The National Asian American Theatre Company Presents:

December 1-23, 2000

Original Music: Fabian Obispo
Choreography: Kristin Jackson
Set Design: Sarah Lambert
Lighting Design: Stephen Petrilli
Costume Design: Elly van Horne

About the Production

Federico Garcia Lorca, born in June 1898, is one of Spain's greatest poets and dramatists. Lorca's ascent to literary supremacy began in the early 1920s. During this time, he staged his first play, The Butterfly's Evil Spell, and published his first Book of Poems. In 1927 Mariana Pineda was staged, an exhibition of his drawings was held, and by 1928, Lorca's success was cemented with the publication of Gypsy Ballads, a collection of poems/ballads that drew on popular superstition and classical myth as well as Christian symbolism and Gypsy lore.

The early 1930s were a triumphant period for Lorca. He helped found and direct a touring national stage company, La Barraca, which aimed to bring the Spanish theatre to the people, travelling to the countryside, universities, and small towns. He toured Spain with a lecture series entitled Poet in New York, a lyrical reaction to the city he visited for eight months in 1929. In 1932, he wrote the first play of his "trilogy of the Spanish land," Blood Wedding. The play opened in Madrid in March 1933 to critical and box office success.

He quickly wrote the second play of his trilogy, Yerma, the story of an unhappily married woman who yearns in vain to have a child, which opened in Madrid in December 1934. It was his biggest domestic hit to date.

Lorca completed The House of Bernarda Alba, the final installment of his Spanish trilogy, in June 1936, just two months before his tragic death. In the early hours of August 19, 1936, Lorca was executed by firing squad, making him a martyr of the Spanish Civil War under the fascist dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

The House of Bernarda Alba is based on a real-life neighbor of Lorca's cousins. Frasquita Alba, a widow who lived in the village of Asquerosa, ruled tyrannically over her five unmarried daughters and one son. The play removes the son and focuses on the events in the house after the death of Bernarda's second husband. Immediately after the funeral, she informs her daughters that they will remain in mourning for eight years, dressed in black, cloistered like nuns. The eldest daughter, Angustias, is engaged to a village bachelor, Pepe el Romano, who is having nighttime liaisons with Angustias' youngest sister, Adela. Tragedy ensues when Bernarda discovers Adela's plan to escape her mother's prison with Pepe.

Lorca once wrote that "to burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves." Chay Yew's adaptation distills the production to 1 1/2 hours of taut, confined, and unrequited desire, potently articulating the devastating effects of keeping passions at bay.

The National Asian American Theatre Company, whose mission to challenge conventional casting policies by using all Asian American casts continues to win high critical acclaim, is proud to present the world premiere of Chay Yew's adaptation of this Spanish classic.

Biographies

Ching Valdes Aran (Bernarda Alba), an OBIE-Award winning actress for her work in Ma-Yi's Flipzoids. Last seen in Ma-Yi's Middle Finger by Han Ong. She was in this summer's Julius Caesar in Shakespeare in the Park, was Eartha Kitt's understudy in Wild Party, and will be in the upcoming production of Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters at the Public Theatre. Title roles in Mother Courage with Ma-Yi, Medea with Pan Asian Repertory. Also with NY Shakespeare Festival: Macbeth, As You Like It.

Michi Barall (Maid) last seen at Ma-Yi's Middle Finger by Hang Ong. Also, NAATCO's A Phoenix Too Frequent, MCC in Jose Rivera's Sueho, Tartuffe at the Delacorte Theatre/NYSF, A Kiss for Cinderella at the Cleveland Playhouse, Sisters Matsumoto at Seattle Rep, Red at Portland Stage and the Intiman, Most Fabulous Story Ever Told at Williamstown, HOUSE ARREST: First Edition at Arena Stage, Boy and School for Wives (Dramalogue) at the La Jolla Playhouse.

Kati Kuroda (Poncia), a senior artist with Pan Asian Repertory with whom she has acted and directed in numerous productions. Recent credits include Joy Luck Club at Pan Asian Rep and at Long Wharf; Sakura - the Bandit Princess, a one-woman show; A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Acting Company; on film, Picture Bride.

