Son of Semele Presents WHAT THE MOON SAW, 9/9-10/9

The award-winning theatre company Son of Semele Ensemble (SOSE) presents the world premiere of What The Moon Saw, or "I Only Appear To Be Dead" by Stephanie Fleischmann, playing at the Son of Semele Theater in Silver Lake from September 9 through October 9, 2011, in a production scheduled to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.

A collection of interlocking contemporary urban riffs on Hans Christian Andersen's classic fairytales, What the Moon Saw explores the catastrophic events of 9/11 and their repercussions via metaphor and an idiosyncratic mix of the impossible and the everyday. This kaleidoscopic
meditation on how we move through calamity is inspired by Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," "The
Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Little Matchgirl," "The Snow Queen" and his lesser known "What the
Moon Saw."

A bucket brigade of firemen shovels rubble from the site of the disaster as a shadowy girl lights
matches. A fickle mermaid finds herself marooned on dry land. A dancing girl travels south, carrying
her beloved tin soldier's lizard to safety. And a bear dreams of a melting heart as a radio reporter
makes the rounds, interviewing citizens about what they were doing when the moon fell. Everybody
has a story to tell. Journeying through this surreal post 9/11 landscape is Hans Christian Andersen
himself (HC), who touches down on his way to Shanghai just before his 200th birthday only to find
himself hurtling across the country from L.A. to New York, haunted by the detritus of his own tales
along the way.

Fleischmann was unable to write in the months following 9/11. Instead, she walked the city,
collecting images and stories, "the small things we might forget," compiling them like the keepsakes
adorning so many street-corner shrines. These details would become her source material for Moon,
which draws on Andersen's own melding of the mythic and the mundane, and was originally
developed in a workshop at New York's InterArt Theater. Los Angeles director Matthew McCray
subsequently staged a workshop of Moon at Chapman University in Orange, California. This fall he
will direct the world premiere of the play at Son of Semele Ensemble, for which he serves as
Founding Artistic Director. The opening weekend of What the Moon Saw, (the play opens on
September 9), is scheduled to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.
The world premiere of What The Moon Saw will use a toy-theater aesthetic (miniatures, puppetry
and play-things) to explore the intersection of fairytale and the very real fallout of a changed world.

The production features a new score for accordion, voice and electronic sound by Daniel Corral, with a set by Sarah Krainin, lighting by award-winner Dan Weingarten, and costumes by Ariel Boroff. The cast, in alphabetical order, features Maria Ashna, Melina Bielefelt, Allie Costa, Whitton Frank, Leah Harmon, Erith Jaffe-Berg, Edgar Landa, Brandon McCluskey, Michael Nehring, Marissa Pistone and Alex Smith. The production will be stage-managed by Benoit Guerin.

Originally from Los Angeles, Stephanie Fleischmann is a New York-based playwright and
librettist/lyricist whose texts serve as blueprints for intricate three-dimensional sonic and visual
worlds. Her work has been produced and developed internationally and at venues across the U.S.:
Vanishing Act (T41), Red Fly/Blue Bottle (Latitude 14: HERE Arts Center; Noorderzon Festival, NL;
EMPAC), Tinder (Exit Festival, Creteil, France), Omonia-3 (ITI, Athens, Greece), Eloise & Ray (New
Georges; Roadworks; playscripts.com), The Secret Lives of Coats (Playlabs, Whitman College), Tally Ho (Synchronicity), The Street of Useful Things (Act II), The World Speed Carnival (Soho Rep
SummerCamp), The Wonder Seeker (Empty Space), and others. Collaborations (lyrics, dramaturgy)
include: The Greeks and The Americans at Juilliard and Chekhov at Lake Lucille. She has received
grants from: NEA, NYFA, NYSCA, and the Greenwall Foundation, among others. She is a recipient of
the Whitfield Cook and the Frederic Loewe Awards, and a Tennessee Williams Fellowship.
Residencies include MacDowell, HARP, Hedgebrook, Mabou Mines/Suite, and the Chocolate
Factory. She is an alumna of New Dramatists and the Core Writer program at the Playwrights
Center.

SOSE was profiled as one of the "hippest, hottest, most innovative theatre troupes in the U.S." by
American Theatre, and featured on the magazine's cover. Over the past ten years the company's
work has received 17 regional awards and award nominations including the Ovation Award, the L.A.
Weekly Theatre Award and the NAACP Theatre Award. The company is currently developing its own
new work including Hearing the Deaf, a docu-drama about the culture and history of the Deaf
community, and Fencerow to Fencerow, a play about the evolution of American agriculture, which
was created in collaboration with Center Theatre Group. SOSE also sponsors work of other likeminded theater artists by supplying space and resources for co-productions through SOSEhost, a year-round curated series of theatrical events. For additional information on SOSE and SOSEhost
visit www.sonofsemele.org.

Performances of What The Moon Saw, or ‘I Only Appear To Be Dead' run September 9
through October 9, 2011, on Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m., Sunday afternoons at 4:00
p.m. and occasional Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. Admission ranges from $12-25. Unsold seats at
the time of curtain will be sold to local residents of zip codes 90004 and 90026 for $5.00 (I.D.
required). Tickets are available through the SOSE website at www.sonofsemele.org. The box office
opens one half hour prior to curtain. Son of Semele Theater is located in Silver Lake at 3301 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004 (one mile west of Alvarado). For more information visit
www.sonofsemele.org.

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