Spring Weekend: Sunflower

[1st Floor Cinema] Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival’s Spring Weekend free presentation of a stage reading of SUNFLOWER, a play by Hungarian playwright Andrea Pass. In SUNFLOWER, a young couple with a dysfunctional marriage and illness taking over their lives faces losing their home. Familiar situations, and scenes from contemporary life, become a series of revealing snapshots through the eyes of adults as well as children.

The play is set in a small town and involves ordinary characters: the young idealist teacher, the friendly caretaker, three young teens, the handsome doctor, the hopeful shop assistant, the troubled woman in the psychiatric ward. They all bear witness to the story of this three-person family. The father and the 10-year-old, Janka, are trying to cope with an increasingly erratic behavior of the mother. Sunflower is a vibrant tableau of everyday life, vulnerable and burdened with financial problems, broken families, and taboos and shame surrounding mental illness.

SUNFLOWER by Andrea Pass, translated by Patrick Mullowney, directed by Adrian Alea.

The playwright Andrea Pass will be present for the stage reading and talkback after the event. Her visit is supported, in part, by CITD – Center for International Theatre Development.

Free and open to the public. Space is limited, on first come, first served basis. RSVP online at Eventbrite.com.

ANDREA PASS is a playwright and director. Her work deals with social issues while also exploring the human condition and the transformative power of theater. Her plays include Nothing Else Happened, New World, Sunflower, One Must Descend to Hell, Inside-out, The Silent Province, Hide-and-Peek, The Leader, The Hobo Dog and Crows. Pass’s plays have been produced ordeveloped bya FUGE, Lifeboat Unit,REV Theatre Education Company, PanoDrama and Vigszinhaz. She was awarded the prestigious Istvan Orkeny Playwrights Grant for young playwrights on two occasions as well as the Grand Prize at the 8thYouth and Children’s Theatre Showcase and the Special Award at the 8th Kaposvar Biennale. Pass has had three plays published, one of them recently in the Polish Dialog theatrical magazine.She graduated as a theater historian from the University of Veszprem, Hungary, and spent time in Nancy and London on scholarships during her studies.

ADRIAN ALEXANDER ALEA is a creative director and producer based in New York City, passionate about exploring the human condition through story-telling and entertainment focused on diversity, community, and social justice in the commercial and non-profit industries of Theater, Live Events, and Music Videos. Currently, Adrian is producing and directing a staged musical adaptation in development of Cristina Garcia’s award-winning novel Dreaming in Cuban (music and lyrics by IBEYI) and a TV mini-series in development called Los Chen written by Christina Quintana and featuring music and lyrics by Michelle J. Rodriguez. Alea’s recent projects include STAND by Caridad Svich (New Dramatists reading; featuring Daphne Rubin-Vega and Grace McLean; Dir.), Maria by Alberto Bonilla (The Secret Theater, Resonance Ensemble; Dir.), HERCULES (Disney Theatricals and The Public Theater’s Public Works; AD). He has directed Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks (Yale University), AUTOPSIA A UN COPO DE NIEVE by Luis Santillan (The Lark), and The Spanking Machine by Marga Gomez (Syracuse Stage, Solo Artist Residency), and was assistant Director in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park), Kill Move Paradise (National Black Theater), Venus (Signature Theatre), Alice By Heart (musical workshop at MCC), and The Odyssey (Public Works). Previously, he was a management associate for The Medina Company and Jennifer Lopez. Main projects: Jennifer Lopez’s Las Vegas Residency (All I Have) and “Ain’t Your Mama” music video. He holds a BA from Columbia University and MS from Northwestern University.

Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival’s Spring Weekend is a showcase of emerging Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, and Slovak playwrights whose work reflects on current social and political issues. The plays have been translated into English and feature local New York performers and directors who will have the opportunity to try out these works onstage as part of the European Month of Culture. The program includes a full Romanian production as well.

SPRING WEEKEND is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation (VHLF) and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA), in collaboration with Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Consulate General of the Slovak Republic in New York, the Polish Cultural Institute, the Romanian Cultural Institute, and Untitled Theater Company #61. The cultural institutions of these five countries collaborate with VHLF to select the plays as well as arrange trips for some of the chosen playwrights to New York City to participate in the rehearsals, stage reading performances, and discussions with the audience after the shows.

The program is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

From the Bohemian National Hall.