Natsuko Ohama (Angustias) Founding member of Shakespeare & Co., Lenox, MA. Drama Desk Nomination for Best Actress for David Henry Hwang's Sound and Beauty at New York Shakespeare Festival. Straight as a Line at Primary Stages; Tea at Manhattan Theater Club; The Love Suicides ofAmijima at New York Theater Workshop; Sansei, The Joy Luck Club, Widows, and Richard II at the Mark Taper Forum; Ikebana at East West Players. Movies: Skin Deep; Speed; Flatliners.

Julyana Soelistyo (Martirio), Tony-Award Nominee for David Hwang's Golden Child. Seen in Scorcese's Bringing Out the Dead and appearing in Memoirs of a Geisha, scheduled for release in 2001. Macbeth at Center Stage in Baltimore; the title role in Still Life with Iris at the Kennedy Center; and in Seattle, Alice in Wonderland; Ping Chong's Undesirable Elements at the Group Theatre.

Kristin Jackson (Choreographer) Filipina and Irish-American choreographer. For the past 10 years, her choreography has been seen in New York, Boston, and Manila. In October 1998, Ms. Jackson's multi-media work In Their Shoes premiered in New York, a piece created in collaboration with Nagasaki composer Keiko Fujiie, inspired by Japanese and Filipino families' memories of World War II. From 1983-87, Ms. Jackson was principal dancer and rehearsal director with the Laura Dean Dancers and Musicians. Prior to her tenure with the Dean Company, she performed in the Broadway and National companies of The King and I.

Fabian Obispo (Composer) Two Sisters and a Piano at the Public Theatre; MCC's Sueno; Primary Stages' When They Speak of Rita and Elsa Edgar; The Batting Cage at the Vineyard Theatre; Tartuffe at the Acting Company; The Skin of Our Teeth, People's Light & Theatre Company; Children of the Sun at the Kennedy Center; As You Like It and The Tempest at the PlayMakers Repertory Company in North Carolina.

Chay Yew (Direction/Adaptation) Chay Yew's plays include Wonderland, Porcelain, A Language of Their Own, Red, As If He Hears and A Beautiful Country. He also adapted The Courage to Stand Alone, taken from the letters of imprisoned Chinese political dissident, Wei Jingsheng for the Mark Taper Forum. His performance texts include Home: Places Between Asia and America. Mr. Yew directed a highly acclaimed production of David Hwang's Golden Child at East West Players in LA this February. In September Mark Taper Forum's Asian Theatre Workshop presented The Square, a collection of plays conceived by Mr. Yew.

Mr Yew's work has been presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival's Public Theater, Royal Court Theatre (London), Long Wharf Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Intiman Theater, Portland Center Stage, East West Players, Dallas Theater Center, Cornerstone Theatre Company, The Group Theater, and TheatreWorks (Singapore), to name a few. He is the recipient of the London Fringe Award, George and Elisabeth Marton Playwriting Award, GLAAD Media Award, APGF Community Visibility Award, Drama-Logue Award, Robert Chesley Award, McKnight Fellowship, and the TCG/Pew National Artist Residency Grant. His plays, published by Grove Press, were nominated for the 1997 Lambda Literary Award for Drama. His plays are also anthologized in Staging Gay Lives (Harper Collins) and But Still, Like Air, I Rise (Temple University Press). A member of the New Dramatists, Mr. Yew is the Director of the Asian Theater Workshop at the Taper and the Resident Director at East West Players in Los Angeles.

Lorca Online

General Lorca Sites:

Encyclopedia Britannica online
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/9820/lorca.html
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6486/index.html
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Palais/2405/
http://www.poets.org/LIT/poet/fglorfst.htm
http://www.imagi-nation.com/moonstruck/clsc67.html

An interesting academic analysis of The House of Bernarda Alba:

http://www.salem.mass.edu/ccpa/artsviewspring2000/theatre_bernardaalba.htm

Guided Tours around Lorca's hometown of Grenada:

http://www.granadainfo.com/lorca/

There actually was a real physical "house" of Bernarda Alba and it is still standing:

http://www.granadainfo.com/lorca/casadeba.htm

Although The House of Bernarda Alba is frequently performed in theatres around the world, there have been no major Hollywood productions of this play. There is a TV version from 1991 that featured Glenda Jackson & Joan Plowright.

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0102066