Performing their original work, each artist brings years of experience to her craft, offering the lover of womens theater a smorgasbord of soul food goodness. From philosophy to dance to comedy to song, dont miss this rare opportunity to celebrate radical women artists who have charted their own paths -through life and art.
RHAMNOUSIA
FOUR WOMEN, THREE NIGHTS, ONE STAGE
Thurs - Sat, December 7 - 9, 2006
8pm, $15, cash only at the door
call 212-777-4280 for reservations
WOW Cafe Theater, 59-61 East 4th Street,
fourth floor
An Hour of Fun with Mona, veteran playwright Bina Sharifs latest one-woman piece, is a hilarious romp onstage with Mona, the stand-up comedian. Known for her sharp wit and innate ability to connect with her audience, Sharif helps us laugh at ourselves and at our world.
Deirdre Boddie-Hendersons commanding stage presence sets Not Alone? on fire. This narrative of the consequences of unrecognized love and social ignorance weaves theater, dance and song into a micro-saga whose hero is courage the courage to overcome the challenge of a blind society and fight on.
Ecstasy of the Blank Page & Opening Heart, with roots in the farmlands of Louisiana and the urban environments of New Orleans, Los Angeles, & New York City, eclectic bassist, guitarist, and singer-songwriter Tara Thierry invokes fierce authenticity with a voice like dark velvet.
A Want for Want draws on Chris Fords twenty years of experience as a philosophy teacher and psychotherapist. With a mix of fresh humor, social taboo and deep knowledge of the subject, Ford paints a striking picture of human desire and explains what happens when it disappears.
Bina Sharif is an award-winning playwright, actress and director. Her plays have been produced in the U.S., Pakistan, Germany, Zurich, Edinburgh, Brazil and England. Her last one-woman play, Afghan Woman, a response to 9/11, was produced in January, 2002 at Theater for the New City to wide acclaim before going on tour. In Manchester, the play was hailed as "unspeakably graceful," "unforgettably haunting," and "superb writing with wit, humor, grief, joy and terror." Originally from Islamabad, Bina lives in New York City, where TNC has produced 17 of her plays including the highly acclaimed, "My Ancestor's House and "Accusation." The Playground in London produced workshops of "Love is a Stranger in a Windowless Room" and "1000 Hours of Love." Mabou Mines commissioned her to write and perform "Sleeping with Horses", which toured Toronto, Zurich, Brazil and Germany. She is a Joseph Jefferson Award Nominee from Chicago's Goodman Theatre, has received the Best Performance Award at the Gay & Lesbian Theatre Festival, is a five-time Jerome Foundation grant recipient and is the recipient of the NYSCA grant for her plays "Fire" and "Stars of War". Bina is an M.D. and has a Masters degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
Deirdre Boddie-Henderson (Actor, Singer, and Writer) began her theatrical career in Washington, D.C. performing in theaters such as the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Living Stage, Studio Theater and Source Theater Company. She has worked with the New Theater Company as an acting instructor and directed childrens theater productions with the Kennedy Center and Living Stage. Most of her work, however, has been as an actor appearing in such productions as Rent (NYTW), The Hating Pot with Liz Swados, Tales of the Tribe (Ohio Theater), New (Circle Repertory Theater) and Taming of the Shrew (Riverside Shakespeare Company). She has had an extensive commercial and voice-over career and as a stand-up comic has been seen on The Apollo Comedy Hour, Lifetimes Girls Night Out and on stage at Carolines, The Duplex, Dont Tell Momma and Stand-up New York. Film and television credits include: Law and Order, The Hating Pot on PBS, Laws of Gravity and Run of the House. She has written a one woman show titled, Could You Spare Some Social Change, Please?, and two of her screenplays are in production.
Tara Thierry was raised in New Orleans, and currently resides in New York City. As guitarist and bassist, she plays African, free jazz and roots. Her musical influences include George Porter, Jr., Jaco Pastorious, James Jamerson, Carole Kaye, and Charles Mingus. She embodies the importance of musical tradition and community, and exploration. Thierrys work thrives on providing a foundation for passionate and expressive artists.
Chris Fords work deals with philosophical consciousness in its many forms. For the past 20 years she has worked as a psychotherapist and taught philosophy courses at NYU, Brooklyn College, and Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro. For the past six years, she has focused on aesthetic creation, painting abstract compositions and manatees. She presented her first piece of theater in 2005 titled, Too Late for the Gods, Too Early for Being, a show interweaving philosophy with tap dance. She is inspired by theater as a space for exploring philosophical questions that are typically stifled in the academic context.
WOW Cafheater is the citys only collectively run theater committed to women and transgender artists. Now in its 26th year, WOW serves as a platform for performing artists at all career levels and in all disciplines producing their own work. Its flexible, collective structure allows the organization to respond to the artistic and production needs of its members, ensuring that the work presented by WOW is always on the cutting edge of contemporary performance. WOW has served as an incubator for such innovative performers as Holly Hughes, Peggy Shaw, Lois Weaver, Carmelita Tropicana and the Five Lesbian Brothers.