'New Amsterdames' Opens at HERE Arts Dec. 3

Flying Fig Theater, in association with Middle Tennessee State University, is proud to present a limited engagement of New Amsterdames, written by Ellen K. Anderson and directed by Heather Ondersma. Performances will run from December 1 - 16, 2007 at HERE Arts Center (145 6th Ave.) in NYC. Previews begin December 1; opening December 3.

"New Amsterdames reveals the diversity of the women and industries that made up the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, taking a satirical look at early ventures in New York Commerce, including the beaver trade. Circa 1659, the land deed to Manhattan (legend says Peter Minuit bought it from the Lenape for $24 and some beads) is nowhere to be found. Will anyone be able to unearth it?" ask press notes, "Enter a diverse cast of historically based figures from the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, including doughnut inventor Anna Joralemon, first generation African-American farmer Dorothy Angola, entrepreneur/shipping magnate Margriet Hardenbroeck and an army of beavers. A frantic search for the deed ensues, with ever-changing alliances and motives, culminating magically in an astonishing natural phenomena arising some 350 years later in the Hudson River, covered by fictitious NY TV reporter, Sweetie Chin."

Flying Fig Theater, led by Co-Artistic Directors Michaela Goldhaber and Heather Ondersma, is a non-profit theater company dedicated to producing compelling theatrical stories about women's lives, through commissioning new plays by contemporary playwrights and rediscovering plays from the past. They challenge standards of beauty through non-traditional casting, of social convention via the stories they tell and of theatricality, by producing work in unconventional spaces.

HERE Arts Center is located at 145 6th Ave. (between Spring & Broome, enter on Dominick) in NYC. Limited Engagement: December 1 - 16, 2007.

Previews begin Dec. 1 for a Dec. 3 opening. Performances run Thursdays-Sundays at 7pm, except Sun 12/16 at 2pm. Special opening night performance on Mon 12/3 at 7pm. Tickets: $18. For Tickets & Information: Call 212-352-3101 or visit www.here.org. For more info on the company visit www.FlyingFig.org. Appropriate for ages 12 and up.

Photo by Kila Packett: "A frenetic scramble for the land deed to Manhattan" (l-r): Lucille Duncan as beaver Kitchi Amik, Jeannie Dalton as Margriet Hardenbroeck and Arlene Chico-Lugo as beaver Twee