Factory 449 Stages CLOSET LAND, Now thru 5/10

Factory 449: a theatre collective, coming off four 2015 Helen Hayes Award nominations for its production of Jessica Dickey's The Amish Project, presents CLOSET LAND by Radha Bharadwaj (Basil). Directed by Helen Hayes Award-winner Rick Hammerly and featuring Factory 449 Company Members Sara Barker and David Lamont Wilson, CLOSET LAND performs tonight, April 17 to May 10, 2015 at Anacostia Arts Center (1231 Good Hope Road, SE).

Performances are Thursday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 3pm. Seating is limited to a maximum of 32 seats per performance. Tickets for all performances are $22. PRESS: Saturday, April 25 at 8pm.

As disturbing a piece as CLOSET LAND reveals itself to be, playwright Rhada Bharadwaj reminds us, "(The play), which indeed deals with torture and physical abuse, also deals with pain...the exhilaration of freedom and the power of the human imagination."

"CLOSET LAND is a terrifying exploration of violence and a moving testament to the resiliency of the human spirit," notes director Rick Hammerly. "I believe the stage adaptation of CLOSET LAND actually transcends the film version, as it more successfully highlights and supports Bharadwaj's lyrical, innately theatrical dialogue. Staging this piece so intimately, in the round, and with such gifted actors, will create an intense, but ultimately rewarding experience for the audience. I'm looking forward to the discussions this provocative play will doubtlessly provoke."

In a nameless country, at an unknown time, a government agent relentlessly interrogates a writer of children's fiction, insisting that her books contain hidden messages against the State. As his methods grow increasingly ruthless, she soon realizes he can break her body. But can he break her mind?

CLOSET LAND is a harrowing descent into the nature of violence, the resolution of the mind and the endurance of the human spirit, brought to life by Factory 449 company members Sara Barker and David Lamont Wilson, and directed by Helen Hayes Award winner Rick Hammerly.

CLOSET LAND
Produced by Rick Hammerly, Gillian Shelly & Factory 449 Anacostia Arts Center
1231 Good Hope Road, SE
April 17 - May 10, 2014
(Pay-What-You-Can Previews April 17, 18 at 8pm & 19 at 3pm)
(Press Night April 25 at 8pm)
Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm. Sundays at 3pm.
Additional Industry Night performance Monday, May 4 at 8pm.
All tickets are $22 available online at ClosetLand.brownpapertickets.com More information available at www.factory449.org or by calling 202.355.9449
Mature Audiences - Not suitable for children. Contains violence, explicit language and sexual content.

PLAYWRIGHT:

Radha Bharadwaj is an Indian playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter who moved to the United States in her late teens to study film. Her screenwriting and directing feature debut, Closet Land, was released by Universal Pictures in 1991, making Bharadwaj the first director of Indian descent to have a film released by a major Hollywood studio. The screenplay for Closet Land won the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, among others. Bharadwaj's second feature, the Victorian gothic mystery Basil, starring Derek Jacobi, Jared Leto and Christian Slater, was twice selected to be the closing night film for the Special Presentation series at the Toronto International Film Festival, and chosen for a prime slot at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

DIRECTION & DESIGN:

Rick Hammerly (Director) most recently directed The Brontes (New York Musical Theatre Festival & Capital Fringe), Lake Untersee (Source Festival), an award-winning production of Dead Man Walking (American University) and a concert reading of the musical YANK! for Rainbow Theatre Project. Locally, he has also directed productions for SCENA Theatre, Actor's Theatre of Washington and Forth Wall Productions. His Assistant Director credits include: The Laramie Project (Matthew Gardiner, dir), Driving Miss Daisy (Jennifer Nelson, dir), and the upcoming The Glass Menagerie (Mark Ramont, dir) all at Ford's Theatre. His acting credits include Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Helen Hayes Award) and Angels in America (Helen Hayes Award nomination) at Signature Theatre and Me and Jezebel (Helen Hayes Award nomination) at MetroStage.

The Production and Design team includes: Helen Hayes Award nominee Greg Stevens (Set design), Gillian Shelly (Production Stage Manager/Producer), and Rick Hammerly (Producer), all Factory 449 company members, as well as Helen Hayes Award winner Dan Covey (Lighting Design), Helen Hayes Award nominee Thomas Sowers (Sound design), Scott Hammar (Costume design) Marie Schneggenburger (Properties design), and Casey Kaleba (Fight choreography).

CAST:

Sara Barker (Woman) is a founding company member of Factory 449, appearing in the company's award-winning debut production of 4.48 Psychosis, as well as the world premiere of The Ice Child. With WSC Avant Bard, she appeared in Orlando (Orlando), Othello (Desdemona), Mary Stuart (Elizabeth), Six Characters in Search of an Author (Stepdaughter), The House of Yes (Jackie-O), The Cherry Orchard (Varya), The Mistorical Hystery of Henry (I)V (Hotspur), Lulu (Lulu), The Miser (La Fleece) and Peace (Hermes/Gralea). Other area credits include A Maze, The Gallerist and This Storm is What We Call Progress with Rorschach Theater, The Importance of Being Earnest and Mother Courage with SCENA Theatre and Tattooed Potato's The Nightmare Dreamer. Her New York credits include King Lear with The Brick Theater, The Winter's Tale with Hipgnosis Theatre, and Limitless Joy with Josh Fox's International WOW Company. She is a graduate of St. John's College and a company member with WSC Avant Bard and Rorschach Theatre. www.sarabarker.com/acting

David Lamont Wilson (Man) is a Factory 449 company member, appearing in the company's inaugural production of 4.48 Psychosis, as well as The Saint Plays. Recently, he was seen in Not Enuf Lifetimes with The Welders and The Hampton Years at Theatre J. His local theatre credits include Four at Studio Theatre, The Oedipus Plays at The Shakespeare Theatre, Heaven and Big Love at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Gospel According To Fishman at Signature Theatre, Am I Black Enough? for Charter Theatre; West Side Story at Olney Theatre; Titus at WSC Avant Bard, American Buffalo, Inns & Outs and Edmond at Source Theatre, Invisible Disability and The Boy Who Walked Backwards at the Kennedy Center, and the European Tours of The Cutting Edge for Imagination Stage and Julie for SCENA Theatre. He was also featured on NBC's award-winning Homicide: Life On the Streets and in HBO's The Wire.

ABOUT FACTORY 449 - Formed in April of 2009, Factory 449: a theatre collective is the resident theatre at Anacostia Arts Center. Challenge. Stimulate. Celebrate. Contemporary theatre for a changing culture. Factory 449 produces contemporary theatre that challenges the intellect, stimulates the imagination and celebrates the human condition. In developing innovative, intimate and affordable experiences for our audiences, Factory 449 engages an ensemble of artists and professionals dedicated to the collaborative process of creating theatre that best represents the vibrancy and diversity of Washington, DC and our ever-changing culture. Factory 449: a theatre collective is Jesse Achtenberg, Debbi Arseneaux, Sara Barker, Oscar Ceville, Felicia Curry, Chris Dinolfo, Rick Hammerly, Brian Hemmingsen, Nanna Ingvarsson, Lisa Hodsoll, Amy McWilliams, Jennifer Phillips, Karin Rosnizeck, Gillian Shelly, Greg Stevens, Tom Story, Hunter Styles, and David Lamont Wilson.

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