A SYRIAN CHILD REFUGEE IS ADOPTED
BY WHITE A-LIST CELEBRITY COUPLE
WRITTEN BY JENNIFER HOYT-TIDWELL
DIRECTED BY CARA E. HINH
Play to Premiere at Cincinnati Fringe Festival in June 2017
Cincinnati, OH – The Brink Theatre Company presents the world premiere of SA’IDAH, an observation of America’s celebrity obsessed culture, the paparazzi uprising and the growing distorted approach to modern philanthropy at the 14th annual Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Directed by The Brink Theatre’s Artistic Associate CARA E. HINH and written by JENNIFER HOYT-TIDWELL, the play will feature Maya Farhat as Sa’idah, Mary O’Connell as Kirsten, Richard Buchanan as Taylor, Greg Mallios as David and Ashley Dunn as Nina.
SA’IDAH – in Arabic meaning happy, lucky or fortunate – is named after an orphaned Syrian civil war refugee who is adopted by a well-meaning Hollywood A-List couple. The characters teeter along the intersectional space between racial injustice and the inequity of privilege. SA’IDAH is an introspective and visceral exploration into the self-disfigurement that often follows war, fame and now through the topography of social media.
Hinh – a queer, plus sized, biracial Asian American theatre director and a daughter of a Vietnamese refugee considers SA’IDAH, “not a commentary on the refugee experience, but a mirror to our apathy and our privilege as Americans,” noting, “our philanthropy is as fleeting as the posts we share and scroll past on social media.”
“Children are paying the price of war with their innocence, the conflict continues, but the news cycle has moved on,” says playwright Jennifer Hoyt-Tidwell, “as news sources become increasingly sensationalized and less reliable, it is impossible to develop a social conscience as we are being whiplashed from one tragedy and disaster to the next.”
SA’IDAH will run for five performances at OTR Community Church (1310 Race Street, Cincinnati).
PERFORMANCE DATES AND TIMES
- Opens Thursday, 6/1 at 8:30 PM
- Saturday, 6/3 at 6:30 PM
- Sunday, 6/4 at 4:45 PM
- Friday, 6/9 at 7:00 PM
- Closes Saturday, 6/10 at 8:30 PM
Tickets are available now at Cincyfringe.com.
For more information about SA’IDAH visit:
- Facebook.com/TheBrinkTheatre
- Instagram.com/TheBrinkTheatre
- #stayonthebrink #saidahcincyfringe2017
JENNIFER HOYT-TIDWELL (Playwright)
Jennifer Hoyt Tidwell is a theatre and performance artist with a home base in Charlottesville, Virginia. Most recently she was commissioned by Victory Hall Opera to write and direct her new play Drugsong for their 2017 season. Her new play SA’IDAH is also receiving its premiere production by The Brink Theatre Co. in 2017.
Jennifer was the 2016 Public Artist at the Bridge Progressive Arts Initiative where she adapted and produced her play NO WAKE into an open-air silent multimedia performance. She is an active member of devised theater company PEP (Performers Exchange Project) which she co-founded in 2005 with four other women artists. With PEP she performed in original plays Zelda & Lucia’s Loony Bin Tragedy, Dido Versus the Squid Monster, and Our American Ann Sisters, a touring production that premiered at Live Arts in 2009. She was Artistic Director and emcee of the collaborative arts carnival Shentai, for which she wrote the play Dido vs. The Squid Monster. She also wrote the text of Our American Ann Sisters and contributed texts for PEP’s latest play The Convolution of Pip & Twig.
Jennifer recently received her MFA in Playwriting at Hollins University. As an undergraduate she studied theatre and English at Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), the Neighborhood Playhouse (NYC), and the University of Virginia. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
CARA E. HINH (Director) is a Cincinnati-based director, actor and theatre artist. A founding member and Artistic Associate of the Brink Theatre Company, her mission as a queer, plus sized, and biracial Asian American is to steward and safeguard the stories of women, people of color, LGBTQ and the marginalized whose voices are perpetually misrepresented and dismissed. Directing credits include: N at the Dayton Playhouse FutureFest, Oedipus at Miami University and If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet with The Brink. Her assistant directing includes: Disgraced at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, A Raisin in the Sun at Miami University and This is Our Youth with The Brink Theatre Company. Cara is a graduate of Miami University of Ohio with a BA in Theatre and Classical Humanities and currently serves as the Education Coordinator at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.
THE BRINK THEATRE COMPANY established in November 2015 is the creative child of Miami University Professor Saffron Henke and University of Pittsburgh PhD student Emma Squire. Dedicated to producing new works by women and underrepresented playwrights with a focus on empowering diverse voices and perspectives using visionary creative staging and locations. Facebook.com/TheBrinkTheatre.
SA’IDAH at CincyFringe
Written by Jennifer Hoyt-Tidwell | Directed by Cara E. Hinh
A Brink Theatre Co. Production
OTR Community Church
- June 1 at 8:30 PM
- June 3 at 6:30 PM
- June 4 at 4:45 PM
- June 9 at 7:00 PM
- June 10 at 8:30 PM
Tickets available at CincyFringe.com.
At Monday night’s meeting to set the performance line-up for this year’s OCTA Fest Regional, nine theatres submitted entry forms to compete. Following the selection process, with a few adjustments, the following schedule was set. The festival will be held on Friday, June 23, and Saturday, June 24, at Parrish Auditorium, Miami University-Hamilton. Two of the competing excerpts will be chosen to represent the Southwest Region at this year’s OCTA State Conference, Labor Day weekend, in Columbus.
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