FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: August 9, 2007
Contact: Emma F. Caro
Public Relations Director
513-345-2242, ext. 232
WORLD PREMIERE PLAY LITTLE MEDEA AWARDED 2007-2008 CINCINNATI PLAYHOUSE MACY’S NEW PLAY PRIZE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES
(CINCINNATI) –The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park has awarded this year’s Macy’s New Play Prize for Young Audiences to the world premiere drama Little Medea by playwright Melissa Cooper. A modern take on the classic Greek tragedy, Little Medea will tour to high schools throughout a four-state region this spring. The play is made possible through a grant from the Macy’s Foundation.
Myths, legends and family stories are a kind of cultural DNA that pass values and prohibitions from one generation to the next. From the time she is a young girl, Malia — young, passionate and idealistic — is poisoned by her grandmother with stories of repression and retribution. When she falls in love and runs away with Jason, Malia believes they can start over, leaving behind the past for a joyful life. What she learns is that the past is always with her, shaping her responses to unexpected events. In this bold new play based loosely on the classic Greek tragedy, Malia must try to resist the dark pull of revenge and violence for the hope of creating a new and better world.
Little Medea is the eighth recipient of the Macy’s New Play Prize, for which national playwrights are chosen by the Playhouse to create a new work specifically for younger Tristate audiences. The show is produced by the Playhouse’s Lafley Touring Company and complements the not-for-profit theatre’s educational mission and its commitment to nurturing new plays and new audiences.
The author of the Playhouse’s 2006 touring production of Antigone Now, Melissa Cooper has an extraordinary talent for contemporizing Greek tragedy to make it relevant and accessible to today’s young audiences. A playwright, dramaturg, producer and director, her other works and adaptations include The Sternheim Project, Mirandolina and Tales from the Jack Wood, among others, produced at theatres including Dallas Theater Center, Portland Stage Company, San Diego Repertory Theatre and East Los Angeles Classic Theater. In addition to Little Medea, she currently is developing two new plays, My Hideous Progeny and Beth/Macbeth.
Ms. Cooper served for 15 years as artistic associate at Dallas Theater Center, where she worked on productions of Anna in the Tropics, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Glass Menagerie. There, she additionally was co-founder and producer of the Big D Festival of the Unexpected, producing new and experimental theatre, from 1992 through 2000. She is the recipient of a special award from the Dallas-Fort Worth Theater Critics Forum honoring her commitment to the arts community.
Little Medea will tour area schools for grades nine through 12 this spring from March 31 to April 25. For more information about the Playhouse's education and outreach programs, contact Education Director Bert Goldstein at 513/345-2242 or visit www.cincyplay.com.
Artists fly to and from Cincinnati on Delta Connection Comair, the Playhouse’s official airline.
The Playhouse is supported, in part, by the generosity of the tens of thousands of individuals and businesses that give to the Fine Arts Fund.
The Ohio Arts Council helps fund the Playhouse with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans.
The Playhouse also receives funding from the City of Cincinnati.
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