George Packer News

Closing Aurora Theatre Company's 18th season is the Bay Area Premiere of Stephen Karam's fiercely funny SPEECH & DEBATE. Robin Stanton (Betrayed, The Busy World is Hushed, and Permanent Collection) directs this distinctive new play Entertainment Weekly called 'One of the top ten plays of the year...Even if you're not fluent in IM, you'll LOL at this subversive comedy.' Featuring Jayne Deely, Jason Frank, Maro Guevara, and Holly Hornlien, SPEECH & DEBATE plays June 11 through July 18 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($34-55) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Contains mature themes and subject matters.

Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director) announced today (on the actual date of Robert Schumann's 200th birthday) that it will present a very special New York performance celebrating the 200th birthday of composer Robert Schumann with a special performance of Twin Spirits, an intimate theatrical event devised and directed for the stage by Tony Award-winner John Caird, and featuring Sting, Trudie Styler and Joshua Bell, among other artists, on Thursday, June 30, 7:30 p.m, at The Allen Room at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center on Broadway at 60th Street, New York City.

Closing Aurora Theatre Company's 18th season is the Bay Area Premiere of Stephen Karam's fiercely funny SPEECH & DEBATE. Robin Stanton (Betrayed, The Busy World is Hushed, and Permanent Collection) directs this distinctive new play Entertainment Weekly called 'One of the top ten plays of the year...Even if you're not fluent in IM, you'll LOL at this subversive comedy.' Featuring Jayne Deely, Jason Frank, Maro Guevara, and Holly Hornlien, SPEECH & DEBATE plays June 11 through July 18 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($34-55) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org. Contains mature themes and subject matters.

This year's Critics Circle Awards, sponsored by Actor's Equity Association, today announced is nominees for excellence in San Francisco Bay area theater. Berkeley Rep's production of American Idiot, which played in the fall of 2009, leads with 12 nominations and will open on Broadway this spring.

Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee, the award winning Culture Project, Steve Colman and Jayson Jackson in association with The Public Theater is presenting County of Kings. Written and performed by Lemon Andersen (Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam), and directed by Elise Thoron, County of Kings will open tonight, October 12 at The Public Theater. The show has been in previews since September 29 and will run for a six week limited engagement.

Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee, the award winning Culture Project, Steve Colman and Jayson Jackson in association with The Public Theater present County of Kings. Written and performed by Lemon Andersen (Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam), and directed by Elise Thoron, County of Kings begins performances Tuesday, September 29 for a six week limited engagement at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street.

Academy Award nominated director Spike Lee, the award winning Culture Project, Steve Colman and Jayson Jackson in association with The Public Theater present County of Kings. Written and performed by Lemon Andersen (Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam), and directed by Elise Thoron, County of Kings begins performances Tuesday, September 29 for a six week limited engagement at The Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street.

ABroad Stage Company (ABSCo) is gearing up for its debut performance of Jose Rivera?s new version of his best-known play, ?References To Salvador Dali Make Me Hot,? which originally premiered at The Public Theater in 2000. Directed by Pippin Parker, the play will open on Friday, July 10, at the New School for Drama Theater at 151 Bank Street, in the West Village.

ABroad Stage Company (ABSCo) is gearing up for its debut performance of Jose Rivera?s new version of his best-known play, ?References To Salvador Dali Make Me Hot,? which originally premiered at The Public Theater in 2000. Directed by Pippin Parker, the play will open on Friday, July 10, at the New School for Drama Theater at 151 Bank Street, in the West Village.

Culture Project has announced that 'Blueprint for Accountability,' a thought-provoking new monthly series that gathers the world's foremost political experts and today's most visionary artists in a series combining the best of investigative journalism with the best of the performing arts, will launch Sunday, May 31, 2009, at 7:00pm at The Times Center with its inaugural presentation, 'Working the Dark Side.'

Culture Project has announced that 'Blueprint for Accountability,' a thought-provoking new monthly series that gathers the world's foremost political experts and today's most visionary artists in a series combining the best of investigative journalism with the best of the performing arts, will launch Sunday, May 31, 2009, at 7:00pm at The Times Center with its inaugural presentation, 'Working the Dark Side.'

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company, now celebrating its 17th season, presents a night of heavenly wining and dining at AURORA BOREALIS, the company's 11th annual benefit, to be held at The Pavilion at Scott's Seafood in Jack London Square. Guests at the fundraising event, a nautically-themed f?te co-chaired by Deborah Goodman and Ellen Levine, will enjoy a cocktail auction, followed by a three course dinner, and live entertainment from The Coverlettes: Darby Gould of Jefferson Starship, Katie Guthorn (A Karen Carpenter Christmas), and singer/songwriter Carol Bozzio Littleton from this season's hit holiday show The Coverlettes Cover Christmas.

