George Packer News

Betrayed - Based on journalist-playwright George Packer's original article in The New Yorker, Betrayed is a haunting new play about three Iraqi translators who risk everything for America's promise of freedom, even as their own country collapses around them. Original New York cast members Mike Doyle (Law and Order: SVU), Sevan Greene, Waleed F. Zuaiter and Jeremy Beck are joined by Andrea Gabriel, John Getz and Sam Kanater under the guidance of original director Pippin Parker. Winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding New Play. All performances are recorded to air on LATW's syndicated radio theater series, The Play's The Thing, which broadcasts weekly on public radio stations nationwide.

Due to overwhelming popular demand, Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company announces that it has extended its critically acclaimed West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Filled with dignity, humor, and outrage, this provocative theatrical adaptation of journalist George Packer's eye-opening 2007 essay in The New Yorker follows three Iraqi translators who risk their lives to aid the American war effort. Robin Stanton (Permanent Collection, The Busy World is Hushed) helms this thought-provoking production, featuring Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari, Keith Burkland, Denmo Ibrahim, Alex Moggridge, Amir Sharafeh, Khalid Shayota, and James Wagner. BETRAYED plays now through March 8, with added performances March 4-8, at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($40-42) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as winners for the Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theatre: The First Grade by Joel Drake Johnson; Birnham Woods by Wendy MacLeod; Right? by Dan Hoyle; and and when we awoke there was light and light by Laura Jacqmin. The selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 2-23, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged West Coast Premiere of George Packer's provocative Lucille Lortel-winning play Betrayed (January 23-March 1).

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company concludes its American trilogy with the West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Filled with dignity, humor, and defiance, this provocative theatrical adaptation of journalist George Packer's eye-opening 2007 essay in The New Yorker follows three Iraqi translators who risk their lives to aid the American war effort. BETRAYED plays at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley January 23 through March 1. Robin Stanton (Permanent Collection, The Busy World is Hushed) helms this astonishing play, featuring Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari, Keith Burkland, Denmo Ibrahim, Alex Moggridge, Amir Sharafeh, Khalid Shayota, and James Wagner. For tickets and information ($28-50) the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

How do you convince a producer that a show featuring puppets for an adult audience and one about writing a Broadway musical will ever succeed in a theater world focused on risk aversion? On Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. on the 4th Floor of PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Framji Minwalla, visiting professor of drama at Fordham University, will moderate a panel that includes some of the most successful off-off Broadway talents to ever make it to The Great White Way. Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, creators and stars in the Obie-award winning musical Title of Show, will be joined by their female lead, Susan Blackwell. Jeff Whitty, Tony Award- winning playwright (Best Musical 2004) of Avenue Q and Tales of the City will be joined by Bobby Lopez, Tony-award winning composer and lyricist for Avenue Q. Doug Aibel, artistic director of the Vineyard Theater, which took both of these shows to Broadway, will round out the panel. Anecdotes, spontaneous song and the trials and tribulations of creating musical theater that goes beyond the norm will be center stage in this evening of theatrical insight. Broadway Unbound will be held on the 4th Floor of PS 107, which is located at 13th Street and 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tickets are $15 online at www.ps107.org or at the door.

Original New York cast members Jeremy Beck, Mike Doyle (Law and Order: SVU), Sevan Greene and Waleed F. Zuaiter head the cast under the guidance of original director Pippin Parker when L.A. Theatre Works presents the West Coast premiere of Betrayed, the haunting new play by award winning writer and journalist George Packer. Five performances take place February 18-22 at the Skirball Cultural Center where they will be recorded to air on LATW's nationally syndicated public radio theater series, The Play's The Thing. In early 2007, George Packer published an article in The New Yorker about Iraqi interpreters who jeopardized their lives on behalf of the Americans in Iraq, yet were provided with little or no U.S. protection or security. The article drew national attention to the humanitarian crisis and moral scandal. Based on Mr. Packer's interviews in Baghdad, Betrayed tells the story of three young Iraqis - two men and one woman - who were motivated to risk everything by America's promise of freedom. The award-winning play explores their complex relationships with each other and with their American supervisor as they struggle to find purpose even as their country collapses around them. 'The voices of the Iraqi men and women I met were so powerful that even after I finished The New Yorker article, they wouldn't leave me alone,' Packer said in an interview. 'These Iraqis put their trust in us, went to work with us, risked their lives to work with us - and nothing is riskier in Iraq than working with Americans - and as they began to come under threat, we essentially walked away from them and left them on their own. It's of a piece with everything that's wrong with this war.'

