BOSTON CENTER FOR AMERICAN PERFORMANCE (BCAP)
Jim Petosa, Artistic Director
Liz Mazar Phillips, Managing Director
NEWS RELEASE For immediate release: January 15, 2013 MEDIA CONTACT: Brooke MacKinnon 617.353.7293 [email protected] BCAP STAGES ATHOL FUGARD’S BLOOD KNOT
WHAT: WHEN: WHERE: TICKETS: Kicking off the New Year, the Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP) continues its fifth season with Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot, directed by Thomas Martin. The production features IRNE award winners Hampton Fluker and Mason Sand as two brothers trapped by the circumstances of their birth in South Africa’s system of apartheid. Blood Knot runs February 14 through March 2 at the Boston University Theatre, Lane‐Comley Studio 210. BCAP is the professional extension of the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre. BLOOD KNOT by Athol Fugard February 14–March 2, 2013 Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30pm Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm Sundays at 2:00pm Recommended Press Nights: Opening Night: Talk‐Back: ASL Interpreted: Boston University Theatre Lane‐Comley Studio 210 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston T Green Line, E Train, Symphony stop T Orange Line, Mass Ave stop Friday, February 15, 8pm Saturday, February 16, 8pm Friday, February 15, 8pm Sunday, February 17, 2pm Thursday, February 28, 7:30pm Friday, March 1, 8pm $20 general public; $15 students, seniors, and groups (10+); One (1) free ticket with BU ID at the door, subject to availability. Available now at bu.edu/cfa/bcap, by phone at 617.933.8600, or in person at the Boston University Theatre Box Office (264 Huntington Avenue, Boston) or the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Box Office (527 Tremont Street, Boston). BCAP Box Office 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston 02115 bostontheatrescene.com 617.933.8600 BCAP Administrative Offices 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 02215 bu.edu/cfa/bcap 617.353.3384 BCAP STAGES ATHOL FUGARD’S BLOOD KNOT
(BOSTON) ‐ Kicking off the New Year, the Boston Center for American Performance (BCAP) continues its fifth season with Athol Fugard’s Blood Knot, directed by Thomas Martin. The production features IRNE award winners Hampton Fluker and Mason Sand as two brothers trapped by the circumstances of their birth in South Africa’s system of apartheid. Blood Knot runs February 14 through March 2 at the Boston University Theatre, Lane‐Comley Studio 210. BCAP is the professional extension of the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre. From the author of The Road to Mecca (produced by BCAP in 2011), Blood Knot is a scathing indictment of South African prejudice told through the eyes of two biracial brothers, darker‐skinned Zachariah and the far fairer‐skinned Morris. When their shared shack in Port Elizabeth becomes the playground for a power struggle, the brothers’ long‐simmering tensions explode over the desire for a woman. BCAP’s production of Blood Knot is a featured event of the Boston University College of Fine Arts Keyword Initiative, now in its second year. The 2012–2013 initiative, focusing on Keyword: RESILIENCE, explores the buoyancy of the human spirit in times of war, tragedy, hardship, suffering, and oppression. A full roster of Keyword: RESILIENCE events can be accessed at bu.edu/cfa/keyword. As Director Thomas Martin explains, our society continues to struggle with Blood Knot’s themes of intolerance, division, and resilience. “We live in a society where race influences many of our interactions. We live in a world that has to deal with the death of Trayvon Martin. In the city of Boston, we have the reputation (in many ways deserved) of being a segregated city. And the school busing crisis from the 1970s is still a topic of conversation. “We are still looking for our own way to live together in a pluralistic society. We are still looking for the means to find prosperity and stability as one people — and as a multitude of cultures and groups. The brothers in Blood Knot are representative of South Africa — both in 1961 and today — but they are representative of the U.S. as well. We, too, are a divided nation, but not just in terms of race. “We are constantly broken down into competing factions: Red State versus Blue State, the majority versus the 1%. These separations, artificial or real, turn us into a house divided. Just as Zachariah and Morris must find a way to exist together, so, too, must we find a way as a nation to exist as, ‘one nation, indivisible.’ We are all bound to each other, and to sever our own blood knot would be disastrous for us all.” Blood Knot runs February 22–March 2 at the Boston University Theatre, Lane‐Comley Studio 210 (264 Huntington Avenue). Performance times are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for students, senior citizens, and groups of ten or more. Members of the Boston University community are eligible for one free ticket with BU ID, at the door, subject to availability. Tickets and further information are available at bu.edu/cfa/bcap or by contacting the Box Office at 617‐933‐8600. ABOUT BCAP The BCAP initiative aims to foster significant interaction between members of the professional performing arts community and the faculty and students of the Boston University College of Fine Arts School of Theatre. The goal is for these collaborations to have a significant impact on the College’s overall educational mission, become a consistent source of inspiration for the creation of both new work and new approaches to existing work, and provide the College with a professional extension of its expanding and diverse aesthetic. BCAP launched in October 2008 with productions