Silk Road Rising Announces 2013 Season

Silk Road Rising co-founders, Artistic Director Jamil Khoury and Executive Director Malik Gillani, have announced their company's 2013 season, including two world premieres, Rajiv Joseph's The Lake Effect and Motti Lerner's Paulus, and the Midwest premiere of Jonas Hassen Khemiri's Invasion!. All three productions will be presented in the company's venue in Pierce Hall at The Historic Chicago Temple Building at 77 W. Washington St. in Chicago.

The Lake Effect

April 23 - May 26, 2013

Written by Rajiv Joseph
Directed by Timothy Douglas

In a depressed Cleveland neighborhood amidst a fierce winter storm, an Indian American brother and sister, long estranged, are reunited by the sudden death of their father. Enter their late father's African American confidante and gambling bookie, and a slew of family secrets get unearthed. The Lake Effect sets in motion a complicated web of relationships and conflicts that challenge our perceptions of race, gender, and success.

The Lake Effect was co-commissioned by Silk Road Rising and Crossroads Theatre (New Brunswick, New Jersey) with development support from The Lark Play Development Center (New York City).

Invasion!

July 30 - September 1, 2013

Written by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
Directed by Anna Bahow

Invasion! is a tornado of words, images and ideas, all centered around a magical name: Abulkasem. The play assaults our deepest prejudices about identity, race and language. At once hilarious, disturbing and poignant, this mischievously subversive play deconstructs a threatening identity - the Arab male - and forces us to confront our own cultural identity.

Invasion! was selected as a New York Times Critics Pick

"If you've ever wished somebody would write a razor-sharp play anatomizing lazy paranoia about the Middle East?somebody has." - The Village Voice

Paulus

November 12 - December 15, 2013

Written by Motti Lerner
Directed by Jimmy McDermott

Set between 58 A.D. and 64 A.D., Paulus imagines the Apostle Paul, who bridged Christianity from a Jewish sect to a global religion. Framed as an intra-Jewish debate, Paul's quest to universalize monotheism provokes strong opposition from the Jewish Establishment, the Jerusalem Church, the Emperor Nero, and a skeptical 62 year old Jesus.

Silk Road Rising commissioned the translation of Paulus from Hebrew into English.

About Silk Road Rising

Silk Road Rising (formerly known as Silk Road Theatre Project) creates live theatre and online videos that tell stories through primarily Asian American and Middle Eastern American lenses. In representing communities that intersect and overlap, we advance a polycultural worldview.

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