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as winners for the Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theatre: The First Grade by Joel Drake Johnson; Birnham Woods by Wendy MacLeod; Right? by Dan Hoyle ; and and when we awoke there was light and light by Laura Jacqmin. The selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 2-23, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged West Coast Premiere of George Packer's provocative Lucille Lortel-winning play Betrayed (January 23-March 1). Each GAP reading will be followed by an audience discussion of the contemporary issues raised in each work. Additionally, the company announces that it has received a $20,000 grant from the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation to support the Global Age Project. For information on GAP events (free and open to the public) an d Betrayed, the public may call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company, now in its 17th season, celebrated both the company's start of construction on its expansion and the commencement of the public phase of its $2.1 million capital campaign with a wall-breaking ceremony held on January 12, 2009. Over 100 VIPS and local luminaries attended the event, including Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, Berkeley City Manager Phil Kamlarz, and City Councilmembers Jesse Arreguin, Laurie Capitelli and Kriss Worthington. After enjoying cocktails and a sumptuous buffet of Ahi tuna tartar, Saumon Poch?e, and Quenelle Souffl?, courtesy of Bistro Liaison, guests watched lead donor Deborah Ruth, hammer in hand, break through the ceremonial brick wall constructed especially for the event; the expanded space will be named The Nell and Jules Dashow Wing in honor of Deborah Ruth's parents. The new expansion is the final project of the late acclaimed theater architect Gene Angell (with his partner Brian Rawlinson). Construction by general contractor Oliver & Company, Inc., with construction management by Edward Van of E.J. Van Company, Inc., began January 13. After opening remarks from Aurora Theatre Company Board President and co- capital campaign committee chair Robert B. Hetler, guests listened to heart-warming speeches about the history and future of the Aurora from Artistic Director Tom Ross and founding Artistic Director Barbara Oliver, as well as an enthusiastic proclamation from Mayor Bates officially declaring January 12th 'Aurora Theatre Company Day.' Aurora Theatre Company Technical Director/Production Coordinator Chris Killion led guests on a tour of the new space, where co-campaign committee chair Carolyn Weinberger gave a rousing champagne toast. On hand to lend their support were Rawlinson along with Gene Angell's widow, Pat Angell. Also attending were campaign committee members John Caner, Alison Teeman, and Muffy Thorne, as well as Board Vice President and President-elect Ellen Levine and Board members Joel Altman, Fred Feller, Jim Fowler, Tony Hawthorne, Wendy Markel, Carol Neil, Hillary Reinis, Leigh Robinson, Cindy Snow, and Diane Verducci.

