akhtar was born in New York City and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the author of American Dervish, published in over twenty languages worldwide and a 2012 Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, Toronto's Globe and Mail, Shelf-Awareness, and O (Oprah) Magazine. He is also a playwright and screenwriter. His stage play Disgraced played at New York's LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater in 2012, and won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His latest play, The Who & The What, premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in February 2014, and then in New York at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater in June 2014. As a screenwriter, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for The War Within. He has been the recipient of fellowships from MacDowell and Yaddo, as well as commissions from Lincoln Center Theater and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He is a graduate of Brown and Columbia Universities with degrees in Theater and Film Directing. For more, visit ayadakhtar.com.

DISGRACED will be directed by Producing Artistic Director, Michael Stevenson (Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, Ideation, Clybourne Park, Mauritius, Erratica, Les Liaisons Dangereuses). The cast will feature Adam El-Sharkawi (Capital Stage debut), Benjamin T. Ismail (Tribes, Speech & Debate), Jennifer Le Blanc (Capital Stage debut), Atim Udoffia (Clybourne Park), and Michael Patrick Wiles (Uncanny Valley, The Real Thing, Hedda Gabler, Master Class, Someone Who'll Watch Over Me, Fat Pig). The production design team will include Stephen Decker (scenic design), Ron Madonia (lighting design), Rebecca Redmond (costume design), Thom Green (furniture/set dresser), Ed Lee (sound design) and Matt K. Miller (fight director).

Performances for DISGRACED will begin with three previews on Wednesday, May 4 at 7pm, Thursday, May 5 at 8pm, and Friday, May 6 at 8pm. The production will open Saturday, May 7 at 8pm. Performances continue through Sunday, June 5, 2016. Showtimes will be Wednesdays at 7pm, Thursdays at 8pm, Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm.

General ticket prices range from$25-45. Discount tickets are available as follows: Preview tickets are $20; Student Rush tickets are half-priced with valid student ID within 1 hour of performance; Senior tickets are $2 off regular-priced tickets (excluding Saturday evenings); Military personnel tickets are $10 off regular-priced tickets with valid ID; and Group Rate tickets are $5 off each for parties of 12 or more. Tickets are currently available at the Capital Stage Box Office, by phone at 916-995-5464, or online at capstage.org.

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