Art by Neena Ellora Holzman @pigeons.grotto
BERLINDIA
by Daniel Holzman
directed by Nola Latty
Saturday, April 6, at 7pm at Houghton Hall Arts Community, 22 East 30th Street.
"A hilarious, hyper-theatrical, and compelling journey that explores family, identity, and longing."
-- Nick Malakhow, Bay Area Playwrights Festival
Berlindia! follows a sister named Burger and her little brother who discover that their mother may not be the person they thought she was. She loves techno? She's moved to Berlin? Berlin moved to India? When did that happen? She never seemed like that kind of person. They set out, not necessarily to bring her back, but to understand how someone you've known your whole life can overnight become someone else. It's a journey that takes them into the heart of a strange world that looks like how our world feels. Places move, people become places, time and space are crushed into one. I started writing Berlindia! in 2019 as a tribute to my family and the way they always figure out how to be fine, no matter how absurd things get. Since then, the world has only gotten more and more absurd and we've faced more and more things that are so far from fine. But if anything, I think this is a play about the importance of true beautiful ambivalence. Two things can be true at once. The darker things get, the more important it is to hold on to that.
Daniel Holzman (PLAYWRIGHT) is a writer and artist from San Francisco. His work has been produced and developed through the New York Foundation for the Arts, Clubbed Thumb, The Workshop Theater, The Laguardia Performing Arts Center, The Brick, The Tank, and more. Recently, his plays have been finalists for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference (Me and Who, 2023), Bay Area Playwrights Festival (BERLINDIA!, 2022), and Jewish Plays Project (BERLINDIA!, 2022). He frequently collaborates with his sister Neena, who illustrates all his plays. BFA: NYU, Playwrights Horizons Theater School. www.danieleholzman.myportfolio.com
Nola Latty (DIRECTOR) is a director, producer, and performance artist from Philadelphia, based in Brooklyn, New York. They create work that balances the intimate and strange. Nola recently directed Kinderkrankenhaus, which was nominated for Broadway Worlds’ Best New Off-Off Broadway Play in 2023. Their surreal digital play, Still Goes, was a part of the 2022 Exponential Festival. Other directing credits include Crawl Space at The Flea, Miss Margarida's Way, at Brick Aux, and First Gen Desi’s Guide to Reclamation and Acceptance, Playwrights Downtown. Passionate about uplifting a new generation of theater artists, Nola has produced shows and workshops at Ars Nova, The Brick, and New York University. Also an actor, Nola has performed at New York and Denver Fringe Festivals, The Tank, and Chaos Computer, along with several other DIY Venues. www.nolalatty.com
Alex Tatarsky (BURGER) Called “a hilarious, finely tuned absurdist” (Theatre Jones), Alex Tatarsky makes performances in the uncomfortable in-between zone of comedy, dance-theater, performance art, and deluded rant--sometimes with songs. Tatarsky experienced fleeting fame as Andy Kaufman’s daughter and used to perform as a mound of dirt. Their original performances have been presented by La Mama, MoMA PS1, The Kitchen, Judson Church, Playwrights Horizons and many bars and basements. As curatorial fellow at the Poetry Project, they organized a series on the poetics of rot. Research interests include bootlegs, hellscapes, and compost. @tartar.biz
Arjun Biju (FUCK) is an actor from San Jose, California. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Drama, Arjun has gone on to appear in various professional workshops, plays, and short films. Most recently Todd/Pancake in How to Make a Revolution...! at the Brooklyn Rail.
David Greenspan* (DAD) has appeared in his plays Dead Mother, She Stoops to Comedy, Go Back to Where You Are, I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees, The Memory Motel, his solo plays The Argument and The Myopia; performed solo renditions of The Patsy, Strange Interlude, Four Saints in Three Acts; been recognized for performances in Some Men, On Set With Theda Bara, The Boys in the Band and Faust; received six OBIES.
Rita Wolf* (MOTHER) Recent Theatre: “Escaped Alone” by Caryl Churchill at Yale Rep. Other recent theatre includes: “Out of time” at The Public Theatre and Edward Albee’s “A Delicate Balance” for The Transport Group, both co-productions with NAATCO, “The Michaels” and “What Happened ? The Michaels Abroad” the final two installments of Richard Nelson’s Rhinebeck plays cycle at The Public and at Hunter College. Other NYC Theatre includes: Tony Kushner’s “Homebody/Kabul” at NYTW (World Premiere) also at Mark Taper Forum and BAM. David Grieg’s “The American Pilot” at MTC ( Drama Desk nomination: Featured Actress) David Hare’s “Stuff Happens” at The Public Theatre. Hammaad Chaudhry’s “An Ordinary Muslim” NYTW. Regional Theatre includes: Lorca’s "The House of Bernarda Alba" at Mark Taper Forum. TV and film work includes: “My Beautiful Laundrette” ( Hanif Kureishi/ Stephen Frears), “Girl Six” Dir. Spike Lee, Law & Order and the Good Wife. Audio work includes Madhuri Shekar’s “Evil Eye” for Audible (Winner: Audie for Best Original Work 2020). Rita also has extensive theatre, film and TV credits in the UK and is the co-founder of London-based Kali Theatre Company who exclusively produce and promote the work of S. Asian female playwrights. In her free time she studies yoga and the classical Indian dance form Bharatnatyam. Beinecke Fellow at David Geffner School of Drama at Yale Spring 2024. She/Her/Hers
Ring Yuqi Yang (ENSEMBLE) is a multidisciplinary artist and performer, from Beijing, based in Brooklyn. They create work that explores eccentric playing, and ways of shapeshifting through the human body. They’ve performed at The Brick, Performance Project at University Settlement, The Tank, Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC), and streets and basements of New York. Recently seen in would you set the table if I asked you to? at The Brick. They love super spicy food and chaos. @ringyyang
Lizan Mitchell* (UNCLE MOTHER, Stage Directions) has performed on stage on Broadway, off Broadway, in regional theaters throughout the US and overseas in London, Liverpool, and Johannesburg, SA. She has received the Audelco, Helen Hayes, and Obie awards. She is a founding member of Quick Silver Theater Company.
*Equity Member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off Broadway production.
Actors' Equity Association (AEA), founded in 1913, represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers in the United States. Equity seeks to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO, and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. The Equity emblem is our mark of excellence. www.actorsequity.org