NWPL Studio 2 Presents A COUPLE OF POOR, POLISH-SPEAKING ROMANIANS, Now thru 6/23

The Center for Applied Theatre and Active Culture (CATAC) is pleased to present the New World Performance Laboratory Studio 2 production of the area premiere of "A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians" by Dorota Maslowska (translated into English by Benjamin Paloff) tonight, June 7 and June 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23 (Thursday-Saturday) at 8:00 pm in the Balch Street Theatre, 220 South Balch Street, Akron, Ohio.

Directed by NWPL Co-Artistic Director James Slowiak, set and costume design by Inda Blatch-Geib, and lighting design by Steven Bornhoeft, this hilarious, dark, contemporary work tells the story of a drug-induced, wild road-trip across Poland that highlights the challenges we all face with identity, class, and xenophobia. Admission is $10 (2 for 1 on Thursday). For mature audiences. Reservations can be made by calling 330-867-3299 or online at www.brownpapertickets.com.

Blighty, a Polish TV-actor in disguise, and Gina, a young poverty-stricken pregnant mother, leave a party high on drugs and set off on a crazy road-trip claiming to be "Polish-speaking Romanians." The masquerade soon turns sour as they hijack cars, terrorize drivers, and cause mayhem. When their drug-induced frenzy calms down, they become victims of their own fiction and awaken to the cold reality of a world without compassion for alien immigrants, poverty, or the economic and social rift between the classes. As the playwright points out: "The main axis of this play is poverty being treated as something exotic, a costume that can be put on. The man, [Blighty], thinks that, as an actor, he can put on the make-up of a poor man and experience life as he does. You think that you can put this costume on and off at will. But it might happen that you cannot take it off."

Dorota Maslowska is a literary sensation in her native Poland and has been hailed as a major post-modernist writer around the world. At 19, she wrote the internationally acclaimed, award-winning novel, Snow White and Russian Red, "a depiction of unbalanced, sexually aggressive, amphetamine-scarred youth both feted for its originality and condemned for its brutal vulgarity." At 24 she wrote her first play: A Couple of Poor, Polish-Speaking Romanians. The play ran for 2 years in Warsaw, and has been produced globally, including English language productions in London, Chicago, New York, Prague, and Sydney. NWPL's Studio 2 production is an area premiere of this important and challenging Contemporary Theatre work.

NWPL's Studio 2 is a project to introduce a new generation of theatre artists to the methodology and work of New World Performance Laboratory. For 20 years, New World Performance Laboratory has been creating internationally acclaimed theatre in its home Akron, Ohio.

For more information, call 330-867-3299, email nwplab@gmail.com or visit CATAC/NWPL's website at www.nwplab.com.

The production features translator Benjamin Paloff and cast members Jovana Bukvic, India Burton, Christopher Hariasz, Avery McCullough, Bobby Round and Kim Woodworth. The show is directed by James Slowiak with stage manager, Sarah Jones, set/costume designer Inda Blatch-Geib, lighting designer Steven Bornhoeft and sound designer David Obney.

The play opens on Thursday, June 7, 2012 at 8 PM, and closes on Saturday June 23, 2012 at 8 PM, running the following schedule: Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 PM.

Admission is $10 (2-for-1 on Thursdays) at The Balch Street Theatre, located at 220 South Balch Street, Akron, Ohio. For info/reservations: 330-867-3299 or www.brownpapertickets.com.

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