Working Theater presents the limited Off-Broadway engagement of EXIT
CUCKOO, a new play written and performed by Lisa Ramirez, about nannies
and the families who employ them, which will run April 17-May 17 at Theater Row’s Clurman
Theatre (410 West 42nd Street) in Manhattan.

EXIT CUCKOO is
about women, the choices they make, the competing pressures they
encounter, and the defining effect this has on how children are raised.
The play is a hilarious and profoundly moving collage of mothers,
nannies and caretakers, and the complex chemistry between them.

Domestic
workers are currently pushing for a "Domestic Workers Bill of Rights",
as they are one of the few groups of workers not covered by state or
national labor laws. EXIT CUCKOO reveals the many stories of this
largely unrepresented population of workers who wage a tireless effort
to establish basic rights for themselves and their families. Working
Theater will host post-performance discussions on topics including "The
Politics of Domestic Workers", "The Nanny Legacy" and "Nannies,
Parenting and the Feminist Movement" in order to facilitate a dialogue
and deepen appreciation of the issues raised in the play.

EXIT
CUCKOO tells the story of Lisa, a playwright and actress who knows her
way inside and out of the "nanny problem." Her mother, a gifted but
frustrated poet, passed on to Lisa her devout sensitivity to language
as well as her ambivalent relationship to motherhood and its demands.
That, as well as Lisa’s own experience working as a nanny in New York,
has prepared her to write this story from an authentic and compassionate perspective. And she embodies each character in this diverse constellation with equal honesty, humor and humanity.

EXIT CUCKOO has
been work-shopped regionally and abroad, with the support of playwright
and performer Eve Ensler (THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES). At the 2008 Midtown
International Theatre Festival in New York, EXIT CUCKOO was awarded
Best Overall Performance of a Solo Show, and Lisa received the award
for Outstanding Actor (Female) from The Talkin’ Broadway 2008 Summer
Theatre Festival Citations.

EXIT CUCKOO runs April 17-May 17, 2009 at Theatre Row’s Clurman Theatre
(410 West 42nd Street);
Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8pm; Saturdays at 2pm and Sundays at 3pm.
Tickets are $25. Union member discount: $23.
For reservations, contact www.ticketcentral.com or call 212-279-4200.

For more information about EXIT CUCKOO, visit www.theworkingtheater.org

ABOUT WORKING THEATER:
Founded
in 1985, Working Theater’s mission is to produce plays for and about
working people (the majority of Americans working in the industrial,
transportation and service industries.) We believe that theater should
not be a privilege or a luxury, but a staple. We want working people
who may not be able to afford commercial theater or who feel that it
does not resonate with their lives and experience, to make play-going a
regular part of their cultural activities. Toward that goal, we offer
stories that reflect a diverse population of the working majority,
acknowledging their complexity and often-denied power in an
increasingly complex world. By creating theater of interest to working
people and by bringing this constituency to our productions we aim to
change the composition of New York’s theater audience to reflect a full
range of socio-economic diversity. We recognize that we live in a
society that is often polarized by economic, cultural and class
differences, and that while these differences can sometimes be
divisive, they are often the most interesting things about us. In a
nation that is frequently divided by cultural and class distinctions
and where economic disparity continues to widen, Working Theater is
committed to making theater that can bridge those divisions, expanding
the reach of theater’s impact to all people, uniting us in our common
humanity.