backstroke boys

An Irons in the Fire Project

June 30, 2022 @ 4:30pm

41 White Street

Written by Xavier Clark
Directed by Ryan Dobrin

Audience must be masked and provide proof of vaccination with valid ID.
This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Feel free to contact us with any questions on accessibility.

Synopsis

Can you hold onto your faith when it asks you to show grace and acceptance towards everyone and everything but yourself? Quentin, newly arrived to a brand new high school (and country) befriends Zia, the captain of the swim team in this poetic coming of age story about the perils of young love colliding with faith and family.

Performed By

Anthony Adu
Ayse Eldek
Mark Yowakim

Stage Manager: Hannah Sgambellone

Playwright

XAVIER CLARK [he/him] is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, born and raised in Turkey. As a playwright, he has developed work with The National Black Theatre, Fault Line Theatre, Playwrights' Arena, and Echo Theatre Company of Los Angeles. His play supper was a finalist for the 2022 O'Neill NPC. His play backstroke boys was selected as a finalist for The 2021 Blue Ink Playwriting Award and The New Harmony Project's 2020 Spring Conference. He was a member of The Gatekeeper's Collective's inaugural "learning to love" playwriting fellowship, led by Donja R. Love. He earned his B.F.A. in Drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where he is currently on faculty through the Stella Adler Studio and Atlantic Acting School, and his M.F.A. in Acting from UC San Diego.

Director

RYAN DOBRIN [he/him] is a queer, biracial New York-based director and producer interested in the exploration of emotional growth, spectacle, otherness, human connection, and morality. He is one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of The Movement Theatre Company, an Embodying Antiracism Initiative guest artist fellow at Wesleyan University, a member of the 2020-2022 Roundabout Directors Group, and the director of Those Guilty Creatures. Previous fellowships include Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Ars Nova. Ryan has been an associate/assistant for directors including Tony-winners Sam Gold, Billy Porter, and Christopher Ashley as well as Trip Cullman, Tyne Rafaeli, and Margot Bordelon. Recent directing includes productions and development with Victory Gardens Theater, The Drama League, Fordham University, Atlantic Acting School, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing, Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, A4, Playdate Theatre, Ars Nova, and Waterwell. Upcoming projects include: his short film The Homiesexuals: a social media tragedy by Gage Tarlton, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow by Halley Feiffer at the University of Michigan, and associate director to Maria Friedman on Merrily We Roll Along starring Daniel Radcliffe at New York Theatre Workshop. Ryan graduated from Wesleyan University, where he received the Rachel Henderson Theater Prize and the Outreach & Community Service Prize in Theater. www.Ryandobrin.com

Poster Art by Sean Devare
Photography by Angela of York