Brett Singer & Associates, LLC
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
Urban Stages
(Frances
Hill, Artistic Director, Sonia Kozlova, Managing Director)
Presents
Urban Stages is pleased to announce the world premiere of BULRUSHER, a play written by Eisa Davis
and directed by Leah C. Gardiner.
Performances will be at 259 West 30th Street (between 7th
and 8th), and previews begin on Tuesday, March 7th. Members of the press are invited beginning
on Thursday, March 9th and the show will open on Saturday, March 11th
at 8PM.
In
1955 Boonville, California, an abandoned baby girl (Bulrusher) is found
floating in a basket on the river.
Growing up in an isolated predominately white town with its own homespun
language, Bulrusher only questions her origins and investigates her identity
when prompted by the arrival of a stranger.
In a town where the unusual is normal (a brothel run by an intense
madam, a school run by a silent teacher), Bulrusher is still an outcast due to
her painfully accurate clairvoyance.
This new play, a world premiere, tells the story of a coming of age
journey of a multiracial young woman.
Playwright Eisa Davis’s plays also include Angela’s Mixtape, Paper Armor, Six Minutes and Umkovu.
Eisa has received development support from the Hip Hop Theater Festival, New
York Theatre Workshop, New York Stage and Film, the Culture Project, the New
Group, the Women’s Project, Soho Rep, the Flea, Cleveland Playhouse, Portland
Center Stage, Hartford Stage, the Cherry Lane, Seattle Rep, Yale University,
the Nuyorican Poets Café, and the Schomburg Center for Black Research. Honors
include the Helen Merrill Award, the John Lippmann New Frontier Award,
fellowships from MacDowell Colony, Cave Canem, the Van Lier and Mellon
Foundations, and a commission from Geva Theatre/NYSCA. Also an actress, she
will appear this spring in Lynn Nottage's Intimate
Apparel at Philadelphia Theatre Company. A graduate of Harvard and
the Actors Studio Drama School, Ms. Davis is a member of New Dramatists and a
native of Berkeley, California. BULRUSHER
is a world premiere, and is Ms. Davis' first play to be professionally
produced.
The cast of BULRUSHER will
include Zabryna Guevara, Tinashe
Kajese, Peter Bradbury, Robert Beitzel, Guiesseppe Jones and Charlotte Colavin. The production will
be directed by Leah C. Gardiner.
The design team includes Jill B.C. Duboff (sound; two Drama Desk Award
nominations), Kimberly Glennon (costumes; OBIE award), Dustin O'Neill (sets),
and Daniel Denver (original music).
Established in May 1983, Urban Stages’ mission is to discover and develop
new plays by authors of diverse cultural backgrounds. Urban Stages has had two highly acclaimed commercial transfers, Minor Demons and Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown which
won an Outer Critic’s Circle Award. Urban Stages’ production of The Sweepers transferred to Capital Rep in
Albany where it broke box office records. Their most recent productions were
the critically acclaimed Marion Bridge
and The Snow Queen, a new play
for children.
The schedule for Bulrusher will be Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8pm and Saturdays and Sundays at
2pm and previews begin on Tuesday, March 7th, press is invited
beginning on Thursday, March 9th and the opening is scheduled for
Saturday, March 11th at 8PM. Tickets will be $40.00 and may be
purchased by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444, or online at www.urbanstages.org.
Bulrusher
A Play by Eisa Davis
At Urban Stages, 259 West 30th Street (between
7th and 8th avenues)
SCHEDULE: Previews begin on Tuesday,
March 7th
Press is invited beginning on Thursday, March 9th
Opening is scheduled for Saturday, March 11th at 8PM and will run
through Sunday, April 9th
Tuesdays through Saturdays @ 8pm, Saturdays and Sundays
@ 2pm
TICKETS: $40, Call 212-868-4444, or online at www.urbanstages.org
PLEASE NOTE: On
Tuesday, March 14th there will be a special benefit for Urban Stages
at 6:45PM. Tickets for this event, which includes that evening’s performance of
Bulrusher, will
be $125, which will include cocktails, show and dinner.
# # #
311 West 43rd Street, #1107 phone:
(212) 307-7181