World Premiere

Presented by Children’s Theatre Company
Minneapolis, MN

Drawing Lessons

By Michi Barall
Original conception by Michi Barall and Jack Tamburri
Directed by Jack Tamburri

Co-commissioned by Ma-Yi Theater Company and Children’s Theatre Company

Directions

Cargill Stage 2400 3rd Avenue South Minneapolis, MN 55404

About the Playwright

Michi Barall | Playwright

Michi Barall is a New York City-based actor, playwright and academic. As an actor, Michi has appeared in new plays by Julia Cho, Philip Kan Gotanda, A.R. Gurney, John Guare, Naomi Iizuka, Han Ong, Jose Rivera, Paul Rudnick, Charles Mee, Sarah Schulman, Anna Deavere Smith, Diana Son, Lloyd Suh, Regina Taylor, Doug Wright and Chay Yew, among others. Michi’s dance-theatre piece, Rescue Me, was produced at the Ohio Theatre by Ma-Yi in 2010.  Her adaptation of Peer Gynt, entitled Peer Gynt and The Norwegian Hapa Band, also produced by Ma-Yi,  premiered in 2107, at the ART/NY Theatre. Recently, Michi co-wrote the short films Sophocles in Staten Island and its follow up Odets in Staten Island with Sung Rno, directed by Jack Tamburri.  Her current project, Drawing Lessons, a commission through the Mellon Foundation’s Generation Now program, will premiere this season at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis. Michi holds degrees from Stanford University (AB),  NYU (MFA, Grad Acting) and Columbia University (PhD,Theatre/English & Comparative Literature).   Her academic work focuses on commercial theatre and spectacle entertainments, modern Asian and Asian American theatre, and disability theatres.  She has taught at Columbia University, NYU and MIT.  She is currently full-time faculty in Theatre and Performance at Purchase College in New York.  

About the Director

Jack Tamburri | Director

Jack Tamburri is a theatre-maker based in New York. His work includes the clown solos Stress Exorcist (Mary McCool), I Was Confused From the Beginning (Jenson Titus), and School Play (Terry Brennan/Tribe of Fools), the last of which was showcased at the 2018 IPAY conference, community-based glam musical Twelfth Night for Shakespeare in Clark Park, rock music adaptation PEER GYNT & the Norwegian Hapa Band for Ma-Yi Theater Co, and short films for young audiences Sophocles in Staten Island and Clifford Odets in Staten Island produced by Ma-Yi Studio. Jack co-created and produced fringe comedies Not For Profit and GAYZE with writer MJ Kaufman. He has developed new plays with playwrights R. Eric Thomas, David Jacobi, MK Tuamanen, and more. Jack is a lecturer at SUNY Purchase, where he spent five years as the Director of the Conservatory of Theatre Arts. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago and the Yale School of Drama, and is a 2018 alumnus of ArtEquity’s national facilitator training for anti-racist activists in the performing arts.

Design Team

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