SDSU Opens Theatre Season with ANONY(MOUS) by Naomi Iizuka

The SDSU School of Theatre, Television, and Film opens its 2017 fall season with Anon(ymous), a play by Naomi Iizuka based on Homer's classic Greek poem The Odyssey. Anon(ymous) runs Friday, September 29 - Sun. October 8 at San Diego State University's Experimental Theatre. Director is Randy Reinholz. Tickets and information available at theatre.sdsu.edu.

Tired, hungry, and far from home, a young refugee called Anon escapes his war-torn country to wash up on an American shore. Anon encounters characters both kind and cruel in a perilous journey to find home and his family.

Director Randy Reinholz describes the play as both modern and ancient in the same moment. "Iizuka replaces the main character Odysseus, the Grecian war hero who journeyed home for ten years, with a young refugee looking for home in a new land in modern times," he says. "Trucks and trains replace the ships of Odysseus. The monsters come right from the headlines of today's news stories."

Originally commissioned by the Children's Theatre of Minneapolis in 2006, the themes inAnon(ymous) have taken on renewed relevance in 2017. Comparing the journeys of an ancient Greek hero to modern day refugees, the play confronts the grim issues of sweatshops and enslavement while also offering exquisitely paced moments of tenderness, romance, and beauty. "It is poetic and soulful, while depicting the best of humanity and the generosity shown in an all too often cruel world," concludes Reinholz.

Director Randy Reinholz is a faculty member at the SDSU School of Theatre, Television, and Film as well as Producing Artistic Director and Co-creator of Native Voices at the Autry, a theatre company devoted to developing and producing new works for the stage by Native American, Alaska Native, and First Nations playwrights.

Award-winning playwright Naomi Iizuka is on the playwriting faculty at the UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance.

Performances of Anon(ymous) are September 29 - October 8, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in SDSU's Experimental Theatre. Ticket prices are $20 for general admission, $17 for students, seniors, and military. For tickets, directions, and parking information visit theatre.sdsu.edu.

For tickets or more information about the many other Arts Alive SDSU performances, concerts, and exhibitions visit artsalivesdsu.edu.

Arts Alive SDSU showcases and supports the best and brightest performing and visual arts that SDSU has to offer. As a creative catalyst, this campus-wide initiative infuses art into curriculum and promotes opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and the San Diego region, to engage in quality exhibitions and performances. Last year, Arts Alive SDSU programs saw the engagement of more than 133,000 people. artsalive.sdsu.edu

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