National Theater Institute Final Project is Adapatation of Graphic Novel PERSEPOLIS
Free Performances on May 5 and 6 at 8:00 pm
At the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Waterford

April 27, 2006

The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Theater Institute will present its Final Project of the spring semester on May 5 and 6 at 8:00 PM in the Dina Merrill Theater at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, 305 Great Neck Road, Waterford.

Company members will create an original theatrical adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel, Persepolis. Originally published to wide critical acclaim in France, where it elicited comparisons to Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi's wise, funny, and heartbreaking memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah's regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran's last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country. It has been lauded for its stunning visuals and thought-provoking dialogue.

Final Project serves as the culminating experience of NTI's intensive 14-week immersion in theater training. The NTI class has been working on acting classes, various forms of movement, voice work, playwriting, design, directing; they have had special workshops in Greek Chorus and Biomechanics and have just returned from two weeks of study in St. Petersburg, Russia at the Saint Petersburg Theater Arts Academy. For Final Project, the selected source material will be adapted into a theatrical form. The collective creation model, wherein the company as an ensemble develops the structure and the content of the piece, is employed so that students can build upon what they have learned during their semester.

"Given the O'Neill's mission to nurture and develop new voices and new artists for the theater, I see NTI Final Project as an ideal and unique fulfillment of that mission, because the students will create this original piece of theater collaboratively," Jaffe said. "When Maria Goyanes brought Persepolis to my attention, I knew it was right for our time and for these young artists."

Guest Artist Maria Goyanes, NTI alumna (1999) and currently Artistic Associate at the Public Theater, New York, will assist in guiding and directing the piece. She is the Supervising Producer for 13 Playwrights, a collective of writers that includes Sarah Ruhl, Anne Washburn and Erin Courtney, among many others. She was Associate Producer at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, where she produced the Theater From the Four Directions Native Playwrights Festival. Ms. Goyanes is a graduate of Brown University.

The National Theater Institute, a program of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, was founded in 1970. NTI is a fully-accredited, conservatory-based theater training semester for college students. NTI students follow a rigorous, seven-day-a-week schedule of conservatory training with resident and guest faculty at the O'Neill Center. Its summer program, Theatermakers, gives advanced students and recent graduates workshops and classes along with the opportunity to develop their own projects and participate in the O'Neill's National Playwrights Conferences. For more information, please visit the National Theater Institute website, www.theoneill.org/nti.