David Henry Hwang to moderate Post-performance Convo at INVASION!

A post-performance conversation moderated by David Henry Hwang is set following the September 9 performance of INVASION!, Jonas Hassen Khemiri's Obie Award-winning play receiving an encore production this fall, presented by The Play Company at The Flea Theater (41 White St.) in Tribeca, it has been announced by Kate Loewald, Founding Producer, and Lauren Weigel, Executive Producer, of The Play Company.

Mr. Khemiri and the play's director Erica Schmidt will join Mr. Hwang in the post-show discussion and Q&A with the audience.

According to Ms. Loewald, Mr. Hwang said after having seen INVASION! when The Play Company presented the play's U.S. debut in February, "INVASION! is whip-smart and blazingly theatrical. It tells the hilarious and terrifying truth about our New World Disorder. It's one of the best new plays I've seen this year."

Subsequent post-show discussions will take place following the September 26 and 28 performances of INVASION!

On September 26, members of IN THE CYPHER will lead a conversation with the INVASION! actors about the issues of race and skin color raised in Khemiri's play. IN THE CYPHER is a show -- performed at various venues in NYC -- in which theater meets slam poetry in an entertaining discourse about the experience of life in one's own skin.

On September 28, Hina Shamsi, Director of The ACLU's National Security Project, will be the featured guest in a discussion about the issues of legal and human rights raised in INVASION! Ms. Shamsi has engaged in civil liberties and human rights litigation, research, and policy advocacy on issues including the freedoms of speech and association, torture, detention, and fair trial practices. Her work has included a focus on the intersection of national security and counterterrorism policies and international human rights and humanitarian law.

INVASION! -- which played a sold-out engagement when it debuted in February 2011 at Walkerspace, and whose return engagement coincides with the 10th anniversary of 9.11.01 -- is a subversive comedy about identity and stereotypes, centering on "Abulkasem," a name mysteriously belonging to a wide assortment of characters in the play, leaving us to wonder, "Who is Abulkasem?" Is he a character in a fairy tale, or an international super-spy? Is she a renowned auteur director? Does he/she pose a clear and present danger? And is there really more than one?

Mr. Khemiri is a Swedish-Tunisian playwright and novelist popular in Europe, only now becoming known in America with the premiere of INVASION! last winter, for which he won a 2011 Obie Award, along with the publication last March of his novel "Montecore: The Silence of the Tiger," which marked Mr. Khemiri's English-language literary debut.

The Play Company is an Off-Broadway theatre now in its 12th year, producing a global program of adventurous new plays by U.S. and international playwrights who bring unique perspectives on the world in the 21st century.

David Henry Hwang won the Tony Award for his play M BUTTERFLY. His newest work, CHINGLISH will be seen on Broadway this season. His numerous other plays include FOB (Obie Award), DANCE AND THE RAILROAD, FAMILY DEVOTIONS, FACE VALUE, GOLDEN CHILD and YELLOW FACE. He wrote the book of the Disney musical TARZAN and co-wrote the book of the musical AIDA on Broadway.

About INVASION! The New York Times wrote, "Set in an urgently contemporary New York, the play is a slyly entertaining comedy with a sharp political edge."

The Village Voice said, "If you've ever wished somebody would write a razor-sharp play anatomizing lazy paranoia about the Middle East - somebody has."

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