GUN HILL Will Open Origin Theatre's 2021 European Month Of Culture

GUN HILL by award-winning Romanian-American playwright Saviana Stanescu, a timely play about gun violence in the US, has a (free) virtual reading on Monday, May 17, 6 pm EDT, opening Origin Theatre's "2021 European Month of Culture NYC," produced in partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to the United States.

Saviana Stănescu is a cutting-edge award-winning Romanian playwright, poet, and ARTivist based in NY, author of Aliens with Extraordinary Skills, Ants, Lenin's Shoe, Hurt, Useless, Toys, and other plays centering the immigrant experience. Winner of New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Play (Waxing West) and UNITER Award for Best Romanian Play of the Year (Inflatable Apocalypse), Saviana has published over 15 books of plays and poetry, written in English and Romanian, translated and produced around the world. Saviana's plays have been developed/produced off-Broadway at Women's Project, La MaMa, 59E59, NYTW, EST, HERE, New Georges, Lark; regionally at the Hangar Theatre, Cherry Artspace, Civic Ensemble; and globally at Teatro La Capilla in Mexico City, Teatrul Odeon in Bucharest, Dramalabbet in Stockholm, etc. Saviana holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University, and currently works as Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College. www.saviana.com

Cynthia Henderson has performed professionally in the United States, Europe, and Africa. Her credits NYC include A Wrinkle in Time at the Lincoln Center; Off Broadway: Dorothy Dandridge an evening of song and remembrance, and Brother's Keeper; other NYC credits include: Vagina Monologues, Joy in the Morning, A Star Ain't Nothing but a Hole in Heaven; It's Only a Play. Regional credits include: A Raisin in the Sun, Katrina, a new musical, A Midsummer's Night Dream, King Lear, and Two Rooms. International Credits include Gun Hill (workshop), Pretty Fire, Dreamgirls, Into the Woods, Children of a Lesser God, and Little Shop of Horrors, for which she received the award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical at the European Tournament of Plays. She is the founder of Performing Arts for Social Change (pa4sc.com), a director, author of The Actor's Landscape, a professor of acting in the Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College, and the recipient of three Fulbright awards. Cynthia is a member of Actors' Equity Association and the National Alliance of Acting Teachers.

Mayson Sonntag is a Canadian-born actor, singer, dancer, musician, and composer. Currently pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre from Ithaca College, he has appeared in such productions as Moments: An Evening of Work by Douglas Lyons under the direction of Zhailon Levingston, In The Light, and Antigone Project. Regional credits include the world premiere of Emmett and Ella: A Doggone Mystery, Heathers, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Mayson has also performed with the Regina Symphony Orchestra, and is a member of the award winning Fiearro Quartet. He is a member of the Canadian Federation of Musicians.

Erwin Maas is a New York based international theatermaker, curator, and educator from the Netherlands. He has worked extensively in Australia, Europe, South Africa, South Korea and USA. He is Origin Theatre Company's Programming Director, Co-founding Director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange, and Fellowship Director for International Performing Arts for Youth. Maas teaches at CUNY Brooklyn College's MFA Performance & Interactive-Media-Arts Program. Erwin is a core-member of Theater Without Borders, Georgetown University's The Lab and the Netherland-America Foundation Cultural Committee. He serves on the Artistic Advisory Board of ISSUE Project Room Brooklyn, First Nation Spiderwoman Theater, and DecadesOut, an organization at the intersection of Arts-Science-Policy - www.erwinmaas.com