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Encore Awards

Following a successful reading of Sinan Ünel’s play, Pera Pelas,a work dealing with Turkish culture and history, during The Lark Theatre Company’s Playwrights Week in 1997, the author revised the script, and the play was produced during the Theatre’s 1998 "BareBones" season. During the developmental process for the play, the American Turkish Society, a federation of Turkish and American businesses active in various industries, began to promote the play actively within its constituency and the New York Turkish community. In response to mail, telephone and internet campaigns waged by the American Turkish Society in advance of the 1998 BareBones production, ticket sales rose by as much as 50% from previous productions. In addition, the American Turkish Society made sure that many of its major constituent businesses were represented in the audience.

The subsequent off-Broadway production was made possible by the efforts of the Society in gathering financial support from constituent businesses such as Turkish Airlines, Atlantic Records, Kiska Construction Corporation, Bremen House, Pasha Restaurant, Deniz a la Turk and others. These businesses, in turn, arranged for press events and international coverage, and encouraged individuals and Turkish diplomatic agencies to become part of this snowballing success story. Critics and audiences received the play with great excitement during its six-week, standing room-only run in the summer of 1998.

The American Turkish Society, which seeks to foster ties between the Turkish and American business communities, was ready and able to propel the production of Pera Palas one step further then The Lark Theatre Company could do alone. In so doing, the Society helped bring Turkey’s culture and history into a positive light on the New York stage.