Berkeley's acclaimed Aurora Theatre Company, now celebrating its 17th season, presents a night of heavenly wining and dining at AURORA BOREALIS, the company's 11th annual benefit, to be held at The Pavilion at Scott's Seafood in Jack London Square. Guests at the fundraising event, a nautically-themed f?te co-chaired by Deborah Goodman and Ellen Levine, will enjoy a cocktail auction, followed by a three course dinner, and live entertainment from The Coverlettes: Darby Gould of Jefferson Starship, Katie Guthorn (A Karen Carpenter Christmas), and singer/songwriter Carol Bozzio Littleton from this season's hit holiday show The Coverlettes Cover Christmas.

Due to overwhelming popular demand, Berkeley's Aurora Theatre Company announces that it has extended its critically acclaimed West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play. Filled with dignity, humor, and outrage, this provocative theatrical adaptation of journalist George Packer's eye-opening 2007 essay in The New Yorker follows three Iraqi translators who risk their lives to aid the American war effort. Robin Stanton (Permanent Collection, The Busy World is Hushed) helms this thought-provoking production, featuring Bobak Cyrus Bakhtiari, Keith Burkland, Denmo Ibrahim, Alex Moggridge, Amir Sharafeh, Khalid Shayota, and James Wagner. BETRAYED plays now through March 8, with added performances March 4-8, at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($40-42) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Due to overwhelming popular demand, Berkeley?s Aurora Theatre Company announces that it has added two additional performances to the previously announced extension week of the company's critically acclaimed West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.

On Friday, March 6, directly following the 8pm performance of BETRAYED at the Aurora Theatre, Upwardly Global will host a panel discussion that will feature two Iraqi refugees. On Saturday, March 7, directly following the 8pm performance of BETRAYED at the Aurora Theatre, The List Project will host a panel discussion featuring The List Project founder and director Kirk Johnson (the real-life 'Prescott' in BETRAYED).

How do you convince a producer that a show featuring puppets for an adult audience and one about writing a Broadway musical will ever succeed in a theater world focused on risk aversion? On Wednesday, February 25 at 7:30 p.m. on the 4th Floor of PS 107 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Framji Minwalla, visiting professor of drama at Fordham University, will moderate a panel that includes some of the most successful off-off Broadway talents to ever make it to The Great White Way. Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, creators and stars in the Obie-award winning musical Title of Show, will be joined by their female lead, Susan Blackwell. Jeff Whitty, Tony Award- winning playwright (Best Musical 2004) of Avenue Q and Tales of the City will be joined by Bobby Lopez, Tony-award winning composer and lyricist for Avenue Q. Doug Aibel, artistic director of the Vineyard Theater, which took both of these shows to Broadway, will round out the panel. Anecdotes, spontaneous song and the trials and tribulations of creating musical theater that goes beyond the norm will be center stage in this evening of theatrical insight. Broadway Unbound will be held on the 4th Floor of PS 107, which is located at 13th Street and 8th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Tickets are $15 online at www.ps107.org or at the door.

On Friday, March 6, directly following the 8pm performance of BETRAYED at the Aurora Theatre, Upwardly Global will host a panel discussion that will feature two Iraqi refugees. On Saturday, March 7, directly following the 8pm performance of BETRAYED at the Aurora Theatre, The List Project will host a panel discussion featuring The List Project founder and director Kirk Johnson (the real-life 'Prescott' in BETRAYED).

Due to overwhelming popular demand, Berkeley?s Aurora Theatre Company announces that it has added two additional performances to the previously announced extension week of the company's critically acclaimed West Coast Premiere of BETRAYED, winner of the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play.

Original New York cast members Jeremy Beck, Mike Doyle (Law and Order: SVU), Sevan Greene and Waleed F. Zuaiter head the cast under the guidance of original director Pippin Parker when L.A. Theatre Works presents the West Coast premiere of Betrayed, the haunting new play by award winning writer and journalist George Packer. Five performances take place February 18-22 at the Skirball Cultural Center where they will be recorded to air on LATW's nationally syndicated public radio theater series, The Play's The Thing. In early 2007, George Packer published an article in The New Yorker about Iraqi interpreters who jeopardized their lives on behalf of the Americans in Iraq, yet were provided with little or no U.S. protection or security. The article drew national attention to the humanitarian crisis and moral scandal. Based on Mr. Packer's interviews in Baghdad, Betrayed tells the story of three young Iraqis - two men and one woman - who were motivated to risk everything by America's promise of freedom. The award-winning play explores their complex relationships with each other and with their American supervisor as they struggle to find purpose even as their country collapses around them. 'The voices of the Iraqi men and women I met were so powerful that even after I finished The New Yorker article, they wouldn't leave me alone,' Packer said in an interview. 'These Iraqis put their trust in us, went to work with us, risked their lives to work with us - and nothing is riskier in Iraq than working with Americans - and as they began to come under threat, we essentially walked away from them and left them on their own. It's of a piece with everything that's wrong with this war.'