Golden Thread Productions Presents The World Premiere Of ECSTASY: A WATERFABLE 7/23-8/16

Golden Thread Productions is proud to present the world premiere of ECSTASY | a waterfable, a new play commissioned to Bay Area theatre artist Denmo Ibrahim and directed by Evren Odcikin. In ECSTASY, stories are written in water, spells are cast through washing, and to drink either creates your life or rips it from you. In this dangerous water world, three uniquely lost characters struggle to remember and pray to forget. A man devotes his life's work to a tragically simple task. A young woman is haunted by past images not her own. And an elder, submerged in a flood of old pictures, fights to remember a story that slowly seduces her into it. Inspired by 9th century Sufi fable, "When the Waters Were Changed" and created through a year-long development process with the Water Project ensemble with the generous support of the prestigious New Works Fund Grant, Zellerbach, and Wallace Gerbode Foundation, ECSTASY | a waterfable is visceral, physical storytelling at its best.

"It is not surprising that the next true revolutionary voice in theatre is emerging from the Middle Eastern-American community," says Torange Yeghiazarian, Golden Thread's founding artistic director. "Led by Denmo Ibrahim and Evren Odcikin and with the musical genius of Vince Delgado, the ECSTASY team is going to make its mark on the San Francisco stage." The diverse artistic team on ECSTASY is a unique combination of local Middle Eastern talent. Playwright Denmo Ibrahim is a multifaceted Egyptian-American artist and co-founder of mugwumpin, an award winning company known for its highly original ensemble generated plays. She recently appeared in a critically-acclaimed performance in Aurora Theatre's Betrayed this season. Born and raised in Turkey, director Evren Odcikin is an associate artist with Golden Thread and just received rave notices for his production of Machinal at Brava Theater Center. Acclaimed percussionist and Middle Eastern musical genius Vince Delgado will compose music, with Roman Kosins, bringing over fifty years of knowledge on Middle Eastern rhythms, beats, and melodies to this production. The diverse cast features Bay Area veteran and Egyptian-American Nora el Samahy, whose impressive résumé includes Betty Shamieh's Territories and The Black Eyed at Magic Theatre. Golden Thread Productions aims to nurture artists of Middle Eastern heritage and is proud to have the opportunity to do so with this exceptional roster of talent.

The ancient Sufi story "When the Waters Were Changed", the inspiration for ECSTASY, recounts a time when Khidr, the teacher of Moses, warned that all water that had not been specially hoarded would disappear. It would be renewed with different water, which would drive men mad. On the appointed date, the world dried up. There was a period of waiting. And when the waters came again, only one man heeded the call, only one remembered the warning. In ECSTASY, the essence of his struggle bleeds through three times of existence -the ancient, the mythic, and the modern.

Weaving elements of text, live music, and ensemble imagery, ECSTASY culminates in an interactive ritual of remembering and forgetting. In an attempt to address omens - personal, communal, and global - this visually stunning, non-linear waterfable unravels through an intensely collaborative, highly stylized performance where three divided worlds discover they are bound irrevocably through lineage.

Along with el Samahy, the cast for ECSTASY includes Bobak Bakhtiari, Déborah Eliezer, Bora "Max" Koknar, Roman Kosins, Cec Levinson, Garth Petal, Alika Spencer, and Heidi Wolff. The design team for ECSTASY includes scenic designer Wesley Cabral, lighting designer Jarrod Fischer, and costume designer Sarah al-Kassab.

The World Premiere of
ECSTASY | a waterfable
by Denmo Ibrahim
directed by Evren Odcikin

For more information visit www.goldenthread.org.

July 23 to August 16, 2009
Opening night: Friday, July 31, 2009 at 8pm
At the Thick House, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco

Garth Petal (pictured), Photo Credit: Gohar Barseghyan

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