Arabian Night

May 31–July 1, 2006
GermanyN.Y.C. Premiere
Arabian Night tells the tale of one steamy summer night in an anonymous housing complex.
Meet the Artists

Roland Schimmelpfennig (Playwright) is one of the most produced European playwrights. His plays have been translated into over 20 languages and he made his US debut in 2007 with a production of his play Arabian Nights, produced by NYC’s Play Company. He first worked as a freelance journalist and author in Istanbul before studying as a theatre director in Munich’s Otto Falkenberg School in 1990. He then became an assistant director and later a member of the artistic team at Munich’s Kammerspiele. Roland Schimmelpfennig was then engaged as dramaturg and author at the Berlin Schaubühne for the 1999/2000 season and was resident playwright at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 2010, Schimmelpfennig was awarded the Mühlheimer Dramatists Award for his play The Golden Dragon. The play premiered at the Burgtheater Vienna last season and has since received more than 20 productions worldwide. He just finished a commission for the Tokyo National Theater and the Burgtheater in Vienna. Schimmelpfennig is the recipient of the Else-Lasker-Schüler-Prize, the highest Playwriting Award in Germany, to honor his entire oeuvre.

David Tushingham (Translator) works as a dramaturg and curator for the Salzburg Festival and the Duesseldorfer Schauspielhaus. He has adapted Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories for The National Theatre, London and translated plays by Roland Schimmelpfennig, Dea Loher, Falk
Richter and numerous other contemporary German playwrights. His recent translation of Roland Schimmelpfennig's The Golden Dragon has been performed in London, Edinburgh, Washington D.C., Toronto, Pittsburgh, Melbourne and on tour in India, Kurdistan and Ireland.

Trip Cullman (Director) Most recent credits include: The Rose Tattoo (Broadway, 2019), Choir Boy (Broadway, 2019) and Lobby Hero (Broadway, 2018). He previously directed Adam Bock's The Drunken City and Sarah Schulman's Manic Flight Reaction at Playwrights Horizons. Other New York credits include Adam Bock's Swimming in the Shallows, Leslye Headland's Bachelorette and Terrence McNally's Some Men (Second Stage); Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap, Robert Farquhar's Bad Jazz, Roland Schimmelpfennig's Arabian Night and Brooke Berman's Smashing (The Play Company); Gina Gionfriddo's US Drag (stageFARM); Bert V. Royal's Dog Sees God (The Century Center); Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa's Dark Matters (Rattlestick Theater); Jonathan Tolin's The Last Sunday in June (Century Center and Rattlestick Theater); Glen Berger's The Wooden Breeks (MCC Theater); Paul Weitz's Roulette (EST); Rinne Groff's Of a White Christmas (Clubbed Thumb); Gary Sunshine's Sweetness and Brooke Berman's Sam and Lucy (both at Summer Play Festival '04) and The Wau Wau Sisters (Ars Nova). Regional credits include the World Premiere of Lloyd Suh's American Hwangap (Magic Theatre), Six Degrees of Separation (Old Globe) the World Premiere of Richard Greenberg's The Injured Party at South Coast Rep, Keith Huff's A Steady Rain and The Petersons Project (both at New York Stage and Film), Lauren Weedman's Rash (The Empty Space, Seattle), John Guare's Six Degrees of Separation (The Old Globe, San Diego). Training: Yale School of Drama.

Arabian Night tells the tale of one steamy summer night in an anonymous housing complex. When the water supply mysteriously disappears, four people are drawn to the apartment of a sleeping beauty, where their fantasies are unleashed and their destinies collide.

REVIEWS OF ARABIAN NIGHT:

“The New York production, acted with delightfully subtle humor, is directed by Trip Cullman with a confident, playful stylishness.”
The New York Times

Written by

Roland Schimmelpfennig

Translated by

David Tushingham

Directed by

Trip Cullman

Featuring

Roxanna Hope Piter Marek Brandon Miller Stelio Savante Jicky Schnee

Set Design

Louisa Thompson

Costume Design

Katherine Roth

Lighting Design

Lenore Doxsee

Sound Design

Bart Fasbender

Production Stage Manager

Marion Friedman

Venue

THE EAST 13TH STREET THEATER 136 East 13th Street New York, NY 10011