Benefit Performance: "HAWK, I’M YOUR BROTHER" May 17, 2009

Wild Swan Theater announces a performance to benefit the Ann Arbor Public Schools Educational Foundation. The company will present its original production of “Hawk, I’m Your Brother,” at 2 PM on Sunday, May 17th, 2009, at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. Wild Swan’s presentation of the play is supported by grants from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, the James A. and Faith Knight Foundation, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, and the Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation. A family pass (up to four people) is $25, but individual tickets can be purchased for $12.

Purchase tickets via the website: http://www.aapsef.org/newsevents/hawk_event_09.html

The story depicts a Native American boy, Rudy Soto, who longs to fly like a hawk. Rudy kidnaps a baby hawk from its nest, thinking that he and the hawk will learn to fly together, but in the end Rudy learns that he must let the hawk go. Wild Swan’s dramatization of the Byrd Baylor book features storytelling, dance and original music performed by local Native American singer/songwriter Joe Reilly. The hawk is portrayed by dancer Aidan Feldman and by actress/puppeteer Gulshirin Dubash. Nathan Mitchell appears as the boy, Rudy Soto, and the storyteller is Wild Swan Theater’s Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director, Sandy Ryder. Costume design for “Hawk” is by Suzanne Young, and Beth Sandmaier is scenic designer.

In tandem with the theater performance, the Leslie Science and Nature Center will offer a presentation led by naturalist Francie Krawke featuring a live red-tail hawk, at 1:15 PM and 2:45 PM. There is a patron limit of 100 persons to each raptor demonstration, which will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis to those first patrons buying “Hawk” tickets.