The Roaring Girle
A NEW ADAPTATION by ALICE TUAN of Middleton and Dekker’s 1611 Comedy
** Limited Off-Broadway Engagement! **
Feb. 20 - March 21 at Baruch Performing Arts Center

The Foundry Theatre--winner of 7 Obies and 3 Drama Desk nominations--will present the World Premiere of THE ROARING GIRLE, written by Alice Tuan, adapted from the 1611 Middleton & Dekker comedy by Tuan & Melanie Joseph. The show will be directed by Foundry Artistic Director Melanie Joseph and will begin performances on Friday, February 20th at the Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Ave.--entrance on 25th bet Lex & 3rd). The press opening will be Saturday, February 28th, 2004 at 9pm.

THE ROARING GIRLE is the latest in a series of award-winning theatre produced by The Foundry which has most recently included award-winning productions of Carl Hancock Rux’s Talk (2002), Lipstick Traces (2001), Rinde Eckert’s And God Created Great Whales (2000) and Gertrude and Alice (1999).

The most infamous woman you've never heard of is at the center THE ROARING GIRLE: Moll Cutpurse, a woman ahead of her time, and ours. Born in 1579 at Barbican Aldersgate Street and died of dropsy in 1650 at Fleet Street, Moll became 17th century London's most notorious cross-dresser and "governess of the underworld". Playwright Alice Tuan has brought Moll into the 21st century, freely adapting the original text into a quick-witted satire that takes place in a world where the days of the week have corporate sponsors, free speech costs a fortune, beauty is mandatory and theatre has been declared illegal. The plot includes plenty of Jacobean twists and turns--star crossed lovers, gallants out of cash, and hapless comic servants. Against this backdrop, Moll will stage an insurgent performance of her forbidden "Show of Shows" rallying her fellow citizens into a roar against the authoritarian attitudes of the day.

A staple of graduate courses in colleges and universities, the original Jacobean play has never been produced professionally in the U.S. The 1611 play is all but unproduceable with its five subplots, 48 characters and a sense of satire resonant only to a Jacobean London audience. In 1960, there was an attempt to make a musical of the play starring Nancy Walker as Moll that proverbially ‘bombed’ at the Brattle Street Theatre in Cambridge; a 1980 production at the RSC starring Helen Mirren fared similarly.

The cast for THE ROARING GIRLE includes Michael Caban, Marissa Copeland, Steve Cuiffo, John Epperson (best known as Lypsinka), Clove Galilee, Harry Hogan, Michael Huston, Jodi Lin, Andrew McGinn, Okwi Okpokwasili, Rebecka Ray, Obie Award winner Steven Ratazzi, Douglas Rees, and Michael Urie. The creative team includes Bonnie Metzgar (producer), David Neuman (choreography), Obie Award winner Louisa Thompson (scenery), Tony Award winner Natasha Katz (lights), Doey Luethi (costumes), Jill BC Du Boff (sound), and Ron Piretti (fight choreography).

The New York Times has called playwright Alice Tuan a writer of "great dramatic power" whose "writing is cunning." Tuan’s work has most recently been seen in NYC in Ma-Yi’s Last of the Suns and the Flea’s Ajax (Por Nobody). She has received the Mark Taper Forum’s prestigious Robert E. Sherwood Award for emerging artists as well as Los Angeles’ Colbert Award for Excellence. Other plays include Ikebana, Some Asians, Mall, Fetch and That Race Place. She has been produced across the country at East/West Players, Berkeley Rep, The Humana Festival and The Perishable Theatre. She is currently working on new commissions for The McCarter Theater, The Public, and The Mark Taper Forum. A resident of Los Angeles and a graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Brown University, Ms. Tuan has taught English as a Second Language in China and Los Angeles, and continues to teach playwriting.

The Foundry Theatre, established in 1994 by Melanie Joseph and board member Cornel West, develops and premieres and tours unique theatrical events which have been awarded 7 Obies and 3 Drama Desk nominations for "Unique Theatrical Experience". Last year, Ms. Joseph was honored with a first annual Lucille Lortel Award for Producing, citing The Foundry for premiering "cutting-edge theatrical works." And in 2000 the Foundry itself was honored with the special Ross Wetzsteon Obie Award for its "overall contribution to Off- and Off-Off- Broadway Theatre." In tandem with commissioning, developing, premiering and touring new works, The Foundry regularly hosts roundtables, town meetings and lectures that bring artists together with professionals from other fields to address new questions for our times.

THE ROARING GIRLE will be performed from February 20th through March 21st, at The Baruch Performing Arts Center (55 Lexington Ave - entrance on 25th st between Lex and 3rd) in Manhattan on the following schedule: Tuesdays through Fridays at 8:00 PM, Saturdays at 4pm and 9pm, and Sundays at 4pm. Tickets ($35) may be purchased by calling Smarttix at 212 868 4444 or online at TheRoaringGirle.org.