by Sam Riley, directed by Paul Kropfl
Promised Land is a tragic love story set in the present day in a small town south of the Mason-Dixon line. Hunter, a waitress at Applebee's who dreams of touring the country on a never-ending road trip, meets Hank, a simple, emotionally wounded construction worker, at the Palace bar. As their romance evolves, we come to understand their desperation and the struggles of the families they live with. Hunter sleeps on a cot in the living room of her older sister Mary's house with Mary's boyfriend Mike and their infant daughter in a family situation going nowhere. Mike has lost his job and, pressured by Mary to support their family, enlists in the military. Hank lives with his alcoholic, abusive father, Wayne who is unable to come to terms with his own failings and rails against Hank for straying from the path Wayne raised him to follow. Hank and Hunter plan to escape but are trapped in an emotionally vacuous landscape and subject to the heartbreak of hope and alienation.
"I wanna know America, Hank," expounds the young protagonist Hunter. "I wanna know it so deep that when it starts to show its ugly face I can rest knowin' I've seen its heart."
Promised Land is also celebration of the role of the artist, the free-thinking, free-feeling individual who uses his medium to hold a mirror to contemporary society. In the tradition of Sam Shepard and Clifford Odets, Sam Riley writes about America out of conviction for the exhilarating potential of the theater as a conduit for social change. Inspired to counteract the transgression of our societal values from rugged individualism to complacent consumerism, Riley lays a bold path toward serious examination of American culture with Promised Land.
"I wanna know America, Hank," expounds the young protagonist Hunter. "I wanna know it so deep that when it starts to show its ugly face I can rest knowin' I've seen its heart."
Promised Land is also celebration of the role of the artist, the free-thinking, free-feeling individual who uses his medium to hold a mirror to contemporary society. In the tradition of Sam Shepard and Clifford Odets, Sam Riley writes about America out of conviction for the exhilarating potential of the theater as a conduit for social change. Inspired to counteract the transgression of our societal values from rugged individualism to complacent consumerism, Riley lays a bold path toward serious examination of American culture with Promised Land.
Open: 05/27/05 Close: 06/11/05 Schedule: Wednesday, June 1st at 8:30pm Thursday, June 2nd at 8:30pm Friday, June 3rd at 8:30pm Saturday, June 4th at 8:30pm Sunday, June 5th at 2pm & 8pm Monday, June 6th at 8pm Wednesday, June 8th at 8pm Thursday, June 9th at 8pm Friday, June 10th at 8pm Saturday, June 11th at 8pm |
Theater: Stella Adler Studio Address: 31 West 27th Street New York, NY Google Maps Directions click here to close between Broadway and 6th Avenue -- accessible from the N/R train at 28th Street or the F train at 23rd Street. |
Cost:$15.00 Buy Tickets Online ![]() |