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ONE-MAN SHOW BASED ON THE KITE RUNNER, BESTSELLING NOVEL ABOUT A BOY’S COMING OF AGE IN AFGHANISTAN, TO BE STAGED

NYS Writers Institute, April 18, 2012
7:30 p.m. Performance | Rectial Hall, Performing Arts Center, Uptown Campus

CALENDAR LISTING:
A new stage adaptation of the bestselling novel The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini, about a boy’s coming of age in Afghanistan, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. [NOTE EARLY START TIME], Wednesday, April 18, 2012 in the Recital Hall of the Performing Arts Center on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. A production of American Place Theatre, a performance-based literacy program, the performance will be complemented by a discussion with a teaching artist prior to the show at 7 p.m. and again after the show. The event is sponsored by the Performing Arts Center in conjunction with the New York State Writers Institute. Admission is $15 general public; $12 seniors and faculty/staff; and $10 students. Box Office: (518) 442-3997; [email protected].

PROFILE
American Place Theatre will present a one-person theatrical adaptation of the bestselling novel, The Kite Runner (2003) a story of guilt and redemption, brutality and kindness, sin and forgiveness.  It portrays the doomed relationship of two boys—a privileged Pashtun and a Hazara servant—one rich, one poor, one flawed, the other pure.  This award-winning stage adaptation takes audiences on a heartbreaking journey of friendship and betrayal in a society of severe class division set against a backdrop of 1970s Afghanistan in turmoil.

The evening will begin at 7 p.m. with a pre-performance discussion led by a member of American Place Theatre and will conclude with a post-performance discussion immediately following the show.
The one-man play is a production of American Place Theatre’s “Literature to Life” series, a literacy program that presents professionally staged adaptations of American literary works. The show was adapted and directed by Wynn Handman, the company’s founder and Artistic Director, recipient of a 1999 Obie for Sustained Achievement and the Lucille Lortel Award for Lifetime Achievement of the League of Off-Broadway Theatres.

The show is performed by Bombay-born actor Sorab Wadia, whogarnered rave reviews for his performance as Hussein al-Mansour in Jihad: The Musical at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2007. His show-stopping number from that production, “I Wanna Be Like Osama,” became a sensation on YouTube and was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. Wadia also performed as Ali Hakim in the U.S. national tour of Trevor Nunn’s production of Oklahoma!. Other credits include the film Suburban Girl (2006) with Sarah Michelle Gellar, the TV sitcom 30 Rock, and the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, in which he plays the voice of an Indian pedestrian who curses graphically in Hindi.

Previous works staged at UAlbany by American Place Theatre have included Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle, Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea, Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man, Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees, and Sherman Alexie’s Flight.

The play is presented by the Performing Arts Center in conjunction with the New York State Writers Institute. Admission is $15 general public; $12 seniors & faculty/staff; and $10 students. For additional information, contact the box office at (518) 442-3997 or [email protected] .