The Oldest Boy | West Coast Premiere
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARIN
THEATRE COMPANY PRODUCES
Production
Dates: September 10 – October 4, 2015
Bold,
beautiful tale of maternal love and Tibetan monks
MILL VALLEY, CA—Marin Theatre
Company
opens its 49th Season with the West Coast premiere of Sarah Ruhl’s
The Oldest Boy. An American woman and her Tibetan
husband are making a life together in the United States with their son, who has
just turned three. When two monks arrive on their doorstep with the revelation
that the toddler may be a reincarnated lama, the ultimate test of a mother’s
love may be her ability to let him go. Interspersed with Tibetan Buddhist
ritual and dance and featuring renowned Berkeley-based Tibetan artist
Tsering Dorjee Bawa, the play is as powerful as it is beautiful.
This will be the second production
of
The Oldest Boy, which premiered off Broadway at the Lincoln
Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater
in November 2014. The play was a
recipient of Theatre Communications Group’s
2014 Edgerton Foundation New
Play Award
. September
13
th Fundraiser Performance Supports During the run of The Oldest Boy, Marin Theatre Company is
pleased to partner with
The Tibet Fund
and The American Himalayan Foundation to raise awareness around Tibet’s movement toward autonomy and full human rights for Tibetans, as well as reincarnation in the Tibetan tradition. Half of the ticket revenue from the
September 13 performance of the play will be donated to these two foundations;
the performance will be followed by
a
panel discussion featuring playwright Sarah Ruhl as well as guests from
the Tibetan Buddhist community.
New
Partnership with UrbanSitter to help moms
Marin Theatre Company is proud to
announce a new partnership with UrbanSitter, a website and app that helps busy parents find trusted babysitters and nannies, to
enable the numerous young families in the Bay Area to attend live theater more
easily. In addition to offering a special discount for Marin Theatre Company
patrons, UrbanSitter will provide babysitters for MTC’s first
Moms Matinee on Saturday, September 19,
at 2:00 pm.
More about The Oldest Boy and Sarah Ruhl Sarah Ruhl’s plays include In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Tony Award nominee for best new play), The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize Finalist, 2005; The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play, a cycle (Pen American award, The Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes award); Melancholy Play; Eurydice; Orlando; Demeter in the City (NAACP nomination), and most recently, Stage Kiss and Dear Elizabeth. Her work has been frequently produced in the Bay Area, including numerous productions at Berkeley Rep. A recipient of the 2004 Susan
Smith Blackburn Prize
, a 2006 MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship and
the
2008 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for
Playwright in Mid-Career
, Sarah Ruhl "aspires to reclaim the
audience’s atrophied imagination… Her plays are bold. Her nonlinear form of
realism is full of astonishments, surprises and mysteries." (The New
Yorker
). "It is a great honor for us to open our 49th season with the second production and West Coast premiere of Sarah Ruhl's newest play The Oldest Boy," said MTC artistic director Jasson Minadakis. "The play's themes of deep maternal love rooted in powerful spirituality, and Sarah's artistry, will resonate with audiences across the Bay Area." |
Sarah Ruhl in conversationKyabje Gelek Rimpoche, Tibetan Buddhist Master and founder of Jewel Heart; Mickey Lemle, Filmmaker and Board Chairman of Tibet Fund and Sarah Ruhl, author of The Oldest Boy.
The Oldest Boy at Lincoln CenterA Video montage from the 2014 world premiere production.
Tibetan Buddhism on ReincarnationInternationally renowned Buddhist teacher Zasep Tulku Rinpoche discusses his life as a Tuklu, a reincarnated person in the Tibetan tradition.
About the American Himalayan Fund
About The Tibet FundUrban Sitter – How it Works |
CALENDAR
INFORMATION
WHAT WHO Featuring Christine Albright-Tufts,
Kurt Uy, Tsering Dorjee Bawa, Wayne Lee, Jed Parsario, Melvign Badiola, Jinn S
Kim
WHEN Performance Days WHERE ABOUT THE PLAY "An emotional tsunami, an
extraordinary story from a singular voice in American theater."
Running Time: Two hours TICKETS Ticket Prices Discounts MTC ENGAGED SPECIAL EVENTS ·
After Words: Join
a member of MTC’s artistic staff (often with one or more members of the cast)
for a Q&A talk back after every performance, except Saturday evenings and
Opening and Closing Nights
·
Perspectives pre-show
topical lecture: Thu, 9/24, 12:00 p.m.
ACCESS For visually impaired patrons, Large Print playbills are available with one week’s advance notice. To request a Large Print playbill, call MTC’s Box Office, (415) 388-5208, or use the California Telecommunications Relay Service by dialing “711.” For hearing impaired patrons, amplified sound Listening Devices are available. CONTACT ABOUT MTC PRESS CONTACT #### |