Ma-Yi to Present Premiere of 'The Children of Vonderly'

Off-Broadway's Award-winning Ma-Yi Theater Company opens its 19th season with the world premiere of Lloyd Suh's new play, The Children of Vonderly, for a limited Off-Broadway engagement with previews beginning September 22, prior to an official press opening October 4 at The East 13th Street Theatre (136 East 13th Street) in Manhattan. Ralph B. Pena (world premiere of Kia Korthron's Savage Acts) directs.

"There's never a dull moment in the Vonderly household. Led by a headstrong Jewish matriarch, this unconventional multi-ethnic family of adopted and disabled children band together after a crisis threatens to rip them apart. Bound by his wheelchair and burdened by family obligations, oldest brother Jerry Vonderly looks for ways to balance his mother's outlandish expectations and his own dreams of a "normal" life outside the family's anything-but-traditional home in Indianapolis, Indiana," state press notes.

William Jackson Harper leads the cast of the production, which includes Lynn Cohen (who played Golda Meir in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated film "Munich"), Jackie Chung, Graeme Gillis, Stephen Jutras (Danny Boy), Hoon Lee (Broadway revival of Pacific Overtures), Shawn Randall, and Maureen Sebastian.

The play has set design by Sarah Lambert; costume design by Maiko Matsushima; lighting design by Josh Bradford; and sound design by Fabian Obispo.

Please note that Ma- Yi Theater Company produces on an Off-Broadway contract.

Lloyd Suh is the author of American Hwangap (NYSCA Grant, Lark BareBones), The Garden Variety (South Coast Repertory commission), and Masha No Home (first produced at Ensemble Studio Theatre; West Coast Premiere at East West Players), as well as several shorter plays. A graduate of Indiana University and the New School, he is an alum of the Dramatists Guild Playwriting Fellowship program, EST's Youngblood, and the Lark Theatre's Playwrights' Workshop. He is Co-Director of the Ma-Yi Writer's Lab and a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and The Actors Studio. He directed NAATCO's world premiere of Michael Golamco's Cowboy vs. Samurai.

Ma-Yi Theater Company, the leading company in the U.S. devoted to presenting new work about Asian-American experiences, opens its 19th season with The Children of Vonderly. Ma-Yi Theater Company concluded its 2006-07 season with the Off-Broadway premiere of Keo Woolfood's I Land and an Off-Broadway revival of Lonnie Carter's Obie Award-winning The Romance of Magno Rubio, both presented as part of the first-ever National Asian American Theater Festival -- which Ma-Yi spearheaded with NAATCO and Pan Asian Repertory, in New York City this past June.

The company was founded to develop new plays and performances about Asian-American experiences -- challenging the perceptions of what culturally specific theater should be by producing forward-thinking plays by today's emerging playwrights. Ma-Yi Theater Company is under the guidance of Ralph B. Pena, Artistic Director, and Jorge Z. Ortoll, Executive Director.

Off-Broadway performances run September 22-October 21 at The East 13th Street Theatre (136 East 13th Street). Monday and Wednesday-Saturday at 8pm; Saturday and Sunday at 3pm, with the following exception: Opening Night, Thursday, October 4 at 7pm. Tickets are $20 during previews; $38 after October 3; students $20/$20; seniors $20/$34. Group discounts are available. For tickets, call TheaterMania.com at 212-352-3101 or online at www.ma-yitheatre.org.

Photo by Matt Zugale -William Jackson Harper as Jerry Vonderly and Stephen Jutras as his adopted brother Benjamin

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