Donald Kvares

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.

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.

At an Egyptian dig in the late 1980s, Dr. Alexandra Philips, an archeologist on her first excavation since recovering from a nervous breakdown, uncovers a heretofore unknown burial chamber. As she probes the mystery of the tomb, the imprisoned spirit of Akhnaton, the forgotten husband of Queen Nefertiti and the father of King Tut-Ankh-Amun, appears to her and shares his story of a time when he held the world in his hands, before it was all cruelly ripped away. It's a feeling Alex herself remembers, as she is continually second-guessed about her abilities to still do her job. Feeling an unexpected kinship with this lost soul, yet craving a return to academic heights, Alex is torn when Akhnaton's longing to be at peace challenges her duty to science and her own career. But can Alex, like Akhnaton, risk all to rise a phoenix from the ashes of her life and be true to her own conscience above all else?

At an Egyptian dig in the late 1980s, Dr. Alexandra Philips, an archeologist on her first excavation since recovering from a nervous breakdown, uncovers a heretofore unknown burial chamber. As she probes the mystery of the tomb, the imprisoned spirit of Akhnaton, the forgotten husband of Queen Nefertiti and the father of King Tut-Ankh-Amun, appears to her and shares his story of a time when he held the world in his hands, before it was all cruelly ripped away. It's a feeling Alex herself remembers, as she is continually second-guessed about her abilities to still do her job. Feeling an unexpected kinship with this lost soul, yet craving a return to academic heights, Alex is torn when Akhnaton's longing to be at peace challenges her duty to science and her own career. But can Alex, like Akhnaton, risk all to rise a phoenix from the ashes of her life and be true to her own conscience above all else?

John Chatterton, in association with La Muse Venale, has announced that the off-Broadway premiere of Secrets by Gerald Zipper will play its final performance July 30th

Gerald Zipper's Secrets will open Off-Broadway on June 25th

America's most prolific major playwright reminisces on the birth of Off-Off-Broadway, the creation of gay theatre, the first completely nude play and how a certain Catwoman welcomed him to Broadway.