Second Circle Theatre Opens First Season with MISS MARGARIDA'S WAY and SHOOTING RATS Tonight

Second Circle Theatre Company opens their first season producing Shooting Rats by Peter Turrini and Miss Margarida's Way by Roberto Athayde in order to explore the issue of Personal Identity. Presenting two conflicting points of view on the same topic in rep, we are determined to establish a dialogue between the two shows. The audience experiencing this topic in two distinctly different ways NOW has an actual choice: to receive information passively or become actively involved. Official Opening Night is set for tonight, May 28, with Miss Margarida's Way at 7:00pm and Shooting Rats following right after at 8:30 pm.

Miss Margarida's Way ­-- a provocative study about the dangers of free speech­ pushes at the audience's accepted boundaries of what is considered 'appropriate' speech. As portrayed by Nick Chris, Miss Margarida mixes scripted and improvisatory interactions with the audience. In addition to the live performances, audiences can also follow Miss Margarida virtually via Twitter and Facebook.

In Shooting Rats, the second show in a double bill, a man and a woman are on their first date­­in a garbage dump. As the evening progresses, they take on the herculean task of truly getting to know someone else: Who are we without the stuff we carry? What do we become when everything is stripped away? Is it worth the risk?

Second Circle Theatre Company is a collective of theatre artists who first met through the MFA program at The New School for Drama. They are focused on politically charged work, as they intend to incite dialogue among their audience and tackle the issue of passivity in American culture.

Noa Egozi is an Israeli Director currently based in New York that is interested in exploring theatres ability to replace certainty with doubt and passivity with activity. Living in New York in the past three years she has discovered how tempting it could be to stop questioning but also how dangerous it is. Noa is committed to use the unique setting of two contradicting plays a night of Second Circle Theatre Company to force herself and others to never stop engaging with their surroundings and to always be more than just an audience. Noa graduated with honors from Kibbutzim College, School of Performing Arts in Tel Aviv with a first degree in Theatre Education. She will be receiving an MFA in Directing from the New School for Drama this May. Directing credits include An Inferno (Sylvia Khoury), Mud (Maria Irene Fornes), The Tragedy of Julius Caesar (Shakespeare), PlayHouse (Martin Crimp), The Wild Deceased (Nissim Aloni) and A Night of Israeli Education (also written by her).

Lyto Triantafyllidou is a theater director interested in displaying the unspoken cruelty and beauty of human nature by exposing the anomalies of everyday life. Lyto wants to create theater that mirrors the way people communicate today and uses technology as part of it's dramatic structure. Before she moved in NYC, she received the BA degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in which she majored in directing. In her studies she focused on New York Avant Garde Theater. Directing credits include: No Way Home by Allan Staples, Pool (No Water) by Mark Ravenhill, Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, A Few Things Before I Leave You by Daniel Kitrosser, The Lover by Harold Pinter, As you desire me by Luigi Pirandello, Deesdemonas based on Othello, and The Line by Israel Horovitz.

Miss Margarida's Way features Nick Chris. Shooting Rats features Patrick T. Horn and Angie Tennant

Miss Margarida's Way plays: May 28, June 5, June 6 at 7:00 pm May 29, May 30, June 4 at 8:30 pm, and May 30 at 2:00 pm, June 6 at 3:30 pm pm. Shooting Rats plays: May 28, June 5, June 6 at 8:30 pm May 29, May 30, June 4 at 7:00 pm, and May 30 at 3:30 pm, June 6 at 2:00.

This season of Second Circle Theatre Company will be performed at The Bridge at Shetler Studios in New York City. Tickets are available at Brown Paper Tickets and are $20.00 General Admission, $15 for Students. Discounted ticket prices are available when purchasing tickets to BOTH shows.