Play the Space Premiere this Sunday, Oct. 14 at 2pm!

First Street Green Art Park is proud to present the site-specific series

Play the Space, curated by Eryn Rosenthal

with a work-in-progress reading of

Water

a play by Amina Henry
directed by Gretchen Van Lente
on
Sunday, October 14, 2012
2-3pm
FREE
First Street Green Art Park, 33 East 1^st Street (entrance on 2^nd Av. and Houston)
Subway: F train to 2^nd Avenue; across the street from the 2^nd Ave. exit
There will be a short talk-back with the artists following the reading.

Water, in a celebration of storytelling, explores the water crisis through the eyes of Sela, an Ethiopian girl on a journey to fetch water from a distant well. This family-friendly show takes a very real problem in many parts of the world—drought—and makes it accessible through storytelling, movement, folklore and a little magic.

Water is presented as part of Play the Space, a series of site-specific performances in and around First Street Green Art Park curated by choreographer Eryn Rosenthal. The series takes its name from cellist Michael Fitzpatrick who says that when he performs, part of his objective is to “play the space”—to awaken the vibrational potency in the space where he is performing.

Please see photos from the performance, below.

Cast:
SELA –Cristina Pitter
BO – Glenn Quentin
THE SUN, etc. – Monique Pappas
STAGE DIRECTIONS – Michael Gaines

Amina Henry is a playwright and teaching artist based in New York City. Her plays have been developed and produced in New York City by the Manhattan Theatre Source (EstroGenius festival), The Hive Theatre, the cell theatre, Bowery Poetry Club (Sticky series), The Producers Club, Shakespeare’s Sister Company, and The HERO Theatre; by Los Angeles’ Towne Street Theatre, and by The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where she was also a Resident Teaching Artist for three seasons. Amina graduated from Yale University and has an MA in Performance Studies from New York University. She is currently an MFA candidate in Mac Wellman’s Playwriting program at Brooklyn College, and a 2012-2013 Core Apprentice playwright at The Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. www.aminahenry.wordpress.com

Gretchen Van Lente (Director) is a freelance director and artistic director of Drama of Works, a multidisciplinary puppet theater. The company has received six Henson Foundation grants and toured internationally with award-winning shows over the past decade. Gretchen is currently earning her Masters in Direction from Brooklyn College. http://www.dramaofworks.com

Cristina Pitter (Sela) is a BFA Acting student at Brooklyn College. She is also a member of the Bats, the resident acting company at The Flea Theater, and a member of the Barefoot Theatre ensemble.

Glenn Quentin (Bo) was born and raised in Miami, FL. He attended New World School of the Arts and graduated with a BFA in Acting from Mason Gross at Rutgers University. Some favorite credits are Wake Up, Stone Cold Dead Serious, A Midsummer Nights Dream, You Can’t Die Here, The Empress of Sex and Sineater. Film credits: Recovering Undercover over Lover, Gold Fish and Christ Complex.

Monique Pappas (The Sun, and other characters) is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She is currently working on her MFA at Brooklyn College. Credits include Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Piano Lesson, and Taming of the Shrew. Monique is a member of Actors Equity.

Michael Gaines (Stage Directions) is an MFA Acting candidate at Brooklyn College.

Eryn Rosenthal (Curator) is a choreographer, performer, and playwright based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work with The Doors Project, a series of site-specific performances in doorways and thresholds around the world, recently opened the doors (literally) for First Street Green Art Park, where she was an artist-in-residence earlier this season. Last fall she premiered the series in Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, collaborating with architects, artists, activists and photographers on ways to rethink our relationship with public space. Eryn has won a Mellon Grant for work with Holocaust testimony, a Fulbright Fellowship to Spain, a Richter fellowship for work with performer/ playwright Anna Deavere Smith, and the Yale Dramat’s Best New Playwright Award. Her interview-based performance work has been the recipient of a Rice Foreign Residence Fellowship and the Open Society Institute President’s Grant to South Africa, where Eryn will soon be returning with upcoming performances of The Doors Project. www.erynrosenthal.com