Rattlestick Theater Announces 2022 GLOBAL FORMS THEATER FESTIVAL

Rattlestick Theater has announced the return of its annual Global Forms Theater Festival - a twelve-day celebration filled with in-person productions, readings, online panel discussions, and more which showcases and supports the works of immigrant theater artists living in the U.S. Since its inception, Rattlestick has partnered with over 200 artists from over 34 countries.

In 2020, Rattlestick and New York Theatre Salon formed the Global Forms Theater Festival, designed to meet urgent, specific needs of immigrant artists during the pandemic. Rattlestick's mission - to produce ambitious plays that inspire empathy and provoke conversation that will lead to positive social change - asks that we foster dialogue and produce work addressing the difficulties faced by immigrant artists, who are often ineligible for relief funding and are vastly underrepresented on New York's stages. Immigrant artists face the extraordinarily time-intensive and expensive task of applying for artist visas, and the Global Forms Theater Festival provides important paid production opportunities to showcase these applications.

Festival producer and Rattlestick's Managing Director Yue Liu writes:
"The Global Forms Theater Festival highlights our shared humanity and compassion. As an immigrant producer who has experienced various types of discrimination in my life, I deeply understand the pains and struggles that immigrant artists are carrying. I feel a strong sense of responsibility to produce this festival and provide a safe environment for immigrant artists to tell their stories confidently, proudly, and authentically. We are proud that the Global Forms Theater Festival has grown to an annual event, featuring dozens of online and in-person productions, workshops, panels, and networking events that have employed hundreds of artists and drawn thousands of audience members from around the world. "

The Global Forms Theater Festival consists of five (5) key programing sections to be offered throughout the twelve (12) day celebration:

(1) Global Stage - Three (3) workshops and one (1) staged reading
(2) Global Dialogue - Discussions with theater companies from around the world
(3) Global Learn - Workshops led by immigrant artists based on their individual specialties/expertise
(4) Global Share - Artists sharing tidbits about their home country
(5) Global Gab - A cross-cultural conversation

The four (4) leading productions of the Global Stage programming are:

ALL THE LONELY WOMEN

Written by Inés Braun (Argentina) and Leigh Flayton - Play, workshop
ALL THE LONELY WOMEN is a queer fairytale about the strangeness of looking for love during the pandemic. Infused with magical realism, the play explore s the poignancy - and inevitable humor- of love and longing during a time of isolation and separation.

Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird

by Ran Xia (China) - Play, reading
This is a story of arrivals, and survivals. Over the span of a century, we meet the Golem who grows into a part of the city that witnesses and remembers; the Jinni who hides from her identity but hopes to one day run her own metal shop; the Chinese witch who speaks about premonitions, believing herself to be a reincarnated snake goddess; and there's Bird, who comes around every year like clockwork.

SKIN

By Yuriko Shibata (Japan) and Andrew Strano (Australia) - Musical, workshop
An elemental, impressionistic window into a world of yearning, queer identity, and parts of who we are that we so savagely cut ourselves off from, SKIN tells the story of Cath, Ed and their adult child Siobh as the tide of memory washes over them, threatening to reveal the secrets Cath has kept for years.

The Aliens Make Thanksgiving Dinner (or the Next Great American Play)

Created by James Clements (Scotland), Maamoun Tobbo (Lebanon), and Derya Celikkol (Turkey) - Play, workshop
The Aliens Make Thanksgiving Dinner (or the Next Great American Play) is a new experimental play-in-process exploring immigrant identities through art and food. Set in an empty theatre on Thanksgiving, this absurdist piece depicts three immigrant artists desperately trying to create an All-American spectacular - to secure their ever-elusive green cards.

Additional information on the Productions, Credits, and Ticket Sales Here:
https://www.rattlestick.org/global-forms

Showtimes offered:

All the Lonely Women

Thursday, June 2nd at 7:30 pm

Friday, June 3rd at 7:30 pm + talkback

Saturday, June 4th at 7:30 pm

Chava the Giant and the Oldest Bird

Sunday, June 5th at 2:00 pm

Sunday, June 5th at 7:30 pm

SKIN

Thursday, June 9th at 7:30 pm

Saturday, June 11th at 7:30 pm(Online Streaming Available)

Sunday, June 12th at 2:00 pm + talkback

The Aliens Make Thanksgiving Dinner (or the Next Great American Play)

Friday, June 10th at 7:30 pm

Saturday, June 11th at 2:00 pm(Online Streaming Available)

Sunday, June 12th at 7:30 pm + talkback


The Global Forms Advisory Board members include award-winning actor Pun Bandhu, NYU Arts Professor Catherine Coray, Chair of the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University and Co-Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics Derek Goldman, Pulitzer-prize winning playwright Martyna Majok, actor Arian Moayed, Associate Artistic Director and Director of Artistic Programming for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival Evren Odcikin, Playwright and Managing Director of National Disability Theater Penny Pun, and Director Chay Yew. The Global Forms Selection Committee consists of Pun Bandhu, Catherine Coray, Jody Doo, Rattlestick's Directing Fellow Danilo Gambini, Yue Liu, Penny Pun, and Salma S. Zohdi.

About Rattlestick Theater

Founded in 1994, Rattlestick Theater produces ambitious plays to inspire empathy and provoke conversation that will lead to positive social change. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has a deep commitment to producing fierce works, in partnership with community organizations, that challenge and stimulate audiences to confront the complexities of our culture. Notable productions include Arturo Luís Soria's Ni Mi Madre, Mansa Ra's In The Southern Breeze, Jonathan Payne & Martin Boross Addressless, Diana Oh's {mylingerieplay}, Dael Orlandersmith's Until the Flood, Samuel D. Hunter's The Few and Lewiston/Clarkston, Jesse Eisenberg's The Revisionist, Jonathan Tolins' Buyer and Cellar, Adam Rapp's The Hallway Trilogy, and Martyna Majok's Ironbound.

Rattlestick Theater produces mainstage productions; creates artistic development opportunities for artists to hone their craft; and provides opportunities for artists to engage with innovative work through residencies, fellowships, and special performances.

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