Press Release: I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given To Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda

July 18, 2006…Burbank…The Colony Theatre Company presents the second production of its 2006 – 2007 season, the West Coast Premiere of I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA, written by Sonja Linden, directed by David Rose (Billy Bishop Goes to War, Sherlock’s Last Case) and starring Louis Lotorto (The Glass Menagerie, The Ladies of the Camellias) and Erica Tazel.  I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA will preview Wednesday, August 16; Thursday, August 17 and Friday, August 18 and will open on Saturday, August 19 and continue through Sunday, September 17 at the Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Town Center Mall in Burbank.    

The play is a touching and heartfelt journey shared by a young survivor of the Rwanda massacre and the burned-out English poet who befriends her. Profoundly moving, surprisingly humorous, ultimately uplifting, this is the must-see play of the season, making its West Coast Premiere.

Comments Colony Artistic Director Barbara Beckley: “It is an honor to be presenting the west coast premiere of this extraordinary story.  It is truly “remarkable” to have director David Rose and the wonderful Louis Lotorto back on our stage and a pleasure to welcome the beautiful and talented Erica Tazel. Our subscribers and audiences are going to be profoundly moved by this powerful and inspiring story.”

Director David Rose has 21 productions to his credit since he became a company member in1990. He staged recent Colony productions of Billy Bishop Goes to War, Sherlock’s Last Case, The Drawer Boy, Fuddy Meers, The Nerd (with French Stewart), The Man Who Came to Dinner, and the World Premiere of Bea[u]tiful in the Extreme.  He also directed Our Country’s Good (six L.A. Ovation award nominations, Drama-Logue award), the L.A. Premiere of The Living, The Front Page (L.A. Weekly award – Revival Production of the Year), You Can’t Take it With You (Drama-Logue award), June Moon, and the West Coast Premiere of Peccadillo. As an actor, he has appeared at the Colony in Morning’s at Seven, The Clearing, Incident at Vichy, Einstein and the Polar Bear, Pastoral, and Bedroom Farce (Drama-Logue award.) Elsewhere in Los Angeles, he has directed productions of Geniuses (Drama-Logue award), Justin Tanner’s Big Bear, and the smash hit Road to Nirvana (Drama-Logue award) – all at Third Stage, as well as The Dining Room at Theatre 40, Inspecting Carol at the Ivy Substation (Drama-Logue award) and Chased From Paradise and The Blues are Running at the Lost Studio. He is the former Artistic Director of The New York Comedy Repertory Ensemble and a founding member of Washington D.C’s acclaimed Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.

Award-winning playwright Sonja Linden has had her plays produced in London and in regional theatres in the UK as well as in the United States and Australia. The London productions include Call Me Judas, The Jewish Daughter, sequel to Brecht's The Jewish Wife, and The Strange Passenger. I Have Before Me a Remarkable Document Given to Me by a Young Lady from Rwanda was written in response to her encounters with a number of young Rwandan refugees at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, where she was a writer in residence from 1997-2004. Here she set up the Write to Life Project, a creative and testimonial writing program offering clients of the Foundation the opportunity to discharge their painful experiences of persecution and exile through the act of writing. Her concern to make these voices public led to her founding iceandfire theatre company, of which she is currently the artistic director. Born out of the urgent need to give a platform to dispossessed voices, the company was launched in 2003 with the highly successful London premiere of Young Lady from Rwanda. The play was subsequently adapted for BBC World Service Radio Drama and in 2004 it went on a six week Arts Council funded national tour. Young Lady from Rwanda received its American premiere at the Missouri Repertory Theatre in April 2005, since which time it has been produced by a number of American theatres including Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theatre, Milwaukee Rep, Washington's African Continuum Theater and the 6th@Penn Theatre, San Diego. It premiered in Dublin in September 2005. Sonja's second play for iceandfire was inspired by the writings of five of her clients at the Medical Foundation, with the central story focusing on the real life experiences of a recent refugee from Darfur in Western Sudan. Crocodile Seeking Refuge had its London premiere at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith in the autumn of 2005 and will tour the UK in 2006.  The play has been produced in the United States at Kansas City Repertory,  Milwaukee Repertory, and Chicago's Victory Gardens Theatre, among others.

I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA has assembled an award-winning design team.  The set design is by David Potts (Grand Hotel: The Musical, Billy Bishop Goes to War). The lighting design is by Don Guy (Grand Hotel: The Musical, The Grand Tour).  The costume design is by A. Jeffrey Schoenberg (The Grand Tour, The Ladies of the Camellias)  The sound design is by Cricket Myers (Clutter: The True Story of the Collyer Brothers Who Never Threw Anything Out). 

I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA will open on Saturday, August 19 and perform through Sunday, September 17, 2006.  Performances for I HAVE BEFORE ME A REMARKABLE DOCUMENT GIVEN TO ME BY A YOUNG LADY FROM RWANDA will be Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm and 7:00pm. Additionally there will be performances on Saturday, August 26 and Saturday, September 2 at 3:00pm; and also Thursday, September 7 and Thursday, September 14 at 8:00pm. There will be no 7:00pm performance on Sunday, August 20. Ticket prices range from $32.00 - $42.00 (student, senior and group discounts are available). Preview performances will be Wednesday, August 16, Thursday, August 17 and Friday, August 18 at 8:00pm – all tickets $20.00. Opening night performance with reception - all tickets $50.00. There will be two Talk-Back performances with the cast on Friday, August 25 and Thursday, September 7 immediately following the performance. For tickets, call the Colony Theatre Box Office at 818/558-7000 ext. 15.

For more information, press interviews, photos or for press comps, please contact David Elzer/DEMAND PR at 818/508-1754 or at ELZERD@aol.com or visit www.demandpr.com.