With the Egyptian revolution at the forefront of our minds--as well as the story of the statue of Pharaoh Akhenaten, stolen from the Cairo Museum during the protests and miraculously recovered--it is uncanny that there is currently a play running off-off Broadway about the life of Pharaoh Akhenaten, which mirrors current events in Egypt. Stolen from the Cairo Museum was the statue of a man at the heart of the first Egyptian revolution, three thousand years ago, when the revolutionary Pharaoh Akhenaten convulsed Egyptian society and was himself overthrown. As after the assassination of Anwar Sadat, a corrupt military-run elite government assumed control.
ANKHST, A Play About Pharaoh Akhenaten, by Clarinda Karpov, set in ancient Egypt and in the world of contemporary archeology, is running through March 6 at the American Theatre of Actors, 314 West 54th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8 p.m. with Sunday matinees at 3; there will be a special performance at The New York Open Center, 22 East 30th Street, between 5th and Madison Avenues, on March 12 at 7:30 p.m. Members of the Press are welcome at all performances.
As Akhenaten--husband of legendary beauty Nefertiti and father of King Tut--actor Anwar Uddin leads a multicultural ensemble cast in a colorful production that features Middle Eastern folk dance, work shanties from Karnak, and a setting of the visionary Pharaoh's own Hymn to the Sun. In the play, passionate archeologist Dr. Alexandra Philips, recovering from a breakdown, encounters the ka-spirit of Akhenaten in a squalid tomb. Can Alex, like Akhenaten, risk all to rise like a phoenix from the ashes of her life?
"It was extraordinary, to read in the paper day by day, about events in Egypt that echoed those we were rehearsing," according to co-director
William York Hyde. "In so many ways, this is a play for our time." Composer
Mark Nelson thinks "The recovery of Akhenaten's statue on the day of our opening means to us that in our own way, we are 'recovering' Akhenaten and his story for the modern world, as well." The extraordinary story of the statue's theft and return can be found at
http://af.reuters.com/article/egyptNews/idAFLDE71G16D20110217.
February 19th's performance was a fundraiser for the Amarna Project, the archeological team led by Dr.
Barry Kemp, CBE, excavating and preserving Akhenaten's city, Tell el-Amarna in middle Egypt. Dr. Marsha Hill, a curator of Egyptian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and an associate of the Amarna Project, spoke. Dr. Hill said that while other archeological missions left Egypt when the digs were shut down during the revolution, because Dr. Kemp has a base in Cairo, he has been able to remain, pending an expected return to work at Amarna.
Told in a style which combines blank verse, modern-day prose, incidental music and Near-Eastern dancing, the multi-ethnic cast of Ankhst features: Maggie Alexander, Seon Britton, Shelly Christian, Ryan F. Cupello, Izzy Durakovic,
William York Hyde, Jharrel Jerome, Clarinda Karpov, Kendra Peters, Alia Thabit, Sly Turner*, Anwar Uddin, William J. Vila*,
Joe Williams, and Michael Young. Dancers: Cristina, Dena, Elisabeth, Rayhana, Sonziry. The set and lighting is by the show's co-producer
William York Hyde, and the chorography is by
Joe Williams. The production is an Equity Approved Showcase.
Clarinda Karpov's plays have been produced regionally; in England; in New York City (Expanded Arts Summer One-Act Festival, New York International Fringe Festival); and nationally (three plays in KVNO-FM's TekniKolour Radio series, broadcast by National Public Radio). Karpov is the artistic director of performance troupe, How Now! She conceived and co-created The Earl of Southampton's Fair, a Renaissance Arts Festival at the ruin of England's Titchfield Abbey, home of Shakespeare's patron, the probable "young man of the sonnets." The Fair has since blossomed into an annual Shakespeare festival. Karpov writes, acts, directs, and performs as a musician.
Ted Mornel is considered one of the pioneers of the off-off B'way movement, having worked at such seminal theaters as Cafe Cino, White Masque, Theater Crossroads, Bastiano's Playwrights Workshop, Playbox Studio and many more. The playwrights he has worked with include
Robert Patrick,
Lanford Wilson, Michael Mathias, Michael McGrinder and
Donald Kvares. He has premiered over 200 new plays, including Secrets by
Gerald Zipper which played in the summer of 2006 off-B'way, at Theater at
St. Luke's. He directed a revival of Driving Miss Daisy in Jersey City and the world premiere of Joel Shatzky's Girls of Summer at the Impact Theatre. His body of work has earned him inclusion in Don Marguis' Who's Who In American Theater.
Running through March 6th, Ankhst will be performed at Beckmann Theatre at the American Theatre of Actors, located at 314 West 54th Street (between 8th & 9th Avenues) on the 2nd Floor. Show times are Thursday-Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are $18.00 for adults and $13.00 for students and seniors. Tickets can be ordered by calling 212-868-4444 or at
www.smarttix.com. Further information can be found at
www.ankhst.com.
