For Immediate Release: February 27, 2005
Media Contact: Jane Stojak, Triangle Theater, 215.763.0110

A new show aimed at bringing diverse cultures together in the service of peace, and based on the work of best-selling 13th Century poet Jelaluddin Rumi, entitled Rumi's MATHNAVI, will visit the Triangle Theater from March 11 - 14, 2005 at the beginning of its tour of eastern U.S. cities.

The production of Rumi's MATHNAVI was launched on the main stage at Catholic University in Washington, DC on February 19-20, 2005 and will travel to Baltimore and Philadelphia in March. The production was conceived by Joe Martin, playwright, director and lecturer in the Drama Department at Catholic University.

Rumi is the best-selling poet in the United States and has a significant following here. According to Martin, the goals of the production are to "bring diverse audiences together to be inspired by the work of Rumi to pursue peace."

"Rumi is a splendid exemplar of the "Unity-of-Being which is stressed in the wisdom tradtion of Islam," said Martin. "That is the idea that each of us carries something 'the same' in us - that we are all fundamentally related to all other beings." Martin believes that the work of Rumi is an ideal vehicle for a contemporary peace movement given that Rumi is a Middle Eastern poet who is greatly revered in the West.

The thirteenth century poet, Jelaluddin Rumi, was born in the area of the old Persian Empire, today Balkh Afghanistan, and lived most of his life in Turkey writing some of the greatest Persian poetry and spiritual discourses ever penned, He has found a sudden and massive resurgence of interest - and this has been a topic of much discussion lately among poets and scholars. Some attribute it to New Age thinking, or millenarism. Others, reading the free, accessible and sometimes amusing Coleman Barks English versions of Rumi may sense he is working in something like the traditions of Whitman, Blake and even Allen Ginsberg, and thus has appeal for the new "spiritual seekers."

The production of Rumi's MATHNAVI includes dramatizations of Rumi's text, music, dance, and choruses in the Greek style. The cast includes Baltimore spoken word performer Brandon Welch, actor and Indian dancer Jai Khalsa, DC actor and dancer Kim Curtis, and DC actors Bette Cassat, Elizabeth Jernigan, Jamahl Rahmaan, Nick Scott and Lee Ordeman; music direction is by composer Kasem Davoudian with the Iranian trio the Hamnava Group; choreography is by Christel Stevens; the production is directed by Joe Martin.

The tour includes this stop in Philadelphia, as well as venues in Baltimore and New York.

Tickets are $20 ($12 for students and seniors) and are available by calling 215-763-0110 or e-mailing triangletheater@aol.com. Shows are Thursday - Saturday, March 10-13 at 8 PM; and Sunday, March 14 at 3 PM.

The Triangle Theater was created in 2001. Since 1999, its producing arm, Random Acts of Theater has produced more than 10 plays based on original material. The Triangle Theater was honored in November 2004 by the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia with a Barrymore award for New Collaborations in Theatre, for their collaboration with KitchenAid's The Book and The Cook festival on the Spring 2004 productions of Arje Shaw's "A Catered Affair" and Michael A. Carson's "Front of House."

ART AVAILABLE ON REQUEST. Call Jane Stojak at 215-763-0110 or email janestojak@aol.com for art.

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