World Premiere of Happily Ever After

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Feb 192014
 

 

Washington, DC, February 14, 2014

–For immediate release—

In Partnership of the Embassy of Spain and SPAIN arts & culture

Ambassador Theater Presents World Premiere of

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

By Cristina Colmena

Directed by

Hanna Bondarewska

Featuring

Karin Rosnizeck as She

Doug Krehbel as He

WHERE:

Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint

916 G Street NW, Washington DC

WHEN: March 12 – March 30, 2014

March 12, 2014 Preview at 8 pm

Opening March 13 at 8 pm

Press Night: Wednesday March 14 at 8:00 pm

Friday, March 14 Special Q&A with the author after the show at 8 PM

Thursday, March 27 World Theatre Day Celebration after the show!

Tuesdays – Saturdays at 8:00 pm; Matinees: Sundays at 2:00 pm

TICKETS: $20 – $40 Online: http://www.aticc.org/home/box-office

For mature audiences

Media/Press: please e-mail us to reserve your tickets!

In Happily Ever After by Cristina Colmena, one and one not always equals two. The couple and its complicated arithmetic are exposed through three stories where characters want to be happy but they don´t know how. When you get stood up, when you wake up beside a stranger, when after thirty years you don´t know what to speak about. The loneliness of sleeping alone and of sleeping with someone. Why one plus one may equal nothing?

Three couples of different ages, representing a lifetime of romantic struggles, are crippled by fears and insecurities and unable to find fulfilment in love. We see young lovers bound by a powerful attraction yet destined to part; cynical middle aged ‘one night standers’ failing to act on a promising encounter; and an older, deeply unhappy couple keeping up appearances after thirty years of marriage.

The compelling dark comedy and it’s high emotional resonance present a chance for self-reflection and an opportunity to learn from the characters’ mistakes. All three ‘un-love’ stories are poignant reminders that if we keep sitting on the fence, fearful and pessimistic, happiness may never come!

The play was written in 2013 by Cristina Colmena, a writer and playwright born in Spain, currently living in New York.  She writes short stories, articles and film reviews.  Her plays, Typing and Happily Ever After, were included in the New Plays from Spain series as part of the PEN World Voices Festival 2013. We are happy to partner with the Embassy of Spain and its cultural program SPAIN, arts and culture to present one of the newest play written by Cristina Colmena! Do not miss an opportunity to meet Cristina Colmena, who will be in attendance for both preview and opening nights on 12 and 13 of March, as well as on Friday March 14, which will feature a Question and Answer session after the performance.

 

 

About the Author

Cristina Colmena Writer and playwright, she has lived in New York since 2010. She has published a book of short stories, La amabilidad de los extraños (The Kindness of Strangers), and several of her short stories have appeared in literary magazines. Her plays, Typing and Happily Ever After, were included in the New Plays from Spain series as part of the PEN World Voices Festival 2013. She holds Bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication and Journalism and has worked as a director and screenwriter for television. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing in Spanish from New York University, where she is currently pursuing a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese Literature. She is also a contributor of articles and film reviews for various publications.
About Ambassador TheatreAmbassador Theater’s mission is to build international cultural awareness, provide a high standard of international repertoire based on close relations with the diplomatic and cultural representatives of different countries in the United States, and provide international interactive educational programs for the youth of the District of Columbia, the D.C. Metro area, and around the United States.  ATICC is a 501(c)3 Nonprofit Organization. For more information, visit http://www.aticc.org

More information about the play:http://www.spainculture.us/city/washington-dc/happily-ever-after/

DC Theatre Scene-”Rarely does theatre make you feel educationally illuminated and shamelessly entertained at the same time,…”

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Feb 012014
 

Dyskolos

February 1, 2014 by 

Rarely does theatre make you feel educationally illuminated and shamelessly entertained at the same time, but such are the charms of Ambassador Theater’s production of the ancient Greek comedy Dyskolos by Menander.  Dyskolosfeels like a genetically combined blend of Moliere’s The Misanthrope, Italian commedia dell’arte (complete with masks), and The Three Stooges.  It is broad fun, broadly and expertly rendered in a short run at the Anacostia Arts Center.

Connor Hogan and Lily Kerrigan (Photo courtesy of Ambassador Theater)Connor Hogan and Lily Kerrigan (Photo courtesy of Ambassador Theater) 

Ambassador Theater is in its fifth season of presenting theatrical works from across the globe and, in this case, across a considerable period of time.  Menander was a leading writer of the Greek “New Comedy” era (about 2,300 years ago) which focused on finding humor in the lives of everyday characters.  He had a considerable impact on Roman playwrights, but most of his work was lost in the Middle Ages.  Dyskolos is his only work to have survived almost entirely intact.

The god Pan sets the scene by explaining that he has caused a wealthy young man to fall in love with the innocent daughter of a grumpy old farmer.  One wonders if this is where all of those jokes about the proverbial “farmer’s daughter” started. The farmer becomes enraged if any stranger steps onto his property or tries to talk with him. (Dyskolos can be translated as The Grouch, The Misanthrope, The Curmudgeon, The Bad-tempered Man or Old Cantankerous).

The young man goes through various strategies first to persuade the farmer to allow his daughter to be married and then to persuade his own father to allow the marriage to occur.  As sometimes happens in classic comedies, a second betrothal results as well.

Four actors play roughly a dozen roles with the aid of expressive masks that each prepared with the assistance of master mask designer Tara Cariaso.  Connor J. Hogan demonstrates great comic gifts as the painfully lovestruck young man, as his father’s cook who runs afoul of the farmer, and even as the young man’s mother.  Nick Martin makes the farmer both impressively disagreeable and intimidating.

 

Lily Kerrigan is at her charming best playing a clever and mischievous young slave who enjoys tormenting the farmer.  She also has considerable stage time as the farmer’s older stepson who lives separately with his mother and who aids the young lover in his quest.  Sarah Collins completes the versatile quartet by playing multiple roles ranging from the farmer’s old slave to a contrary sheep.

Director Stephen Shetler keeps the action high-spirited and the acting appropriately broad, often happily verging on slapstick.  The action is pleasantly broken through scene changes that feature the actors in stylistic movements choreographed by Julia Tasheva.

At times, it may take a few moments for the audience to follow the new scenes.  A short synopsis in the program and/or a character list would have proven useful. The characters, however, set up the actions in an understandable manner soon enough.

Ancient Greek comedy may not be everyone’s cup of tea (or perhaps glass of ouzo).  Yet these standard characters and their all too common desires are readily accessible.  The play is appropriately subtitled “An Ancient Greek Comedy with Modern Sensibilities.”  If you are seeking a theatre experience that is both novel and yet familiar enough to be entertaining, Ambassador Theater’s production of Dyskolos is only playing for this weekend only.

Dyskolos Written by Menander Translated by Vincent J. Rosivach . Directed by Stephen Shetler . Produced by Ambassador Theater . Reviewed by Steven McKnight.

Recommended
DYSKOLOS
Closes Sunday, February 2, 2014
Anacostia Arts Center
1231 Good Hope Road SE
Washington, DC.
1 hour, 20 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $35
Saturday and Sunday
Details and Tickets