A New Play about Race and Immigration Written and Performed by Ariel Luckey
Directed by Susannah Martin, Music by Lila Sklar, Dramaturgy by Corey Fischer
Featuring Dan Cantrell (accordion), eO (trumpet/production), Jessica Ivry (cello), Lila Sklar (violin) and Valentino (percussion)
Layering theater, dance, spoken word and a live score of hip hop, Klezmer and Mexican folk music, Amnesia tells the story of a young man who retraces his family’s migration from a small village in Eastern Europe through New York’s Lower East Side to Phoenix, Arizona, only to find that the violence his family fled cannot be so easily forgotten.
The performance on Saturday the 17th will be followed by a post-show dialogue with Rabbi David Cooper from Kehilla Community Synagogue, Patricia Contreras Flores from East Bay Alliance for A Sustainable Economy and Sophia Lanza-Weil from Bend the Arc.
$18-$25
8pm to 5/15 12 midnight, 3105 Shattuck Avenue
New York City-based composer/pianist Jed Distler last appeared here in 2012 playing Thelonious Monk's complete songs. Tonight he casts his virtuosic fingers and voracious musical appetites upon the full spectrum of the Great American Songbook, while reprising some Monk and taking requests along the way.
8pm to 9:30pm, 2133 University Ave.
A world premiere! - La Peña Cultural Center presents: Amnesia, which will enjoy a four night run from May 15 - 18 . Amnesia, written and performed by Ariel Luckey, reveals America’s forgotten immigrant roots and investigates the role of race at the border.
Layering theater, dance, spoken word and a live score of hip hop, Klezmer, and Mexican folk music, Amnesia tells the story of a young man who retraces his family’s migration from a small village in Eastern Europe through New York’s Lower East Side to Phoenix, Arizona, only to find that the violence his family fled cannot be so easily forgotten.
Amnesia is the product of playwright/performer Ariel Luckey’s theater methodology that included several work-in-progress performances of the play around the Bay Area over the last year to gather community feedback, including one at La Peña and one at Temple Sherith Israel in San Francisco, and multiple trips to Arizona and one to Kiev, Ukraine in April 2013 to conduct research.
$18-$25, and can be purchased online (www.lapena.org), or by calling 510-849-2568.
8pm to 10pm, La Peña Cultural Center 3105 Shattuck Avenue