STAGE TUBE: Nikkole Salter Talks CARNAVAL, Premiering at Luna Stage Tonight

Luna Stage will present the world premiere of Nikkole Salter's Carnaval - a play that was inspired by the author's discovery of the underground world of sex tourism and man-cations in Brazil. The play was developed in part through Luna Stage's New Moon Play Reading Series. Luna Stage Associate Artistic Director/Director of Play Development, Cheryl Katz, will direct. Previews for Carnaval begin tonight, January 31st, 2013. The production runs Thursdays at 7:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm through March 3rd, 2013, with the official press opening on Friday, February 8th. Watch an interview with the playwright below!

With Carnaval, Obie-Award winning playwright Nikkole Salter wanted to explore the demand side of sex tourism and its larger implications of cultural exploitation, cultural imperialism and the American ambition "to be the man". She was particularly interested in delving into the motivations this behavior and its global ramifications. "I wanted to write a play that would entertain as well as provoke discussion and personal reflection about how we engage the world," says creator Nikkole Salter. The play follows three young men from Brooklyn to Rio de Janeiro, and runs the gamut from hilarious to devastating, is not without controversy.

Nikkole Salter is returning to Luna Stage after her performance in their inaugural production of The Old Settler. As an emerging playwright, Carnaval marks Ms. Salter's second produced play. Hailed by Variety as "thoroughly convincing", Los Angeles-born, OBIE Award-winning actress and writer, Nikkole Salter, exploded onto the professional scene with her co-authorship and co-performance of the play, In the Continuum (ITC). For its Off-Broadway run and international tour, ITC received an OBIE Award (2006), and the NY Outer Critics Circle's John Gassner Award for Best New American Play (2006) to name a few of its many accolades. Miss Salter also received Helen Hayes and Black Theatre Alliance nominations for Best Actress for her performance. ITC, published by Samuel French, was pronounced - by New York Times, Newsday and New York Magazine - as one of the best plays of 2005, and was featured in numerous esteemed media outlets including Essence Magazine, American Theatre Magazine, the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Leonard Lopate Show.

Tickets range from $25 to $35 and can be purchased in person, on the phone at (973) 395-5551, or on the Luna Stage website: www.lunastage.org.