PEELING THE BANANA HITS NEW STAGE AT SECOND STAGE THEATRE

Love, Asian American style. And sex, and family, and working for The Man. What's it all about?

Peeling the Banana (PtB), New York City's one-of-a-kind multi-generational, pansexual, pan-Asian American theater troupe, will reveal it all to you, off-Broadway.

What's the connection of a corpse, a condom, and tattooed names of Asian Americans? Do activism and romance mix like garlic and eggs? Why does a long-dead Chinese hero screw up a bar romance, and what exactly does it mean to have a "wheatish" complexion, anyway?

Directed by Van Lier Fellowship recipient Gary San Angel, PtB's debut at Second Stage Theatre marks a high point in the growth of the two-year-old ensemble, comprised of Asian Americans from all walks of life who tell true-to-life stories with guts and honesty. "There is no group quite like it," says San Angel, a Los Angeles-born Filipino American performance artist. "This work is about Asian Americans today--not yesterday."

The New York Times has compared the group's productions to Ntozake Shange's choreopoem For Colored Girls who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf. The Los Angeles Times has described San Angel's work as "hilarious" and "wonderfully effective." Sold-out audiences nationwide say the work deserves wider attention because it gives voice to a powerful and complex Asian America rarely seen by the mainstream.

Shelby Jiggetts, the director of play development for the Public Theater told Newsday that "I was moved just by being in a room with them." She added that the work touches on issues that affect people regardless of race: issues like relationships between fathers and sons or between men and women.

PtB has performed at The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Los Angeles Highways Performance Space, New York Film Academy and has toured over a dozen U.S.cities.

INFORMATION:

WHERE: Second Stage Theatre, located at Broadway @ 76th St, will feature Peeling the Banana at 8 p.m. on three consecutive Mondays: April 27, May 4 and May 11.

HOW MUCH: Suggested donation is $5.

RESERVATIONS: For reservations please call (212) 787-8302.

IMPORTANT: Seating is limited...

PLEASE RESERVE ONLY AS MANY SEATS AS YOU WILL USE. PLEASE CANCEL YOUR RESERVATIONS IF YOU CANNOT MAKE IT TO THE SHOW!

MORE INFORMATION? Contact Gary San Angel at 718-624-2221.
PEELING THE BANANA is a multi-disciplinary, multi-ethnic Asian American performance collective which explores various ways to present written work through performance. Peeling the Banana exists to enrich and diversify the scope of Asian American performance and to build community through outreach to both innovative artists of different disciplines and traditionally underserved audiences with little exposure to this kind of work.

For more information:

email us: peelingthebanana@hotmail.com

visit us: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/pagoda/2927

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