Working Theater presents: EXIT CUCKOO | Make the Road New York

May 17, 2009

Working Theater presents: EXIT CUCKOO

By Make the Road New York Staff / Make the Road New York

Working Theater presents the limited Off-Broadway engagement of EXIT CUCKOO, a new play written and performed by Lisa Ramirez, about nannies and the families who employ them, which will run April 17-May 17 at Theater Row's Clurman Theatre (410 West 42nd Street) in Manhattan.

EXIT CUCKOO is about women, the choices they make, the competing pressures they encounter, and the defining effect this has on how children are raised. The play is a hilarious and profoundly moving collage of mothers, nannies and caretakers, and the complex chemistry between them.

Domestic workers are currently pushing for a "Domestic Workers Bill of Rights", as they are one of the few groups of workers not covered by state or national labor laws. EXIT CUCKOO reveals the many stories of this largely unrepresented population of workers who wage a tireless effort to establish basic rights for themselves and their families. Working Theater will host post-performance discussions on topics including "The Politics of Domestic Workers", "The Nanny Legacy" and "Nannies, Parenting and the Feminist Movement" in order to facilitate a dialogue and deepen appreciation of the issues raised in the play.

EXIT CUCKOO tells the story of Lisa, a playwright and actress who knows her way inside and out of the "nanny problem." Her mother, a gifted but frustrated poet, passed on to Lisa her devout sensitivity to language as well as her ambivalent relationship to motherhood and its demands. That, as well as Lisa's own experience working as a nanny in New York, has prepared her to write this story from an authentic and compassionate perspective. And she embodies each character in this diverse constellation with equal honesty, humor and humanity.

EXIT CUCKOO has been work-shopped regionally and abroad, with the support of playwright and performer Eve Ensler (THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES). At the 2008 Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York, EXIT CUCKOO was awarded Best Overall Performance of a Solo Show, and Lisa received the award for Outstanding Actor (Female) from The Talkin' Broadway 2008 Summer Theatre Festival Citations.

EXIT CUCKOO runs April 17-May 17, 2009 at Theatre Row's Clurman Theatre
(410 West 42nd Street);
Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at 3pm.
Tickets are $25. Union member discount: $23.
For reservations, contact www.ticketcentral.com or call 212-279-4200.
For more information about EXIT CUCKOO, visit www.theworkingtheater.org

ABOUT WORKING THEATER:
Founded in 1985, Working Theater's mission is to produce plays for and about working people (the majority of Americans working in the industrial, transportation and service industries.) We believe that theater should not be a privilege or a luxury, but a staple. We want working people who may not be able to afford commercial theater or who feel that it does not resonate with their lives and experience, to make play-going a regular part of their cultural activities. Toward that goal, we offer stories that reflect a diverse population of the working majority, acknowledging their complexity and often-denied power in an increasingly complex world. By creating theater of interest to working people and by bringing this constituency to our productions we aim to change the composition of New York's theater audience to reflect a full range of socio-economic diversity. We recognize that we live in a society that is often polarized by economic, cultural and class differences, and that while these differences can sometimes be divisive, they are often the most interesting things about us. In a nation that is frequently divided by cultural and class distinctions and where economic disparity continues to widen, Working Theater is committed to making theater that can bridge those divisions, expanding the reach of theater's impact to all people, uniting us in our common humanity.