Synchronicity Theatre to Present World Premiere of Andrea Lepcio's STRAIT OF GILBRALTAR
By: BWW News Desk Feb. 23, 2017
Zameer, a Moroccan man living in New York illegally, and Miriam, a Jewish-American, fall in love. A favor Zameer asks of Miriam results in their arrest. Zameer is suspected of terrorism and Miriam of money laundering. Strait of Gibraltar is a new play that examines the impact of the Patriot Act on our rights.
The production design recreates a nimble, shifting world that contrasts the intimacy and security of Miriam and Zameer's relationship with the exposure and vulnerability the couple feels as they are being watched. Shifting walls and Instagram-style projections highlight the tension between what is personal and what is public; what is being watched and by whom.
Strait of Gibraltar is directed by Synchronicity's producing artistic director Rachel May, and will include scenic design by Elizabeth Jarrett, and sound and lighting design by KEVIN FRAZIER. The cast includes Atlanta-based actors Maggie Birgel as Miriam, Benjamin Sims as Zameer, Kathleen Wattis as Selma, Brian Ashton Smith as Tripp and Suehyla El Attar as Asra. Some cast members will also assume other roles.
Show times for Strait of Gibraltar are Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 5 p.m. All performances will be at Synchronicity Theatre in Midtown Atlanta's Peachtree Pointe complex.
Single ticket prices range from $15-50 and are available online at www.synchrotheatre.com. Sunday, April 9 is Inside Scoop. Patrons can enjoy complimentary ice cream sundaes and a Q&A with the artists after the 5 p.m. performance. Pay-What-You-Can Industry Nights are each Wednesday, and Monday, April 10 at 8 p.m.
Community partners on this production are Interfaith Families, Islamic Speaker's Bureau, Temple Bet Havarim, Muslim-Jewish Dialogue through the American Jewish Committee, and the Anti-Defamation League. There will be moderated post-show discussions after every performance, and on Tuesday, April 11 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, April 22 at 4:30 p.m., the Islamic Speaker's Bureau will present a free presentation on The American Muslim at Synchronicity Theatre.
Audiences attending the show can receive 10% off their final bill by showing their ticket stubs at Tavernpointe, across the lobby from the theatre. There will also be production-themed drinks and offers during the 2016-2017 season.
ABOUT SYNCHRONICITY THEATRE
Synchronicity Theatre, led by Producing Artistic Director Rachel May and Managing Director & Artistic Associate Lee Nowell, produces smart, gutsy, high quality theatre that sparks community connections and uplifts the voices of women and girls. Synchronicity supports women artists, forges long-term and effective community partnerships and develops new work. Synchronicity was founded in 1997 by four women with a desire to work collaboratively and bring challenging, meaningful theatre to Atlanta audiences. We now reach nearly 8,000 patrons through our season of plays for adults (Bold Voices) and families (Family Series); community outreach; and educational programming, including our Playmaking for Kids (PFK) summer camps and after school programs and our award-winning Playmaking for Girls (PFG) program. Our intimate theatre in the heart of midtown at Peachtree Pointe became our home in the summer of 2014.
ABOUT Andrea Lepcio
Andrea Lepcio is best known for Looking for the Pony, a finalist for the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award and for the NEA Outstanding New American Play Award. It was presented in a "Rolling World Premiere" Off-Broadway at Vital Theatre Company in New York City and Synchronicity Performance Group in Atlanta in 2009. The play has received one international and three additional regional productions. She is currently working on an EST/Sloan commission for a new play about the Montreal Protocol. She developed Strait of Gibraltar and Dinner at Home between Deaths at Naked Angels and Lark Play Development Center. Me You Us Them was developed with TerraNova Collective's Groundbreakers Playwrights Group and at the Lark Play Development Center. Tunnel Vision was workshopped at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, New Georges and New Perspectives. Central Avenue Breakdown (book by Kevin Ray and Andrea Lepcio with additional story by Suellen Vance and music/lyrics by Kevin Ray) performed at the Daegu International Musical Festival and New York Music Theatre Festival. Room 16 (book by Andrea Lepcio, music by Stephen Sislen, lyrics by Stephen Sislen and Ben H. Winters) was presented at the Festival of New Artists at Goodspeed Opera House. She wrote the libretto for The Ballad of Rom and Julz with lyrics by Cheryl L. Davis and music by Brooke Fox presented in a concert reading at Bard Summerscape in July 2010. In 2009, The Gold with book by Andrea Lepcio and Philip Yosowitz and music/lyrics by Philip Yosowitz was presented by the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at the Miller Outdoor Theater in Houston.
Her plays and musicals have been produced and developed at HERE, Lark Play Development Center, Manhattan Theatre Source, New York Music Theatre Festival, New Shoe, Shalimar Productions, TerraNova Collective, Three Chicks, Titans Theatre, Vital Theatre, Williamsburg Art Nexus, and Women's Project in NY; Bloody Unicorn, Goodspeed Opera House, Hangar Theatre, Miller Theatre, Provincetown Theatre Company, Synchronicity Performance Group, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, and Trustus Theatre, regionally and Daegu International Musical Festival and The Little Theatre Group of Costa Rica, internationally. She is a member of America-in-Play, BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Librettist Workshop, New Shoe, New Perspective's Women's Work Lab, and is a New Georges Affiliated Artist. She is an alumna of the Lark's Playwrights' Workshop and the Women's Project Playwrights' Lab. Her screenplay, A September Spring, won the Sloan Foundation Dramatic Writing Award. A two-time finalist for the Heideman Award, her short plays and monologues have been published in Plays and Playwrights 2003, Estrogenius, lichen and by Smith & Kraus. Andrea was a founder of the Mint Theatre Company where she produced the World Premiere of Austin Pendleton's Uncle Bob.
Andrea is the Dramatists Guild Fellows Program Director. She was a visiting faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University in the School of Drama. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild, League of Professional Theater Woman and New York Theatre Experience Advisory Committee. M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing, Carnegie Mellon University. B.A. Human Ecology, College of the Atlantic. She lives in Maine and frequents New York.
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