Berkeley Rep to Premiere Eve Ensler's EMOTIONAL CREATURE in Summer 2012

Today, at an event overflowing with fans of her work, Tony Award-winning playwright, performer, and activist Eve Ensler announced that Berkeley Repertory Theatre will present the world premiere of her new show.

On the stage of the Roda Theatre, she revealed that Emotional Creature - which was developed during workshops in Johannesburg and Paris - will debut in Berkeley next June. Known for launching high-profile projects such as American Idiot and Passing Strange, Berkeley Rep is the perfect place to begin this journey.

"Emotional Creature is about being a girl in the world in 2011 and about discovering the girl in each of us," Ensler remarks. "It is about changing the verb from please to create or defy or resist or imagine. It is about traveling and dancing and refusing. It is about telling secrets and breaking taboos and building a posse. Where else would we begin this in America than Berkeley, in what other theater than Berkeley Rep, which has a gorgeous history of pushing The Edge, engaging in social issues, and conjuring community."

"Eve Ensler is a force of nature," says Tony Taccone, artistic director of Berkeley Rep. "Her passion, joy, and complete commitment to the making of Emotional Creature were immediately apparent to me. She is dedicated to this almost antiquated idea that theatre can change lives - and she settles for nothing less. This show is more evidence of that. Ms. Ensler has found a way to give adolescent girls an important opportunity to express themselves in a creative and dynamic way. It's thrilling for us to be part of it."

Ensler's latest effort to empower people is based on her bestselling novel I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World. Staged by Obie Award-winning director Jo Bonney, this powerful new play is made up of original monologues, irresistible songs, and music about and for girls. Placing their stories squarely center stage, it gives full expression to their secret voices and innermost thoughts, highlighting the diversity and commonality of the issues they face. Emotional Creature is a call, a reckoning, an education, an act of empowerment for girls, and an illumination for parents and for us all.

Eve Ensler is the author of The Vagina Monologues, which has been translated into 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries, including sold-out runs off Broadway and on London's West End. Her experience performing that show inspired her to create V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. Her other work includes plays such as The Good Body and Here, the memoir Insecure at Last, and the anthology A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and a Prayer, co-edited with Mollie Doyle.

Jo Bonney has directed world premieres for noted writers such as Alan Ball, Eric Bogosian, Culture Clash, Jessica Goldberg, Neil LaBute, Warren Leight, Lynn Nottage, Darci Picoult, Suzan Lori-Parks, José Rivera, Christopher Shinn, Diana Son, Naomi Wallace, and Michael Weller. At Berkeley Rep, she staged the world premiere of Danny Hoch's Jails, Hospitals & Hip Hop. Her off-Broadway production of Will Power's The Seven won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical and her staging of Lanford Wilson's Fifth of July won the Lortel Award for Best Revival.

Emotional Creature will play only 36 performances at Berkeley Rep, beginning on June 15 and running through July 15. Tickets go on sale to Berkeley Rep's subscribers on October 26; the public can access seats beginning November 6. Tickets start at $29 - half that for anyone under 30 years of age. To purchase seats, or for more information, call (510) 647-2949 or toll-free at (888) 4-BRT-Tix - or just click berkeleyrep.org.