March 17-18, 2013
Coming To America: Transformations
Written and performed by Stephanie Satie. Directed by Anita Khanzadian.
Presented by the California Performing Arts Centre.
“Coming to America: Transformations” is a portrait gallery of women whose lives have been transformed, first by extraordinary events in their country of birth, and then by their response to America.
Refugees, immigrants, both legal and clandestine, they keep coming to America. Driven by war, genocide, repressive societies, they carve out new lives among us. But who are they? What does the “promised land” hold for them? Can it fulfill those promises?
“Coming to America: Transformations” visits nine extraordinary women from Armenia, El Salvador, Iran, India, Afghanistan, Russia, Serbia, Cambodia, and one still in Iraq, as they reinvent their lives. In addition to narrative, the piece includes music and some dance sequences.
Stephanie Satie is the writer-performer. She has performed on stage in Los Angeles, New York, regionally and internationally. Locally, she has appeared at Fremont Centre Theatre, the Odyssey, Theatre 40, Interact Theatre Company, and the Fountain Theatre. She has also been a frequent presence on television, with guest appearances on “The Practice,” “Boston Public,” “The Division,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and a recurring role on “The Wonder Years: (as Ida Pfeiffer). Her other plays include “Refugees,” “Silent Witnesses” and “Leon’s Dictionary.”
Anita Khanzadian directs. Currently also directing “Benched” for Interact Theatre Company, she has also directed their productions of “Death of a Salesman,” “The Root” and “Counselor At Law.” For Theatre 40, she directed “La Ronde,” “The Parallax Garden” and “Waiting for the Moon to Fall.” She has also directed shows for the Fountain Theatre, Hudson Theatre, Victory Theatre, McCadden Place Theatre, and Fremont Centre Theatre. She has also helmed productions in New York, Washington, D.C., regional U.S. theatres, Indian, and Bangladesh.
“Coming to America: Transformations” presents an array of unforgettable women and underlines the centrality of America in the world’s consciousness as the place where so many of the world’s people want to live and be.
