FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: May 1, 2018 Spencer Alcorn 310.360.1981 [email protected] Sundance Institute Announces 2018 Theatre Lab Acting Company and Creative Advisors Advisors Indhu Rubasingham and Hassan Abdulrazzak join Creative Team Acting Company includes Yassine Ahejjam, Hanane Hajj Ali, Khris Davis, Teresa Lim, Aya Metwalli, Alano Miller, Hala Omran, Sharif Sehnaoui, Micah Stock, Michelle Wilson and others New York — Sundance Institute’s Theatre Lab kicks off on May 6th, and today announced this year’s ​ participating acting company and creative advisors. The Lab, which runs through May 27 at the Fellah Hotel outside Marrakech, Morocco, is supervised by Artistic Director Philip Himberg and Producing Director ​ ​ Christopher Hibma, and is the centerpiece of the Institute’s year-round work with the theatre community, ​ alternating locations between Sundance Resort in Utah and a venue in the Middle East/North African region, as part of a multi-year commitment to international work and a means of facilitating cultural exchange between artists writing in English and Arabic. For the three-week Lab, the Institute provides rehearsal space, dramaturgical support, and an acting company, creating an immersive environment where artists can experiment, see their work take shape and collaborate with creative advisors, dramaturgs and actors. The Theatre Lab supports both emerging and established theatre-makers developing new work for the stage, with a focus on assuring that the playwright’s deepest impulses and visions can be realized, and culminates in a closed presentation of each project for Lab participants, followed by a collaborative feedback session. More than 85% of Sundance-supported plays and musicals find production. Recent projects include 2015’s Tony Award Winner for Best Musical, Lisa Kron and Jeanine Tesori’s Fun Home, and 2014’s winner, Robert L. ​ ​ ​ ​ Freedman & Steven Lutvak’s A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, as well as titles such as the Tony Award ​ ​ nominee Indecent, Taylor Mac’s A 24 Hour Decade of Popular Music, The Treasurer, Between the World and Me, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Where can I find someone like you, Ali?, Skeleton Crew, Sell/Buy/Date, ToasT, Appropriate, Circle Mirror ​ ​ ​ ​ Transformation, An Iliad, The Good Negro, The Light in the Piazza, Passing Strange, Stuck Elevator, Spring ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Awakening, and I Am My Own Wife. ​ ​ ​ This year’s participants include: Dramaturgs Janice Paran (Senior Program Associate - Labs), Driss Ksikes, Junaid Sarieddeen, Otis Ramsey-Zoë ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Creative Advisors 2 Hassan Abdulrazzak, Indhu Rubasingham (Kiln Theatre) ​ ​ ​ Acting Company Simona Abdallah, Yassine Ahejjam, Fatima Akjouj, Malek Akhmis, Hanane Hajj Ali (Jogging), Khouloud ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Betioui, Khris Davis (Sweat, Atlanta), Rosaline Elbay, Imad Fijaj, Amy Hill, Mohamed Salah Khattab, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Elise Kibler, Teresa Lim (Junk), Mahmoud Mahdi, Aya Metwalli, Alano Miller (Underground), Hala ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Omran, Jeffrey Omura, Mouna R’miki, Rebecca S’Manga Frank, Sharif Sehnaoui, Mirirai Sithole, ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Austin Smith, Micah Stock (It’s Only a Play), Michelle Wilson (Sweat) ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Casting Director Henry Russell Bergstein Production Manager Imani Champion Stage Management Paula R. Clarkson, Rachel Gross, Helen Irene Muller, Haera Slim, Amine Ait Hammou Production Assistants Adil El Filali, Fatima Faris Special Guests Alicia Adams (The Kennedy Center), Spencer Alcorn (Sundance Institute), Bill Bragin (NYU Abu Dhabi), ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Maria Daif (L’Uzine), Hassan Darsi (La Source du Lyon), Susan Feldman & Erik Wallin (St. Ann’s ​ ​ ​ Warehouse), Lynne Gugenheim (Sundance Institute), Roberta Levitow (Senior Program ​ ​ ​ ​ Associate-International, Theatre Without Borders), Pat Mitchell (President, Sundance Institute Board of ​ ​ Directors), Natasja van't Westende (Dancing on the Edge), Torange Yeghiazarian (Golden Thread ​ ​ ​ ​ Productions) As previously announced, the projects selected for the Theatre Lab are: All the Natalie Portmans by C.A. Johnson directed by Kate Whoriskey Keyonna and her older brother Samuel are much more than siblings; they’re best friends. So when they suddenly find themselves on the brink of eviction, this brother/sister pair harness everything, from their fleeting trust in an alcoholic mother to an imagined friendship with a certain Hollywood starlet, in their endless pursuit of happiness at the poverty line. C.A. Johnson’s plays include Thirst, The Climb, An American Feast, All the Natalie Portmans, Mother Tongue ​ ​ and Elroy Learn His Name. Her work has been developed with The Lark, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Playwrights ​ ​ Center, the Dramatists Guild and The Civilians. She is the 2018 P73 Playwriting Fellow. Kate Whoriskey directed Sweat and Ruined, two Pulitzer Prize winning plays written by Lynn Nottage. Her work ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ has been seen at Broadway’s Circle in the Square, The Public, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, The