Shorts

West Coast Premiere A Girl's War An Armenian-Azeri Love Story written by Joyce Van Dyke directed by Torange Yeghiazarian featuring Ana Bayat, Adrian Mejia, Zarif Sadiqi, Simon Vance* and Bella Warda

* Opening: Monday, February 16, ends March 8

* Thick House, 1695 18th St, San Francisco

Golden Thread Productions is proud to present the West Coast premiere of Armenian-American playwright Joyce Van Dyke's award-winning play, A Girl's War.

This love story of opposite sides was first produced at Boston Playwrights' Theatre in 2001. Named one of the "top ten" plays of the year by the Boston Globe, A Girl's War won the John Gassner Playwriting and the Provincetown Theatre Company Playwriting Awards. During a stormy fashion shoot, Anna Sarkisian, a New York fashion model, learns that her younger brother has been killed by enemy soldiers in her native Karabakh in the Caucasus Mountains.

In the Armenian enclave of Karabakh, formerly part of the Soviet Union, an unresolved civil war still smolders between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. The war has already killed Anna's older brother and driven her mother into the army. Anna decides to return home to her village for the first time in 15 years. Living with her fiercely partisan Armenian mother in the bombed ruin of her childhood home, Anna defiantly refuses to identify herself with the Armenian cause.

Tensions ignite when, Ilyas, a young Azeri deserter shows up, claiming to be a former neighbor. Anna and Ilyas, powerfully drawn to one another, become lovers in secret. The competing desires of love and vengeance, fueled by jealousy, propel the characters toward an explosive climax with tragic consequences.

For more information please visit www.goldenthread.org