of Tennessee Williams’ classic The Glass Menagerie and Doug Wright’s I Am My Own Wife. Subsequent seasons featured critically‐acclaimed productions of David Rabe’s A Question of Mercy, Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive, C.P. Taylor’s Good, Neal Bell’s Monster, Daniel MacIvor’s House, the new play Our Lady by James Fluhr, Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man‐in‐the‐Moon Marigolds, and Athol Fugard’s The Road to Mecca (IRNE award for Best Set Design, small theater category). BCAP Box Office 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston 02115 bostontheatrescene.com 617.933.8600 BCAP Administrative Offices 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 02215 bu.edu/cfa/bcap 617.353.3384 CAST & PRODUCTION ARTISTS Zachariah: Morris: Hampton Fluker Mason Sand Playwright: Athol Fugard Director: Thomas Martin Scene Designer: Andrea VanDenBroeke Costume Designer: Gina Cercone Lighting Designer: Roger Meeker Sound Designer: Andrea Gordon Technical Director: Ben Motter Production Manager: Kangren Chen Stage Manager: Tom Kordenbrock Athol Fugard (playwright) is a writer, director, and actor who has worked extensively in South Africa, England, and the United States. His plays include “Master Harold”…and the boys, The Road to Mecca, Hello and Goodbye, Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act, and with John Kani and Winston Ntshona, Sizwe Bansi Is Dead and The Island. Thomas Martin (director) has been a Boston‐based theater artist since 2003. In that time he has directed for several area theaters: The Theatre Cooperative (Dead White Males), AYTB Theatre (Death and You), The Footlight Club (Noises Off), and Arts After Hours (Twelfth Night). Martin has also participated in several short play festivals and competitions. These include several SLAMBoston evenings, produced by Another Country Productions and Company One; FeverFest, produced by the Small Theatre Alliance of Boston; and multiple Boston Theatre Marathon pieces. Martin is currently an Associate Artistic Director for Arts After Hours in Lynn, Massachusetts. With Arts After Hours Artistic Director, Corey Jackson, Martin co‐created the Arts After Hours Summer Shakespeare series, a program that had its inaugural production this past August in Lynn Woods. Martin is currently an MFA Directing candidate at Boston University College of Fine Arts. Hampton Fluker (Zachariah) is a senior Acting major studying with the School of Theatre at the College of Fine Arts at Boston University. His previous College of Fine Arts credits include Hedda Gabler, Camille, and Anne Boleyn. Fluker’s Boston area credits include Ti‐Jean and his Brothers (Central Square Theatre), 1001 (Company One), and The Brother/Sister Plays (Company One) for which he won both the Elliot Norton award and Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) award for his performance. Mason Sand (Morris) previously portrayed Hitler in the BCAP production of C.P. Taylor’s Good. Sand is a proud founding member of Company One, where he has acted in over fifteen productions including Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Den of Thieves, Jesus Hopped the “A” Train, Grimm, and The Overwhelming. He has also acted with companies in Boston including American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), Huntington Theater Company, New Repertory Theatre, Gloucester Stage Company, and Zeitgeist Stage Company. Sand has earned several IRNE and Elliot Norton awards and nominations, including a 2008 IRNE for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of Sam Byck in Company One’s Assassins. This spring, Sand will graduate from Boston University College of Fine Arts with his MFA in Theatre Education. He teaches theater and public speaking as an adjunct professor in Boston. BCAP Box Office 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston 02115 bostontheatrescene.com 617.933.8600 BCAP Administrative Offices 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 02215 bu.edu/cfa/bcap 617.353.3384 PRODUCTION CALENDAR AND EVENTS Thursday, February 14, 7:30pm Friday, February 15, 8pm Saturday, February 16, 8pm Sunday, February 17, 2pm Wednesday, February 20, 7:30pm Thursday, February 21, 7:30pm Friday, February 22, 8pm Saturday, February 23, 8pm Sunday, February 24, 2pm Wednesday, February 27, 7:30pm Thursday, February 28, 7:30pm Friday, March 1, 8pm Saturday, March 2, 8pm Press Opening Recommend Press Night Post‐Show Discussion American Sign Language Interpreted American Sign Language Interpreted INSTITUTIONAL BIOGRAPHY
Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized private research university with more than 30,000
students participating in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. BU consists of 17 colleges and schools
along with a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes which are central to the school's research and teaching
mission. The Boston University College of Fine Arts was created in 1954 to bring together the School of Music, the
School of Theatre, and the School of Visual Arts. The University’s vision was to create a community of artists in a
conservatory-style school offering professional training in the arts to both undergraduate and graduate students,
complemented by a liberal arts curriculum for undergraduate students. Since those early days, education at the College of
Fine Arts has begun on the BU campus and extended into the city of Boston, a rich center of cultural, artistic and
intellectual activity.
BCAP Box Office 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston 02115 bostontheatrescene.com 617.933.8600 BCAP Administrative Offices 855 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston 02215 bu.edu/cfa/bcap 617.353.3384