The Broad Stage Presents The California Premiere of 17 BORDER CROSSINGS

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica will present the California Premiere of 17 Border Crossings, created by and starring Thaddeus Phillips, and directed by Tatiana Mallarino on Friday, January 24 and Saturday January 25, 2020, at 7:30pm.

After sold out runs on four continents, including the international cities of Moscow and Hong Kong, 17 Border Crossings made its Off-Broadway premiere on April 11, 2019 at New York Theatre Workshop and ran for six weeks. Based on Phillips' actual adventures, 17 Border Crossings is a comical, visually surreal, sometimes harrowing, and engrossing look at the imaginary lines that divide up the world and the very real barriers they create.

The audience is asked to climb aboard a communist-era train from Prague to Belgrade, smuggle KFC out of Egypt, hide away in the wheel well of a transatlantic jet and bolt across the border from Mexico to the U.S. in the dead of night. With a chair, table, and bar of lights, Phillips, an award winning theater director, designer and performer magically conjures barricaded Venezuelan bridges, a rusty Croatian ferry, perilous international flights, obscure Amazonian ports, the twin cities of El Paso and Juarez, deportations, strip searches, illegal crossings, arbitrary passports and curious customs - a dazzling trip around the world.

Tickets are now on sale at www.thebroadstage.org or by calling 310.434.3200.

Thaddeus Phillips is an internationally acclaimed theater director, designer & performer originally from Denver, CO. He directs with a highly visual style centered around cinematic and transformative stage designs. Recent credits include the development and direction of A Billion Nights on Earth (BAM Next Wave Festival + New Haven Festival of Arts and Ideas). Midnight Train to Marrakesh and Ankomsten(a theatrical adaptation of Shaun Tan's graphic novel 'The Arrival') for Teateri in Sweden. Inflatable Space (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) about the genesis of NASA's Voyager Spacecraft.

Other Directing credits include: RED-EYE to HAVRE de GRACE, an action-opera about the last days of E.A. Poe (NYTW and USA Tour), The Incredibly Dangerous Astonishing Lucrative and Potentially Completely True Adventures of Barry Seal (FringeArts Festival), Flamingo/Winnebago (Kimo Theater, Albuquerque), WHaLE OPTICS (Prince Music Theatre, Philadelphia), and The Earth's Sharp Edge (La MaMa E.T.C.). As a performer and creator, he began his career playing King Lear in collaboration with various objects found in a suitcase (La MaMa and in various cafes, theaters and streets across the USA).

He created, designed and appeared in Capsule 33 (Barrow Street Theater), ¡EL CONQUISTADOR! (NYTW + International Tour - Lucille Lortel and Drama League Nominations), The MeLTING BRiDgE (Plays & Players, Philadelphia); Lost Soles (La MaMa E.T.C. + USA Tour), Henry Five Live from Times Square (NY Fringe), The Tempest (Arcola Theater, London) and The Filament Cycle (Battery Arts Center, London). Phillips' original theatrical work has been presented Internationally in Moscow (Territory Festival), Hong Kong (International Arts Festival), Romania (Bucharest FestCo Festival), Norway (Non-Stop Festival), Spain (Festival de Otoño), México (Escena de Artes), Holland (Noorderzon Festival), Colombia (Teatro Nacional), Czech Republic (4 + 4 Days Festival), Poland (Bytom Festival), Italy (La Mama Spoleto Festival), Costa Rica (Teatro Jaco), Slovenia (Mladi Levi), Ireland (International Fringe Festival), England (Arcola Theatre), Scotland (Summerhall + Traverse), and Serbia (Serijino Pozorje Festival).

Nationally, his work has been seen Off-Broadway and at festivals and theaters in New York (Under the Radar, La MaMa, Here, PS#122), ArtsEmerson (Boston), On the Boards (Seattle), MassMoca (North Adams, MA), Tricklock's Revolutions International Festival (Albuquerque), and in New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Miami, Sarasota, New Haven, Colorado Springs, and Tampa. Phillips studied at the Colorado College and Charles University (DAMU) in Prague and with Encho Avramov and the Czech director Josef Krofta. On film, he appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Sony Pictures), Mi Gente Linda, Mi Gente Bella (Caracol) and on TV in Alias El Mexicano (FoxTelecolombia), El Capo 3 (MundoFox), Celia (Telemundo), and Narcos (Netflix).

Theatre at The Broad Stage made possible in part by generous gifts from Bill & Laurie Benenson and Susan Stockel.

17 Border Crossings is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund Project co-commissioned by The Painted Bride Arts Center in partnership with The MAP and NPN. The Creation Fund is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (a federal agency.) For more information: www.npnweb.org; The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation & The Wyncote Foundation.

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