"A New World War" April 14, 2007

A Cyborg who yearns to be human; a woman who aches to be free; a soldier who longs to be dead; and the love of a fascist state for its citizens. Padua Playwrights presents "A New World War", a dark, sci-fi political comedy by Rita Valencia, at the Stephanie Feury Studio Theatre in Hollywood, April 14 - May 12.

In a not too distant future, a woman breaking up with her Cyborg husband falls into a vortex of political intrigue and violence. Part sci-fi, part agitprop, "A New World War" challenges our ideas about what makes us human in a darkly funny way.

"Politics are inter-woven into the psychological framework of the play," explains Valencia. "The Cyborg is a cutting-edge product, so real he is almost human; his wife is a cutting-edge consumer. As a war of insurgency bleeds into their lives, their roles as cyborg and spouse become increasingly fractured and problematic. The play asks, 'how real is any war while it is a vicarious experience, mediated by its corporate sponsors?' We never know until the violence comes inside with us and forces us to confront all we take for granted about who and what we are."

Rita Valencia is a writer of plays, performance texts and short fiction. Her fiction has appeared in print and online in Zyzzyva; Fiction International; Spectacle; Duct Tape; and many other literary magazines; and she has been published in anthologies by St. Martin's Press and Gargoyle Press. Her work was included in the groundbreaking exhibition Helter Skelter (MOCA, 1992) as both show catalog text and performance. Her performances and plays have been produced on both coasts: Confessions in Total Darkness (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions); Style Versus Content (INTAR's New Works Lab, NYC); You/Me (a mixed media performance with movement, text and hand crafted photography, INTAR); Citizen Faust (Los Angeles Theater Center); White House Dogs (Trade-City Productions, Los Angeles); and The Nesting Instinct (site-specific performance at the Neutra VDL House in Silver Lake, L.A.). Valencia has been the recipient of grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and of a fellowship at Dorland Mountain Colony. She has created award-winning key art for many major motion pictures and continues to work as an art director as well as a writer.

Dubbed by one theatergoer as "Literary Theater for Los Angeles," Padua Playwrights is committed to the exploration of the spoken word and its myriad connections to the possibility of real meaning. Steven Leigh Morris, editor of the LA Weekly, says, "The Padua playwrights embody a true voice of L.A., as Steppenwolf embodies a voice of Chicago. The group's shared aesthetic is comprised of elliptical structures, lean poetical repartee, and comical Beckettian juxtapositions that speak to the soul of the place: the hubris of wealth and celebrity against the desert's belittling grandeur."

"A New World War" runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 7 pm through May 12. For reservations and information, call (213) 625-1766 or e-mail [email protected].

Official Website: http://www.paduaplaywrights.net