Andrew Schmertz reports on how Broadway is impacted by the bleak economic times on the premiere episode of It's the Economy, NY: What's Happening and What it Means to You, a new seven-part series from WNET.ORG hosted by New York Times business columnist and editor Andrew Ross Sorkin. The series premieres Thursday, January 8 at 8 p.m. on THIRTEEN and at 11:30 p.m. on WLIW21.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the appointment of Deborah Banks as its new Development Director. Banks comes to the Aurora with more than 20 years of development experience in the Bay Area, working with the Alameda County Art Commission and such nonprofit organizations as San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Habitot Children's Museum, and Building with Books. Banks has served as Aurora Theatre Company's Interim Development Director since July and will officially step into her role as Development Director effective January 1, 2009.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company concludes its American trilogy with the West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Filled with dignity, humor, and defiance, this provocative theatrical adaptation of journalist George Packer's eye-opening 2007 essay in The New Yorker follows three Iraqi translators who risk their lives to aid the American war effort.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company concludes its American trilogy with the West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Filled with dignity, humor, and defiance, this provocative theatrical adaptation of journalist George Packer's eye-opening 2007 essay in The New Yorker follows three Iraqi translators who risk their lives to aid the American war effort. BETRAYED plays at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley January 23 through March 1. Robin Stanton (Permanent Collection, The Busy World is Hushed) helms this astonishing play, featuring Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari, Keith Burkland, Denmo Ibrahim, Alex Moggridge, Amir Sharafeh, Khalid Shayota, and James Wagner. For tickets and information ($28-50) the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Currently celebrating its 17th season, Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announced today the company's plan to expand its Addison Street space. More than halfway through a $2.1 million capital campaign, Aurora will officially break through the wall connecting its current space to an adjacent space during a ceremony to be held on January 12, 2009. Once completed, the expansion space will add 2,600 square feet to the 7,200 square feet the company currently occupies, and will house a new rehearsal space for main stage productions, readings, and workshops of new productions, as well as artistic offices; the expansion will also increase space for in-house set-building. The projected completion date of the expansion project is summer 2009.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the four plays chosen as winners for the Global Age Project (GAP), the company's new works initiative that promotes the creation of forward-looking theatre: The First Grade by Joel Drake Johnson; Birnham Woods by Wendy MacLeod; Right? by Dan Hoyle; and and when we awoke there was light and light by Laura Jacqmin. The selected plays will be presented as staged readings in a four-week festival at the Aurora Theatre, Mondays, February 2-23, 7:30pm, coinciding with the company's fully-staged West Coast Premiere of George Packer's provocative Lucille Lortel-winning play Betrayed (January 23-March 1).

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces the appointment of Deborah Banks as its new Development Director. Banks comes to the Aurora with more than 20 years of development experience in the Bay Area, working with the Alameda County Art Commission and such nonprofit organizations as San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Habitot Children's Museum, and Building with Books. Banks has served as Aurora Theatre Company's Interim Development Director since July and will officially step into her role as Development Director effective January 1, 2009.

Audiences and critics agree: THE DEVIL?S DISCIPLE is one helluva show. Berkeley?s acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company announces extension performances of its production of George Bernard Shaw?s THE DEVIL?S DISCIPLE, directed by Aurora Theatre Company founding Artistic Director Barbara Oliver.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its American trilogy with THE DEVIL'S DISCIPLE from the master of English wit George Bernard Shaw.

Circle in the Square Theatre (Theodore Mann, Artistic Director and Paul Libin, Managing Director) has joined Culture Project as producer of the upcoming New York production of The Atheist, presented by Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director). The dark comedy, written by Ronan Noone, directed by Justin Waldman and starring Campbell Scott as 'Augustine Early,' began performances at Culture Project's temporary new home, Barrow Street Theatre, on Tuesday, October 7th and has an official opening night Sunday, October 12.

Circle in the Square Theatre (Theodore Mann, Artistic Director and Paul Libin, Managing Director) has joined Culture Project as producer of the upcoming New York production of The Atheist, presented by Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director). The dark comedy, written by Ronan Noone, directed by Justin Waldman and starring Campbell Scott as 'Augustine Early,' begins performances at Culture Project's temporary new home, Barrow Street Theatre, on Tuesday, October 7 with an official opening night set for Sunday, October 12.

Circle in the Square Theatre (Theodore Mann, Artistic Director and Paul Libin, Managing Director) has joined Culture Project as producer of the upcoming New York production of The Atheist, presented by Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director). The dark comedy, written by Ronan Noone, directed by Justin Waldman and starring Campbell Scott as 'Augustine Early,' begins performances at Culture Project's temporary new home, Barrow Street Theatre, on Tuesday, October 7 with an official opening night set for Sunday, October 12.