Events

Past Event

Field, Awakening

May 5, 2018
2:30 PM - 5:00 PM
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Ford Foundation Studio @ The Pershing Square Signature Center, 480 W 42nd St, New York, NY 10036

by Melis Aker

After ten years of self-imposed estrangement from her country, Rana is reunited with three old friends on a soccer field in Istanbul on July 15th 2016 (the eve of the attempted coup d’etat in Turkey), only to realize what it was that really drove them apart. Spanning across the surreal events of one evening, interweaving the world of the soccer field with a lost dog and a mysterious encounter on cyber space, Field, Awakening is a "stranger in a strange land" tale masked under a homecoming: a meditation on the brutal nature of nostalgia, sexual identity, redemption, and paranoia in the face of political turmoil, surveillance, and a fleeting landscape of familiarity.

Production Team:

Director: Tatiana Pandiani
Producer: Mei Li Heman
Dramaturg: Anna Woodruff
Production Stage Managers: Kadaja Brown & Patty Garvey
Scenic Designer: Taísa Malouf
Costume Designer: Dina El-Aziz
Lighting Designer: Reza Behjat
Composer / Sound Designer: Melis Aker
Assistant Sound Designer: Jack Calk
Projection Designer: Stefania Bulbarella
Graphic Designer: Marlow Davis

Featuring:

Kieron AnthonyAyse BabahanJamar BrathwaiteGamze Ceylan*, Sinan Eczacibasi*, Fahim Hamid*
* Appearing courtesy of Actors’ Equity Association

Festival Staff:

Production Manager: CB Shotwell
Technical Director: John Trevellini
Director of Production: Joe Novak
Festival Stage Managers: Morgan Beach & Patty Garvey
Festival General Manager: Bethany Sharp
Marketing Director: Halla Tryggvadottir
Program Assistant: Zach Marlin
CU Program Assistant: Kate Mulley
Scenic//Props Coordinator: Anna Driftmier
Sound//Projection Coordinator: Ian Wehrle
Signature Lighting Coordinator: Abby Hoke-Brady
Signature Costume Coordinator: Sam Guglielmo
Production Resources: Jack Calk
Run Crew: Aaron Keller
Head of Playwriting Department: David Henry Hwang
Head of Stage Mgmt. Department: Michael J. Passaro

The Playwright's Bio: 

Melis Aker is an actor, writer and musician from Turkey, and will be a NYTW 2050 Fellow in the fall. Plays: Field, Awakening (2018 Sundance Theatre Lab finalist, 2018 Berkeley Rep Ground Floor finalist, Lark's 2018 Van Lier New Voices Fellowship finalist) will perform in the Corkscrew Festival at Paradise Factory this July; Manar (2017 Columbia@Roundabout finalist, 2016 Theatre503 Playwriting Award semi-finalist) was at Golden Thread Productions' 2017 ReOrient Festival, LPAC’s 2017 Rough Draft Festival, and was featured by Silk Road Rising on New Play Exchange; 330 Pegasus: A Love Letter [Part I] (Lark's 2018 Jerome New York Fellowship Finalist) received a Noor Highlight series reading at NYTW; Azul, Otra Vez [Blue, Revisited] was workshopped at NYTW and BRICLab Residency. Melis recently gave a TEDx Talk in Ankara and works as Ayad Akhtar’s assistant. BA Drama/Philosophy (Tufts), Acting (RADA), MFA Playwriting (Columbia). Meg Pantera The Agency (acting) | www.melisaker.com

field, awakening play