Casting Announced for Hoch's 'Till the Break of Dawn'

Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director) has announced the full cast for its world premiere presentation of Till The Break of Dawn, a new play written and directed by Hip-Hop theater icon Danny Hoch.  The 11 character work begins performances September 4 at the Abrons Arts Center (466 Grand Street) on Manhattan's Lower East Side for an eight-week limited engagement.  An official opening night is set for September 13, 2007.

The complete cast includes Bambadjan Bamba, Dominic Colon, Patty Dukes, Matthew-Lee Erlbach, Gwendolen Hardwick, Jimmie James, Jaymes Jorsling, Maribel Lizardo, Flaco Navaja, Johnny Sanchez, and Luis Vega.

"In what may well be the first epic and seminal work of Hip-Hop generation dramatic literature, Till The Break of Dawn is the first commercial production of Hip-Hop in straight-play form, from one of the pioneers of the field.  Danny Hoch founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival in 2000 and continues to be one of the loudest voices in the theater for that generation.  Till The Break of Dawn also marks Mr. Hoch's first new written work to be presented in New York since 1998," state press notes.

"In Till The Break of Dawn, Gibran, an internet hip-hop activist, leads a group of his New York friends on a trip to Havana to attend a festival.  They've always been radical at home, but in Cuba, radical means something else.  So does Hip-Hop, and so do they. Watch as hip-hop politics, South Bronx angst and Cuban reality all clash in this raucous and provocative play from the author of Some People and Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop," state press notes.

Allan Buchman stated, "With this play, Danny Hoch brings his considerable genius to the stage as eleven actors portray characters we have grown to know and love.  In Till The Break of Dawn, the brash outcry of today's injustice meets the weathered heroes of yesterday's resistance movement in, where else, but Cuba?"

The design team is comprised of Andromache Chalfant (Set) Garin Marschall (Lighting) Valerie Marcus Ramshur (Costumes) and Jill DuBoff (Sound).

Hoch is an actor, playwright and director whose plays have garnered awards including 2 OBIES, an NEA Solo Theatre Fellowship, Sundance Writers Fellowship, CalArts/Alpert Award in Theatre and a Tennessee Williams Fellowship.  His theatre work has toured to 50 U.S. cities and 15 countries. A Senior Fellow at the New School's Vera List Center For Art & Politics, his writings on Hip-Hop, race and class have appeared in The Village Voice, New York Times, Harper's, The Nation, American Theatre and several books: Out Of Character, Extreme Exposure, Laughing In The Dark, and Creating Your Own Monologue, Jails Hospitals & Hip-Hop. His writing and acting credits for television and film include Bamboozled, Washington Heights, Prison Song, Subway Stories, Thin Red Line, Whiteboys, Blackhawk Down, American Splendor, War Of The Worlds, HBO Def Poetry and the upcoming Lucky You and We Own The Night. His own Some People (HBO) received a Cable Ace Award Nomination and the film version of Jails, Hospitals & Hip-Hop, recently released on DVD received an Urbanworld Film Festival Award.

Hoch founded the Hip-Hop Theater Festival in 2000, which has presented over 75 Hip-Hop generation plays from around the world and appears annually in New York, Chicago, DC and San Francisco/Oakland.  He directed Will Power's Flow (New York Theatre Workshop) and the bilingual Representa (San Francisco International Arts Festival). He is the recipient of a 2005-2006 Performing Americas Grant (Doris Duke Foundation/Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) and a 2006 Creative Capital Grant.  He sits on the board of the Hip-Hop Theater Festival and Theatre Communications Group and is the 2007 Sundance Theatre Lab's Playwright-In-Residence.

Performances are Tuesday – Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 & 8:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2:00 p.m.  Tickets are $35 ($15 for students) and are available by calling (212) 352-3101, visiting www.cultureproject.org or in person at Culture Project or the Abrons Center box office.

The Abrons Arts Center is located at 466 Grand Street.  Nearby subway stops are the F at East Broadway or Delancey, the D, B or Q at Grand Street and the J or M at Essex Street.   

Visit www.cultureproject.org / www.dannyhoch.com for more information.