The Play Company Announces 10th Anniversary Season Line-up For Spring 2010

The Play Company - the Off-Broadway theatre company whose most recent production was Lloyd Suh's acclaimed play "American Hwangap" last spring in New York - announces its 2009-2010 season offerings, including the world-premiere of Kia Corthron's A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK starting March 4, 2010, followed on March 27 with previews for the American premiere of ENJOY, Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada's comedy about Japan youth culture's struggles with their changing economic reality. The season's back-to-back productions are announced by Kate Loewald, Founding Producer, and Lauren Weigel, Managing Producer of The Play Company, now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Both Ms. Corthron's play - about an African engineer and preacher-in-training who, taken in by a family in the American South, finds his calling in the broken lives and damaged ecology he encounters - and Mr. Okada's work are in step with The Play Company's mission, that is, to present a world view of contemporary playwriting. Recent productions include the New York premiere of Lloyd Suh's AMERICAN HWANGAP (U.S.), U.S. premieres of Przemyslaw Wojcieszek's MADE IN POLAND (Poland); Robert Farquhar's BAD JAZZ (England); Vijay Tendulkar's SAKHARAM BINDER (India); Yoji Sakate's THE ATTIC (Japan); and The Presnyakov Brothers' TERRORISM (Russia); as well as the world premieres of SMASHING by Brooke Berman (U.S.) and HIGH DIVE by Leslie Ayvazian (U.S.). Play Co. received a 2007 Obie Award for its "unique contribution to the theatre community."

Directed by Chay Yew whose New York credits include Durango (Public, Long Wharf), The Architecture of Loss (NYTW), Last of the Suns (Ma-Yi), and House of Bernarda Alba (NAATCO), A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK begins previews March 4, opening March 28, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (416 W. 42 St.), where the play is being co-produced by The Play Company, Playwrights Horizons and The Culture Project. One of the foremost activist writers in the U.S., Kia Corthron's previous plays include LIGHT RAISE THE ROOF; BREATH, BOOM; and FORCE CONTINUUM.

Considered one of Japan's leading Contemporary Theatre artists, Toshiki Okada's ENJOY is directed by Dan Rothenberg (co-artistic leader of Philadelphia's Pig Iron Theatre), with translation by Aya Ogawa. Performances are scheduled from March 27 to April 25 at 59E59 Theaters (59 E. 59 St.). ENJOY is the inaugural project in The Play Company's Universal Voices translation program, which commissions American translations of foreign-language plays.

About The Play Company's upcoming productions, Founding Producer Kate Loewald states, "We are celebrating ten years of producing new, adventurous plays from the U.S. and all over the world. The world has changed so much since we launched The Play Company, and our country's position in the international community has changed as well. It's more important than ever that New York theatre engages with current events and ideas on an international scale, and we are happy to connect our audiences with a whole world of plays."

Also in Spring '10, to complement the production of A COOL DIP...The Play Company will present author Alex Prud'homme (co-author with Julia Child of My Life in France) reading from his upcoming book Clean, Clear and Cold: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century and talking about why water will be the defining resource of our time. And in May, the company will stage a reading of INVASION, Swedish playwright Jonas Hassen Khemiri's subversive play about race, identity and language.

For more information about The Play Company's season and programs, visit www.playco.org or call 212 398-2977.

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