Chicago Premiere of THE WAR ZONE IS MY BED Opens this Week

Halcyon Theatre announces the Chicago Premiere of The War Zone is My Bed by Yasmine Beverly Rana.

In 1994 Sarajevo, in a bedroom brimming with bullet holes, Dahlia and Peter have a whirlwind romance. A famous writer reporting on the Bosnian War, he leaves her to return to his wife. In 2001 Kabul, in a bedroom with blacked out windows, an Afghan prostitute is having affair with a member of the Taliban religious police. Dahlia's book about Leila, Ash and the aftermath of their affair in Kabul makes her a famous writer in her own right. On her book tour, struggling with how we all profit from telling stories of war from a safe distance, Dahlia and Peter meet again.

The War Zone is My Bed will perform at Halcyon Theatre, in residence at Christ Lutheran Church, 4541 N Spaulding Ave. in Chicago. Performances will be Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00, and Sundays at 6:00, from August 14 through September 14, 2014. There will be a special opening performance on Thursday, August 14. More information at halcyontheatre.org/warzone. Please Note: This production contains nudity, adult themes and language.

The cast features Halcyon company members: Fin Coe, Denise Hoeflich, and Laura Stephenson. They are joined by guest artists Brendan Murphy, Sameehan Patel, and Rasika Ranganathan. The War Zone is My Bed is directed by Halcyon company member Dani Snyder-Young.

Members of the media are invited to attend any performance.

Yasmine Beverly Rana: Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Yasmine is a playwright, drama therapist, and educator whose plays have been developed and produced in the United States and abroad. Yasmine has collaborated with theaters and festivals including La MaMa, Theater for the New City's Lower East Side Festival of the Arts,Epic Theatre Festival at the Irondale Center in Brooklyn, Washington and Lee University's Theatre in the Academe Symposium, Romania's Fest Art In Cluj, The Looking Glass Theatre, Johns Hopkins University Theatre, Brooklyn College's GI60 Festival, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Birmingham Repertory Theatre (U.K), Second Stage Theatre's DestiNation America Festival, The Austin Woman's Film, Television, and Theater Festival, The Mae West Fest in Seattle, Pulse Ensemble Theatre, 12 Miles West Theatre, The Jewel Box Theatre in Los Angeles, and the San Diego Human Rights Festival.

Fellowships include a Paulette Goddard Fellowship from New York University and a Walter E. Dakin Fellowship in Playwriting from the Sewanee Writers Conference at the University of the South. As a drama therapist, Yasmine has worked with refugees in Bosnia, The Republic of Georgia, and Switzerland where she implemented an arts and education program for Bosnian youth. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Additional education includes a Master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, with clinical certificates in Creative Arts Therapies and International Trauma Studies. Yasmine's work with the arts and traumatized populations has been presented internationally at conferences and workshops. She has contributed to textbooks and arts journals.