| PressRelease May 2006 Contact Yahale Yadede 773-828-4444 bride.of.acacias@gmail.com The Bride of Acacias Playwright: Ezzat Goushegir Director: Dana Friedman As Forugh Farrokhzad: Actress name witheld per her request Stage Manager: Katrina Herrmann Video/ Sound Designer: Josh Segal Lighting Designer: Tyler Packett Time: Approximately 1 hour Location: Chopin Theatre 1543 W.Division, Chicago Il. 60622 Dates/Times: May 26 – June 11, 2006 Thursdays-Saturdays: 8 PM, Sundays: 3 PM FOR Tickets: $25 adults; $15 students with I.D. Box office: 773-828-4444 bride.of.acacias@gmail.com Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967), was an exceptional Iranian woman poet and filmmaker who blazed trails for Iranian women. As a poet she was an outspoken voice in the mid-1950s about conventional marriage, the plight of women in Iran, and her own situation as a wife and mother no longer able to live a conventional life. She published several collections of poems: Asir (The Captive) in 1955, Divar (The Wall) in 1956, Esyan (Rebellion) in 1958, Tavalodi Digar (Another Birth) in 1964, and the posthumously published Iman Biyavarim beh Aghaz-a Fasl e-Sard (Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season) in 1974. She is widely considered to be among the greatest Persian poets. As a documentary filmmaker in 1962 she made the acclaimed film The House Is Black about a leper colony in Tabriz, Iran, in which she brought her poetic voice to the screen. "The Bride of Acacias" is initially set in Iran of the 1950s, an era which saw the overthrow of Iran's democratically elected government in a US-engineered coup. Continuing into the 1960s, the play follows Forugh to Germany, where she transcends boundaries and limitations, as she challenges convention in her search for love and with her bold, eloquent and often erotic explorations of relationships . Ezzat Goushegir (Playwright), an Iranian-American playwright, Ezzat received her M.F.A from the Theater Department of the University of Iowa, has published four books (in Farsi). Her plays have been produced by a variety of theater companies including Maryam's Pregnancy, which won a Richard Maibaum award and Behind the curtains, recipient at a Norman Felton award. In 1990 she was a Fellow Writer in the Iowa City IWP and in 1992 contributed in the Second Conference of International Women's Playwrights in Canada, also has been a co-director and dramaturge of a play reading series at New Federal Theatre in New York. Her play Behind the Curtains was produced at New Perspective Theatre in New York and by Hidden Theatre at Greenview Art center in Chicago, In the Mist in Off-Off Broadway in New York, Roses for Sohrab was also staged at 6th Theatre Festival at Koln, Germany in 1999. Currently she teaches at the School for New Learning, DePaul University. Dana Friedman (Director), an active freelance director, based in both Chicago and Charleston, SC, is proud to direct The Bride of Acacias. In Chicago, Dana most recently directed Watching For Wolves at Stage Left's LeapFest. Other works in Chicago include: Below the Belt and The Aspidistra Code at Steep Theatre,ultra-short plays in CollaborAction?s Sketchbook Festival 4 and 5, In the Heart of America and Maybe Baby It?s You at Prop Thtr, and staged readings with Stage Left Theatre, Running With Scissors, The Livingroom Project and Curious Theatre Branch. Regionally, Dana was the Understudy Director and Assistant Director at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre in 2000-01 and Stage Manager and Reach Coordinator at Utah Shakespearean Festival in 2001. Directing work in Charleston includes: Beau Jest at Charleston Stage Company; This is How it Goes (Neil LaBute) and Fairgrounds (Rodney Lee Rogers) at Pure Theatre Company. This summer, Dana will return to to Pure Theatre to direct Mamet's Boston Marriage and Naomi Iizuka's 36 Views. Dana graduated magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis where she was the recipient of the John Jutkowitz Award for Outstanding Performing Arts. This Fall, Dana will begin earning herB.F.A. in Directing at Carnegie Mellon University. Chopin Theatre: Chopin Theatre is a private arts center celebrating its 15th anniversary this year. During this time it has had over 6,000 presentations (4,000 theatrical, 900 film , 800 poetry evenings and over 100 musical events). Past presenters have included The Body Politic, Chicago Filmmakers, Defiant Theatre, Lookingglass, New Crime, Roadworks and Young Chicago Authors with today’s presenters including Collaboraction, Guild Complex, Hypocrites, Signal Theatre and Teatro Vista. Beyond being a co-producer and renter, Chopin Theatre has produced over 110 of its own productions, mostly Polish and Eastern European, and has hosted performers from probably every state in U.S. and from over 40 countries. |
