THE LIST PROJECT INVITES YOU TO A SPECIAL SHOWING OF GEORGE PACKER’S “B E T R A Y E D” AT THE CULTURE PROJECT THURSDAY, MAY 15 AT 8 PM

THERE WILL BE A SPECIAL POST-PERFORMANCE CONVERSATION WITH GEORGE PACKER & LIST PROJECT FOUNDER KIRK JOHNSON

CULTURE PROJECT IS OFFERING A ONE-NIGHT DISCOUNTED TICKET PRICE TO FRIENDS OF THE LIST PROJECT. TO ORDER TICKETS, CALL 212-352-3101 OR VISIT WWW.CULTUREPROJECT.ORG AND USE DISCOUNT CODE L25STCP

STANDARD SEATS $25 (REGULARLY $35)
PREMIUM SEATS $45 (REGULARLY $60)

New York, NY –-- Culture Project (Allan Buchman, Artistic Director) has announced that it will host The List Project for a special post-show discussion, following the Thursday, May 15 performance of its critically acclaimed World Premiere production of George Packer’s play Betrayed. Following the 8:00 p.m. performance, Packer will be joined by Kirk Johnson, founder of The List Project, a former United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officer whose work to resettle Iraqis endangered by working with American organizations helped inspire Packer’s play. Packer and Johnson will be joined by Ehab Al-Kuttub, an Iraqi currently working with The List Project and the evening will be moderated by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, National Editor of The Washington Post and author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City.

Directed by Pippin Parker, Betrayed marks Packer’s playwriting debut. The play opened in February to rave reviews and has been extended through June 28, 2008. Most recently, it won the 2008 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, and was nominated for the John Gassner Award by the Outer Critics Circle.

In early 2007, George Packer published an article in The New Yorker about Iraqi interpreters who jeopardized their lives on behalf of the Americans in Iraq, with little or no U.S. protection or security. The article drew national attention to the humanitarian crisis and moral scandal. Betrayed, based on Mr. Packer's interviews in Baghdad, tells the story of three young Iraqis - two men and one woman - motivated to risk everything by America's promise of freedom. Betrayed explores the complex relationships among the Iraqis themselves, and with their American supervisor, struggling to find purpose while a country collapses around them.

The cast of Betrayed includes Aadya Bedi, Ramsey Faragallah, Sevan Greene, Christopher Kromer, Eric Troy Miller, Ramiz Monsef and Waleed F. Zuaiter.

The design team is comprised of Garin Marschall (Set and Lighting), Eric Shim (Sound) and Rabiah Troncelliti (Costumes).

Betrayed plays the following performance schedule: Monday at 8 p.m., Wednesday – Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. Tickets are priced at $35 - $60 and are available by calling 212-352-3101 or visiting www.cultureproject.org. Culture Project is located at 55 Mercer Street (at Broome) in the heart of SoHo.

BIOS

George Packer is a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author, most recently, of The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq, which won several awards and was named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2005. He has published two other works of non-fiction, The Village of Waiting (1988), a memoir about his years in the Peace Corps in West Africa and Blood of the Liberals (2000), a three-generational political history, which won the 2001 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He has also published two novels, The Half Man (1991) and Central Square (1998) and is the editor of The Fight Is for Democracy: Winning the War of Ideas in America and the World (2003). His articles, essays and reviews on foreign affairs, American politics and literature have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Dissent and other publications. He lives in Brooklyn.

Kirk W. Johnson is an Arabist and writer, focusing on U.S. foreign policy and political Islam throughout the Middle East. He has worked and researched throughout the region, most recently on the reconstruction of Iraq for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Baghdad and in Fallujah. As founder and director of The List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies, Johnson has become a leading public advocate for Iraqis who assisted the U.S. Government. In his capacity as director, he has brought together over 100 attorneys from three leading law firms to offer thousands of hours of pro bono representation for Iraqi refugees on his list, and is cultivating a nation-wide grassroots support effort. He has written op-eds on the subject for the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and has discussed the issue in numerous media outlets. He has lived in Egypt, Syria and Iraq and conducted research trips to Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the West Bank.

Ehab Al-Kuttub was born in Kirkuk and raised in Baghdad. Trained as an engineer, Al-Kuttub joined USAID in 2003. After receiving numerous awards within the US government, Al-Kuttub resigned from USAID and took a position with a private security company that was working inside and out of the Green Zone. Al-Kuttub then came under attack from various local groups, and received a death threat from one of them. Around that time, Al-Kuttub was diagnosed with glioma, a central nervous system brain tumor, which has since been described as a brain hemorrhage that resulted from a stroke. While suffering from this medical condition, Al-Kuttub survived a dangerous journey to freedom that took him through India, Syria and eventually Egypt, where he was imprisoned and tortured. In October 2007, Al-Kuttub was brought to the US with the help of Holland & Knight and The List Project. He was hired ten days after he resettled in the US to serve as a case coordinator for The List Project at Proskauer Rose, where he works to help other Iraqis find freedom and safety. He currently lives in NYC.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran is the National Editor of The Washington Post and the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, a best-selling account of the bungled American effort to reconstruct Iraq. The book was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2007 by the New York Times and was a finalist for the National Book Award. As National Editor, he oversees the newspaper’s national news content, including coverage of the federal government and domestic politics, foreign policy, national security, social issues, science and medicine. From April 2003 to October 2004, he was The Post's bureau chief in Baghdad, where he was responsible for covering the American occupation of Iraq and supervising a team of Post correspondents. He joined The Post in 1994 as a reporter on the Metropolitan staff. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, he holds a degree in political science from Stanford University, where he was editor in chief of The Stanford Daily.

The List Project is a small non-profit advocating for Iraqis endangered by their work with American organizations to be resettled to the United States. Founded on June 20, 2007, World Refugee Day, it currently employs four full-time staff and dozens of committed volunteers. It has partnered with law firms Holland & Knight, Proskauer Rose and Mayer Brown, which have contributed nearly 100 attorneys for pro bono representation of Iraqis to help them navigate the complicated resettlement process. It also partners with Upwardly Global, an innovative NGO committed to helping refugees find meaningful employment, which has committed to assisting the Iraqis on the List once they arrive to the U.S. For more information about The List Project, visit www.thelistproject.org.

Culture Project's mission is to bear witness to injustice, to stimulate challenging conversation about the most profound and urgent matters of our time and to convert interest, energy and engagement into a motivational demand for progressive change. Culture Project has premiered celebrated shows including The Exonerated, Sarah Jones’ Bridge & Tunnel, Guantanamo, AMAJUBA: Like Doves We Rise and Lawrence Wright’s My Trip To Al-Qaeda and most recently presented Dan Hoyle’s acclaimed solo show Tings Dey Happen. www.cultureproject.org