N EW Y O R K
T H E A T R E
WORKSHOP

Meet-the-Artists Brown Bag Lunch Presentation
Tuesday, August 16 * Noon
Warner Bentley Theater * FREE
Meet the creators and directors of "The Alter-Ego of An American Assimilationist"  
and "Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine"

************************Tickets on Sale at the Hop Box Office***************

THE ALTER-EGO OF AN AMERICAN ASSIMILATIONIST * AUGUST 20 * 5 PM Written & performed  
by Betty Shamieh * Directed by Lisa Peterson
Playwright/performer's over-the-top Arab-American alter-ego takes on American  
culture and politics.

About the show:
Like Dr. Bruce Banner's exposure to gamma radiation led to the creation of the  
Incredible Hulk, playwright Betty Shamieh's exposure to toxic levels of gamma  
racism led to the creation of Baheeeya.  This impulsive and emotional creature  
erupts when Shamieh is angered or frightened.  Baheeeya's triggers include: the  
impotence of truly progressive movements in America, impotence in general, simplistic  
artistic depictions of Middle Eastern people, and the fact that single straight  
men in New York as a whole have not mastered the art and/or science of properly  
asking a person out on a date.  Baheeeya had demanded her own performance art  
show/lecture/quasi-bellydancing extravaganza to explicate the importance of celebrating  
the monster within.

BETTY SHAMIEH Playwright, Actor
Betty Shamieh's off-Broadway premieres are The Black Eyed (New York Theatre Workshop)  
and Roar (The New Group).  Her recent European productions in translation include  
Again and Against (Playhouse Theater, Stockholm), The Black Eyed (Theater Fournos,  
Athens), and Territories (2009 European Union Capital of Culture Festival).  Her  
play, Free Radicals, is slated for production in Dutch translation at Het Zuidelijk  
Toneel in 2012.  The Machine was produced by Naked Angels in 2007.  Shamieh performed  
in her play, Chocolate in Heat, in three off-off-Broadway runs and over twenty  
university theatres.  A graduate of Harvard College and the Yale School of Drama,  
she was a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts grant and selected as  
a Clifton Visiting Artist at Harvard in 2004.  Shamieh was named as a Playwriting  
Fellow at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies in 2006.  
  She is currently a member of New Dramatists, a New York Theatre Workshop Usual  
Suspect, and an artist-in-residence at Here Arts Center.  Shamieh recently was  
selected as a 2011 UNESCO Young Artist for Intercultural Dialogue.


LISA PETERSON Director
Lisa Peterson has directed world premieres by Donald Margulies, Tony Kushner,  
Beth Henley, Naomi Wallace, Chay Yew, Luis Alfaro, Culture Clash, Jane Anderson,  
David Henry Hwang, Stephen Belber, William Bolcom & Arnold Weinstein, Ellen McLaughlin,  
Marlane Meyer, Annie Weisman, Philip Gotanda, John Belluso, David Bucknam, Caryl  
Churchill, Janusz Glowacki, and many others at theaters including New York Theater  
Workshop, The Public, The Vineyard, MCC, MTC, Primary Stages, Guthrie, Actors  
Theater of Louisville, Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Hartford  
Stage, Long Wharf, Huntington, Yale Rep, Intiman, Berkeley Rep, Seattle Rep, McCarter,  
and more.  She was Associate Director at La Jolla Playhouse for 3 years and Resident  
Director at Mark Taper Forum for 10 years.  Lisa has developed new work at Sundance  
Theater Lab, O'Neill Playwrights Festival, Playwrights Center, New Dramatists,  
and the Royal Court.  Graduate of Yale College.  Member of EST and the executive  
board of SDC.



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YOUR BLUES AIN'T LIKE MINE * AUGUST 20 * 8 PM Written and Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
  Work by actor/author of award-winning play and HBO movie Lackawanna Blues.

