Kafka wrote this tale in 1917; however, its themes of lost identity and marred freedom will grip any modern audience today. In this tale, Red Peter details his transformation from ape to human from the horrors of being snatched into captivity and held within a confining cage to the realization that he must become something he is not in order to obtain something like freedom.

About the artist: Drew Valins, native of Tampa, Florida, blood relative to New York City, is a performer in various forms. Drew began his training with Anna Brennen of Stageworks Theater in Tampa, FL and in Classical acting at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, and then went on to
train in Commedia at the del Arte School of Physical Theater, in Clown with various teachers including Jef Johnson of Slava s Snowshow, and in contemporary theater with Michael Howard and Larry Singer. Most recently he played the role of Iago in the final season of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, a 20 year-old NYC tradition. One critic wrote: "His Iago is handled as expertly as Kenneth Branaugh s with Lawrence Fishburne as Othello, or Bob Hoskin s with Anthony Hopkins Othello. His ongoing solo project, Franz Fragments, in which
he theatrically probes the many works of Franz Kafka, has appeared on numerous stages and alternative spaces." Over the past year Drew collaborated with D.C.´s own Alliance for New Music-Theater and the Czech Republic's Mirka Čechová in The Vaclav Havel Project, in which he played Ferdinand Vanek, Havel´s alter-ego.
For more information visit www.drewvalins.com.

Teaser available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4RESNsLtKE

Embassy of the Czech Republic
3900 Spring of Freedom Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008