Esther Armah's New Play SAVIOUR? Continues to Oct 30 in New York


From a media release:
              
New Heritage Theatre Group/Voza Rivers and
Take Wing And Soar Productions present
Esther Armah’s SAVIOUR? A new play,
Directed by Passion with Michael Green and Jimmy Aquino* 

Dwyer Cultural Center, Harlem (New York)
Limited Engagement Continues to October 30th, 2011


[New York, NY]  New Heritage Theatre Group and Take Wing And Soar Productions announced Esther Armah’s SAVIOUR?, a provocative new drama that is a love story about white privilege, black women, sex, betrayal, and power, will play a limited engagement at the DWYER Cultural Center, (258 St. Nicholas Avenue at 123rd Street between St. Nicholas Ave & Frederick Douglass Blvd) October 7 through October 30, 2011.  The performance schedule is Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm, Saturday at 2:00 pm and Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $18 general admission and can be purchased by calling OvationTix at (212) 352-3101 or visiting www.takewingandsoar.org.

Directed by Passion, SAVIOUR?, features Michael Green and Jimmy Aquino* in a play about  two men engaged in game of high stakes. Billy Hall (Aquino) is a white high profile New York activist who sues his company when a promised promotion as CEO was given to a black woman. He hires Michael Jamal Williams III (Green), an African-American attorney willing to win at any costs and needs the case as a career-changer. Power, passion, family, ambition, love, betrayal, white men, black women, white privilege: it's all on the table in this play that asks: who saves who?

"This play is a roller coaster drama love story with twists and turns. In the age of Obama, post racial means as a playwright I get to look at white privilege, white identity - this emotional, complicated thing through this lens as a black woman,” playwright Armah said. “It’s a dangerous, provocative and sexy world. But I get to look at it, interrogate it, I like that. I'm interested in power and intimacy, in what happens when you strip away the usual walls that keep people at a distance. What will you see? How will you take the truth you really don't want to hear?"

“Playing Billy Hall, I’m a protector of the under privileged; as the character I take things on myself and without being asked I’m a doer,” Jimmy Aquino said. “Power is special to me because without it, I would be regular, I would be average. I am not average. I lose power; I lose myself, what I’m all about. Power is my paycheck; power is the energy that drives me forward. With power I can move any piece of the chess game, with power anybody privileged, in the middle, under privileged - all will be moved by my power. Losing my power, I lose myself, who I am, what I’ve built, why I’m here".

SAVIOUR? will offer post-performance conversations with prominent New Yorkers where its themes can be more deeply explored by the audience. The first panel, a discussion entitled The Black and White of Activism with New York City Council Member Charles Barron (D, Brooklyn, District 42) and playwright Esther Armah, will follow the opening night performance scheduled for Friday, October 7 at 7:00 pm.

In addition to Esther Armah and Passion, the SAVIOUR? creative team includes Pavlo Bosyy (scenic design), Joyce Liao (lighting design), Gail Cooper-Hecht (costume design), and Sean O’Halloran (sound design), and  William J Vila* is the production stage manager.  

Co-Producers for SAVIOUR? are Voza Rivers, Executive Producer of New Heritage Theatre Group and Debra Ann Byrd, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Take Wing And Soar Productions.

*Denotes Member AEA

• October 7 - 30, 2011
• Fri – Sat EVE @ 7pm, Sat MAT @ 2pm & Sun MAT @ 3pm
• The DWYER Cultural Center, 258 St. Nicholas Avenue [Bet. 8th & St. Nicholas]
• General Admission $18.00
www.takewingandsoar.org or Ovation Tix (212)352-3101

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