PRESS CONTACT: Andra Belknap, [email protected] and 805-798-577

NEED A MAP TO DISTRICTLAND?
 DC playwright Cristina Bejan’s new satire of young, professional Washington comes to the Capital Fringe Festival. Production is the first of new culture & arts collective Bucharest Inside the Beltway.

Bucharest Inside the Beltway presents DISTRICTLAND by Cristina Bejan
Directed by John Dellaporta
Featuring Andrew Quilpa, Ruthie Rado, Johnny Day, Aaren Keith, Vick Krishna, Mary-Alice Farina, Andra Belknap, Peter Orvetti, Carson Gregory, Robyn Freeman, Russell Max Simon and Kathleen Mason

Where: Redrum at Fort Fringe (612 L Street NW, Washington, DC, 20001)
When: Friday July 11, 10:30 pm; Sunday July 13, 8 pm; Wednesday July 16, 6:30 pm; Saturday July 19, 2:15 pm; Wednesday July 23, 9 pm and Sunday July 27, 6:15 pm.
Tickets: Tickets start at $17, buttons at $5, please visit capitalfringe.org or call 1-866-811-4111 after June 19th.

(WASHINGTON, DC) – DISTRICTLAND, a new play by Cristina Bejan, will open July 11th at Capital Fringe 2014’s Redrum Theatre. The world premiere of DISTRICTLAND is the first production of Bucharest Inside the Beltway, DC’s new culture and arts collective.

DISTRICTLAND celebrates a day in the bustling life of today’s young Washingtonian. The play focuses on four yuppies sharing the (very DC) experience of life cohabitating in a group house and fanning out one morning into the various DC “worlds” they inhabit – the State Department, Georgetown Law, Busboys and Poets, World Bank, Peace Corps, the Hill, online dating, slam poetry, Happy Hour, and McKinsey, among others.

Spoiler Alert: You are not your LinkedIn profile!

Bejan says the play was, “sparked by the bizarre experiences and intense expectations I lived as a twentysomething trying to make it in the District. I am Romanian-American, and Romanian culture very much celebrates absurdity (e.g. playwrights Ionesco and Caragiale). I decided that everything around me was a little too ridiculous and it was time to bring a little bit of a Bucharest sensibility (at least theatrically) to the Beltway.”

DISTRICTLAND will be directed by John Dellaporta, who most recently assistant directed Avenue Q at the Olney Theatre Center. Dellaporta says, "Washington, DC, is a city obsessed with ‘connections,’ and what struck me most about the piece was how little the characters are actually able to connect. That’s all anyone here really wants, and the city and its culture keep getting in the way. My hope is that DISTRICTLAND will make you laugh, of course, but also make you open yourself up a bit.”

Though the play is satirical, Dellaporta and Bejan both see a lot of hope and optimism in DISTRICTLAND. The play suggests that there is more to life than climbing the ladder. “It’s a loving tribute to youth and ambition and a plea for all of us to slow down, open a bottle of wine and just talk to the people we live with,” says Bejan.

DISTRICTLAND runs in the Redrum venue at Fort Fringe (612 L Street NW, Washington, DC, 20001) Friday July 11, 10:30 pm; Sunday July 13, 8 pm; Wednesday July 16, 6:30 pm; Saturday July 19, 2:15 pm; Wednesday July 23, 9 pm and Sunday July 27, 6:15 pm. Individual tickets are available for $17 and a Fringe button is required ($5 before July 10 and $7 thereafter) and multi-show festival passes are available ranging from $60 to $350. Tickets go on sale officially at the Capital Fringe Box Office on June 19, 2014. You can buy them online at capitalfringe.org or call 1-866-811-4111.

Bucharest Inside the Beltway is a new local and international culture and arts collective based in Washington, DC. Further information about DISTRICTLAND, can be found at bucharestinsidethebeltway.com/districtland. Production photos can be accessed here: http://www.bucharestinsidethebeltway.com/production-photos.html.

Bucharest Inside the Beltway was conceived in 2008 by Cristina Bejan and Rucsandra Pop in Bucharest, Romania, as a result of collaborating on a production of Bejan’s play Colombo Calling – a play from Sri Lanka starring Maia Morgenstern. Through Bucharest Inside the Beltway, Bejan hopes to bring the spirit of diversity and collaboration in service of culture and art that she witnessed in Romania to the District. The collective aims to celebrate performance, writing, translation, visual art, music, film, education and expression in all languages. Bucharest Inside the Beltway’s board includes such distinguished local and international cultural figures as Blair Ruble, Leslie Hawke, Michelle Chatman, Richard Byrne, and Banuta Rubess. Bucharest Inside the Beltway is also grateful for the support of the Romanian Embassy to the United States.

Cristina Bejan wears two Federal badges by day and lives for the theatre by night. She has written fourteen plays, one book and numerous essays and poems. Bejan grew up in North Carolina, then lived in five countries and now calls DC home. She is a Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Scholar and Oxford DPhil (PhD).