Playwright Richard Kalinoski of the UW Oshkosh Theatre Department has been commissioned by a consortium of educators at Fresno State University to write a full-length play commemorating the genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks during World War I.
Performances of the proposed play will be presented in April of 2015, 100 years after the onset of the effort by the rulers of Turkey to purge that country of its Armenian populations. The commemorative play will be supported by the distinguished Armenian Studies Center, the Department of Theatre and the College of Arts and Sciences all of Fresno State University. Additional support will come from the Armenian Museum of the city of Fresno.
Two of Kalinoski’s earlier plays, A Crooked Man and Beast on the Moon, have been produced in some 19 countries (including the US). These plays contributed to Kalinoski receiving the Khorenatsi Medal, the highest cultural award of the Republic of Armenia for advancement of Armenian culture (2006).
The commissioned play will feature seasoned Broadway actress Jacqueline Antaramian as a guest artist. Ms. Antaramian was most recently seen at the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York in a new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt).
“Conversations with interested parties at Fresno State began in November 2012, and the go-ahead for the project launch was confirmed in meetings held at Fresno State on May 13and May 14 , 2013,” Kalinoski said.
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