THE EXTREMISTS

Directed by Walter D. Asmus

Set and Costumes: Faye Allen · Light Design: Ralf Arndt  · Stage Manager: Shelby Hofer

With Del Hamilton and Tim Habeger

Berlin run: February 13 - 28 2009 / Atlanta run: March 29 - April 19 2009

Spin or fact? Theater or reality? A biting, original political satire that challenges audiences of any political affiliation, THE EXTREMISTS is a labyrinth of wordplay and mind games in which a television talk show host and his guest who wrote a book about terrorism get lost in their own doublespeak ... or are they really double-agents, subversively reprogramming our sound-byte-saturated minds?

This is a funny and fast-paced work of fiction, not an extract pulled from today’s headlines or news shows … but really, what’s the difference anymore? What does it say about the state of democracy, when the majority of citizens in the most powerful democratic country in the
world can be led to war by nothing more than sophisticated marketing tactics? How free are we really? Are we thinking critically? How could we be, having been subjected to non-stop media manipulation from the time we were born?

 
C.J. Hopkins

C.J. Hopkins began writing for the stage in 1987. In 1994 he was awarded a Drama League of New York Developing Artist fellowship, and, in 1995, a development residency at Mabou Mines. The premiere of his first full-length play, HORSE COUNTRY, was presented at HERE Arts Center in New York City in 1997. Since then, Hopkins’ works, including A PLACE LIKE THIS, THE INSTALLATION, HOW TO ENTERTAIN THE RICH, THE POSITION, CUNNILINGUISTICS, TEXAS RADIO, and various experimental texts, have been produced regularly in New York, and in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Chicago, among other US cities.

In 2002, the UK premiere of HORSE COUNTRY was presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won several awards, among them, the most prestigious writing award of the festival, the Scotsman ‘First of the Fringe Firsts.’ Since then, HORSE COUNTRY has toured and been produced internationally, playing theatres and festivals including London, Edinburgh, Sydney, The Du Maurier World Stage Festival in Toronto, the Brighton Festival, and the Noorderzon Festival in Holland. In 2004, HORSE COUNTRY again won a ‘Best of the Fringe’ award, this time at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.

In 2005, the world premiere of SREWMACHINE/EYECANDY, or: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE BIG BOB was presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won a Scotsman ‘Fringe First’. The New York premiere was presented at 59E59 Theaters in the Spring of 2006.

Since 2004, Hopkins has been based in Berlin, Germany, where, in 2006, he was commissioned to write and direct a site-specific play, DER AUFSTAND, for the Freie Universität Berlin. The German-language world premiere was staged in the University’s Philological Library designed by Norman Foster. The English version, THE INSURGENCY, was published in 2006 in the premiere issue of Bordercrossing Berlin. In 2007, Hopkins was commissioned by the Technische Fachhochschule Wildau, in Brandenburg, to create a site-specific multimedia piece, NUR GEREDE, KEINE TATEN, which was presented at the University in October.

Although based in Europe, Hopkins maintains close ties to New York, where he is associated with Clancy Productions, and with director John Clancy, with whom he has collaborated on several productions since 1998.

more about CJ Hopkins HERE

Walter D. Asmus

is a well-known German theater director who worked with Samuel Beckett on many occasions for the stage and television, from the time they first met at the Schiller-Theater in Berlin in 1974. He became his assistant director on their famous production of WAITING FOR GODOT. He has directed all of Beckett's plays internationally including WAITING FOR GODOT at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York in 1978 and the Gate Theatre, Dublin in 1988. His television work includes FOOTFALLS, ROCKBY and EH JOE with Billie Whitelaw, and a French version of WAITING FOR GODOT with Roman Polanski as Lucky.

He was co-organizer and Artistic Director of the international festival, `Beckett in Berlin 2000´. In 2000/2001 he directed the filming of FOOTFALLS with Susan FitzGerald for the `Beckett on Film´ project in Dublin. In 2004 he directed WAITING FOR GODOT at 7 Stages, Atlanta and for the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura,  California.  In 2005, he directed the first Chinese production of ENDGAME in Mandarinin Shanghai, China. Recently, he directed a stage adaptation of Beckett's Novella FIRST LOVE forthe Writer’s Festival in Sydney. Walter D. Asmus was a friend of Beckett's until the writer’s death in 1989.

Del Hamilton

As co-founder of 7 Stages, Del Hamilton has been a part of the company since its inception in 1979. As Artistic Director, he has directed over 60 productions at 7 Stages, including numerous plays by Sam Shepard and, most recently, THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint Exupery and WHO´S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? by Edward Albee. He has also acted in numerous plays. Del directed a very successful production of ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO´S NEST at Teatr Nowy in Poznan, Poland, and he has acted and directed at many notable theaters in Atlanta, New York, London, Paris, Belgrade, Johannesburg and Amsterdam. Del is the author of several plays and has received numerous awards.

Tim Habeger

Co-Founder and Artistic Director of PushPush Theater, is a director and writer for film and theater.
In New York  City, he worked with Ellen Stewart at La Mama ETC, was in the company at The Neighborhood Group Theater and served as artistic director of Bridge Arts.
Habeger worked at 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta where, among other tasks, he was Joseph Chaikin’s assistant, and he helped coordinate artistic workshops in coordination with a Rockefeller Foundation sponsored New Play Project, and a US/Netherlands multi-year touring program.  As a project of Del Hamilton’s Project 7, Tim co-founded a multi-year series of theater workshops that served over 100 professional theater artists.
As a result of these workshops, in 1997, he founded Atlanta's PushPush Theater to develop new methods of collaborative rehearsal and as a venue for producing new and rare work. PushPush has since presented over 150 full productions, 16 theater and play festivals, and 350 artist workshops. In 2007, along with several local, national and international artists, he began the creation of a completely new style of 21st Century Theater that uses open-source models to connect Atlanta to a global arts’ community.
The PushPush theater/film program, Dailies, now in its fifth year, has produced over 150 short films and was instrumental in the development of two feature-length films: THE LAST GOODBYE (Warner Brothers, 2005) and THE SIGNAL (Magnolia Pictures, 2007)  that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
He completed a three-year apprenticeship in dance/theater with Stanley Zompakos of The New York City Ballet and was certified in dance and drama in New York’s Artist-in-Residence program. He taught for film for three years at AMDA where he also created a new movement curriculum.  He continues to be active in theater training and course development. He has been an instructor and artist-in-residence at universities, conservatories, and performing arts’ schools since 1978.
Tim is currently collaborating on a new film-series, GRFX, about a graphic novel publishing company as well as developing The Portal Project in collaboration with 7 Stages Theater in order to support international exchange.