Vineyard, 3 Theatre for a New Audience among others. Internationally, her work has been seen in Paris, São Paulo and Sydney. America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro by Stacey Rose directed by Logan Vaughn America v. 2.1: The Sad Demise & Eventual Extinction of the American Negro is a day in the life of a troupe of ​ historical re-enactors charged with telling the tragic story of what was once the American Negro, a woeful race once featured prominently in the American landscape, but whose time has been extinguished at his own foolish hand. The troupe find themselves at odds with the state of their own existences while being painfully oblivious to the parallels and intersections their lives draw to that of the very Negroes whose story they are bound to tell. As this oblivion fades and they are faced with their stark reality, this day in the life of actors, becomes a day of reckoning. Stacey Rose hails from Elizabeth, NJ and Charlotte, NC respectively. She holds an M.F.A in Dramatic Writing ​ from NYU. Her work has been presented at The Fire This Time, The Bushwick Starr and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. She was a 2015-16 Dramatists Guild Fellow and is a 2017-18 Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellow. Logan Vaughn is a New York based artist and director. In 2008, Logan was awarded the Goodman Theatre’s ​ prestigious Joyce Arts Fellowship in casting and subsequently worked as an Associate in the casting department for five seasons. Logan was Playwrights Horizons’ Director in Residence 2012-2013. In 2012, Logan was also named a Member of the Directors Lab, Lincoln Center. As a Director, she has worked with Geva Theatre, Playwrights Realm, Baltimore Center Stage, Mosaic Theatre, 59E59, National Black Theatre and NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Logan most recently directed the World Premiere of Mat Smart’s The Agitators at Geva ​ ​ Theatre. Blood in Your Blood by A. Rey Pamatmat directed by Lisa Peterson Star-crossed lovers, fractured time, and a lusty troll are all connected to the violent, buried history of Cora’s family. In her quest to find out how, Cora discovers an enchanted tree that might have the answers tangled up in its roots. But once she digs up the past, what will she do with it? A. Rey Pamatmat’s plays include Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them (Actors Theatre of Louisville), after all ​ ​ ​ ​ the terrible things I do (Milwaukee Rep), House Rules (Ma-Yi) and Thunder Above, Deeps Below (Second ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Generation). He co-directs the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and was a PoNY, Hodder and Princess Grace Fellow. Lisa Peterson has directed world premieres by Donald Margulies, Tony Kushner, Beth Henley, Jose Rivera, ​ Naomi Wallace, Chay Yew, Jane Anderson, Luis Alfaro, and many others at theaters including NYTW, The Public, The Vineyard, Taper, Guthrie, ATL, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, McCarter, and more. She is currently Associate Director at Berkeley Rep. Casablanca by Kamal Khalladi directed by Latefa Ahrrare 4 Angels don’t fly over Casablanca anymore. Casablanca is not a city of love anymore. It offers its inhabitants only frustration and despair. This play mixes humor and tragedy to tell the story of defeated, broken, and fragile characters, hysterically rushing toward their own ends. Casablanca is a story of sex, money and power, the trinity ​ ​ that destroys people and makes them destroy each other. Kamal Khalladi is a Moroccan Award-winner playwright. He’s an alumni of PEN World Voices, as well as of the ​ The Royal Court Theatre’s international program. His play Damage was presented in London, Beirut, NYC and ​ ​ Morocco; and his solo pieces, Visa and Salmon Meal, were published in Arabic and English. In 2017, Kamal was ​ ​ ​ ​ a Fellow at the Sundance Institute Playwrights & Composers Retreat at Ucross Foundation. Latefa Ahrrare is a Moroccan actress and theatre director. She is also the director of Cont’N’Art, a ​ multidisciplinary performance venue. Letfa has received many awards in local and in international festivals for her outstanding career in theatre, TV, and cinema. She is also a cultural activist and a founding member of many NGOs, working on promoting the culture of human rights and freedom in Morocco. Diary of a Chimera Written & Performed by Intissar Chaabani Directed by Racha Baroud Diary of a Chimera is the story of the impossible mourning of a woman who discovers a family secret forcing her ​ to revisit her life and the shadows in her relationship to the father, men, her own body, and to life. This journey leads to the abolishment of any rational notion of space and time. Intissar Chaabani taught Arabic and French in Tunisia before moving to Paris, where she studied philosophy and ​ psychology, and worked in socio-professional integration. Since 2008, she’s been working as a real estate agent. Intissar writes lyrics and poems, and has been doing theater since 1979. Racha Baroud is a Lebanese director, actor, and performer. After her M.A. in Theatre Studies, she directed her ​ first in-site performance Today was my birthday (A Musical Tribute to Tadeusz Kantor); she also performed in ​ ​ several plays and short films, in addition to regular training in voice and body performance with world artists.