FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Lanie Zipoy | 646.399.8650 | lanie.zipoy@gmail.com
KATHLEEN CHALFANT TO HOST VETERANS DAY READING OF
CARIDAD SVICH’S SPARK AT THE CHERRY LANE THEATRE NOVEMBER 11TH
Cast Includes Louis Cancelmi, Marin Ireland, Peter Jay Fernandez, Gloria Mann & Jocelyn Kuritsky
New York, NY — A special Veterans Day reading of the new play Spark by OBIE-award winning playwright Caridad Svich will be held at the Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street) in New York City on Sunday, November 11, 2012 at 8:00 pm, followed by an expert panel discussion on the experience of women veterans facing trauma and assault while serving.
Produced by Gloria Mann, TECL / Mannatee Films, in collaboration with NoPassport, the cast includes Louis Cancelmi (Blasted, Soho Rep), Marin Ireland (Tony Award nominee, reasons to be pretty), Peter Jay Fernandez (The Lady from Dubuque, Signature Theatre) Jocelyn Kuritsky (Woodshed Collective, 13P), and Gloria Mann (Ashes to Ashes, Walkerspace). Scott Schwartz (Golda’s Balcony) will direct the reading.
Spark centers on a family of sisters in North Carolina, one of whom is a returning veteran from a recent war. Along with hosting the event, after the reading, Tony Award-winning actress Kathleen Chalfant will participate in a distinguished panel on the role of women in the US military, psychological and physical health for veterans, and the role of art in the healing process.
Moderated by Omega Institute program strategist Michael Craft, the panel will also feature one of America’s leading physicians working with military trauma, former Air Force Major Nisha Money MD; acclaimed documentary filmmaker, JulieHera DeStefano, whose new film, Journey to Normal: Women of War Come Home, recounts the unprecedented story of women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan; Gulf War veteran Susan Lynch, Executive Director of There and Back-Again (www.thereandback-again.org), a nonprofit supporting active service-members and providing reintegration support services to combat veterans of all conflicts, Helen Benedict, author of The Lonely Soldier, and Kayla Williams, linguist and former intelligence specialist for US Army and the author of Love My Rifle. The Cherry Lane evening for Spark is sponsored, in part, by Oliver Kita Chocolates and Michael Boris Clothing.
Spark is the third play in Caridad Svich’s American quartet of plays addressing national issues/global concerns that include 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award-winning Guapa and The Way of Water. Spark will receive dozens of readings, including the Cherry Lane Theatre event, across the United States and internationally throughout November 2012. Among the additional national venues that are participating in the national reading scheme are Bristol Riverside Theatre in Pennsylvania, Profile Theatre in Portland, Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston, The Playwrights Center of Minneapolis, Theatre Project and Bump in the Road in Baltimore, DNAWorks with Teatro Paraguas in Santa Fe, and Tricklock Theatre in Albuquerque.
The line producer for the NoPassport international reading scheme for Spark is Lanie Zipoy, and the dramaturgy team is led by Zac Kline with Heather Helinsky (as consulting dramaturg) and Erin Kaplan. The play’s premiere has not yet been announced. Tickets to the Spark reading at The Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, Subway: 1 to Christopher Street), which are free and open to the public, will be available starting November 4th at http://www.nopassport.org/spark. For more information about Caridad Svich’s Spark, visit http://www.nopassport.org/spark
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