About the show:
What happens when four human beings, four decent human beings...very different  
human beings, come together to share an evening of dining and discussion?  Where  
love, politics, race and history are on the menu?  What if the discussion is spurred  
on by a desire for the unabashed truth and being politically correct is not part  
of the rules?  These questions are what drive Your Blues Ain't Sweet Like Mine.  
  A deeply poetic, loving, sometimes painful, sometimes funny but always provocative  
look into the smashing together of ideas, of people and their truths.  This is  
an evening where we all would be fortunate to be a fly on the wall.


RUBEN SANTIAGO HUDSON Playwright, Director
Tony and Obie award-winning actor, Ruben Santiago-Hudson is also an accomplished  
writer and director.  Santiago-Hudson costars as NYPD Captain Roy Montgomery on  
the hit ABC series, Castle.  His screenplay debut Lackawanna Blues for HBO, received  
the Humanitas Prize, a Christopher Award, National Board of Review Honors, a NAACP  
Image Award; and Emmy, Golden Globe and WGA nominations. Lackawanna Blues was  
originally commissioned as a solo performance piece by the Public Theater/NY Shakespeare  
Festival under the artistic leadership of George C. Wolfe. Santiago-Hudson penned  
the play to pay homage to the woman who raised him in a boarding house in upstate  
New York. Ruben performed the play bringing to life over two dozen characters.  
Working with the Public Theatre again in the summer of 2010, Santiago-Hudson starred  
as King Leontes in Shakespeare in the Park's production of A Winter's Tale. On  
film Santiago-Hudson starred opposite Halle Berry in Their Eyes Were Watching  
God; Denzel Washington and Russell Crow in American Gangster; Demi Moore and Kevin  
Costner in Mr. Brooks; Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft; Al Pacino in Devil's Advocate;  
John Travolta in Domestic Disturbance; and Ricky Gervais in The Invention of Lying.  
  On television he portrayed famed chemist Dr. Percy Julian in Forgotten Genius;  
starred opposite Gregory Hines in The Red Sneakers; his other feature films and  
mini-series include American Tragedy with Christopher Plummer; Solomon and Sheba  
with Jimmy Smits and Halle Berry -- the first time a biblical movie starred actors  
of color; and opposite Christopher Reeve in Rear Window. Other TV credits include  
a series regular role on Michael Hayes, recurring roles on The West Wing, Law  
& Order and numerous guest star appearances. Santiago-Hudson made his directorial  
debut with August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean at the McCarter Theater in Princeton  
and the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Most recently Ruben directed  
the New York Premiere of Naomi Wallace's Things Of Dry Hours at the NY Theater  
Workshop. Other Directing credits include August Wilson's Radio Golf at The Kennedy  
Center in Washington DC. Wilson's Seven Guitars and Leslie Lee's The First Breeze  
of Summer for The Signature Theater Company, where Santiago-Hudson held the position  
of Associate Artist for the 2008-2009 season. Ruben made his Broadway acting debut  
in Jelly's Last Jam, opposite Gregory Hines. He originated the role of Canewell  
in Seven Guitars which earned him several awards including the prestigious Antoinette  
Perry (Tony) Award for Featured Actor in a Play. His most recent Broadway performance  
was as Caesar in Gem Of The Ocean, opposite Phylicia Rashad. Ruben's regional  
theater and off-Broadway credits span over 30 years. Santiago-Hudson received  
an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Buffalo State College in 2006. He also  
holds a Master of Fine Arts from Wayne State University and an honorary Master's  
from A.C.T. in San Francisco, a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY Binghamton. Other Awards  
and honors include Outer Critics Circle, Dramalogue, Clarence Derwent, Glen G.  
Bartle Award from SUNY Binghamton, Distinguished Alumni Award from Wayne State  
University, two Audelco Awards, Black Filmmaker's Award, a N.A.M.I.C. Award and  
an HBO Comedy Arts Festival Theater Award.  Santiago-Hudson received a NAACP Lifetime  
Achievement Theatre Award at the Los Angeles NAACP Theatre Awards in August 2009.  
Santiago-Hudson is the father of four wonderful children and says, "Of all of  
my accomplishments, the title I cherish most is that of Father and Husband."