Salt Lake Acting Company - NPSS

I Want You by Kathleen Cahill

A comedy about a married couple...what they said, what they never said, what they wish they had said. Like the lyrics in Billy Joel's song: “Please open the door, nothing is different, we've been here before. Pacing these halls, trying to talk over the silence.”

Cast:

Creative Team:

CREATIVE TEAM BIOS:

KATHLEEN CAHILL (PLAYWRIGHT | she/her)
Kathleen is a graduate in Musical Theatre at the Tisch School of the Arts. Her  awards include three Edgerton Foundation Awards, the Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award, two Connecticut Commission on the Arts Playwrighting Awards, a Massachusetts Artists Foundation Award, a Rockefeller Grant, a National Endowment for the Arts New American Works Grant, and a Drama League Award. She was a DGF Travelling Master in 2019. Her play The Persian Quarter was nominated for a Steinberg Award (published by Dramatic Publishing). Her produced musicals include Friendship of the Sea (North Shore Music Theatre) Dakota Sky (Olney Theatre) an opera, Clara, two opera/cabarets, A Tale of Two Cities: Paris and Berlin in the Twenties (Maryland Center for the Performing Arts), a comic opera cabaret, Fatal Song (Utah Opera)  a short opera, and The Better Man, (Utah Opera)) Her plays include the comedy Course 86B in the Catalogue (Salt Lake Acting Company) The Still Time (Georgia Rep/ Porchlight Theatre, Chicago) the comedy, Women Who Love Science Too Much (Porchlight Theatre and NPR Radio) Charm ( National New Play Network Festival, Salt Lake Acting Company premiere, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Dallas; Orlando Shakespeare; Taffety Punk, Washington D.C., New Hampshire Theatre Project, among others) The Persian Quarter ( Salt Lake Acting Company, Merrimack Rep.) Harbur Gate, an NNPN commission. (Salt Lake Acting Company, 16thstreet Theatre, Chicago.)   Henry, Louise and Henri (one act) and The Robertassey at Women’s Playwrights Initiative, Ivoryton Playhouse, CT; The Robertassey  was the featured play at the 2019 Seven Devil’s Playwrights Conference and in the New Play Sounding Series at SLAC. Silent Dancer a groundbreaking dance/play premiered at the Salt Lake Acting Company in April 2019. A new musical, LATE, about the effects of gun violence on a small group of high school students, was recently awarded a $60,000 development grant from  Berklee College of  Music in Boston, and is a development project with Moonbox Productions in Boston.: Her play One Stone was a semi-finalist at the Gary Marshall New Play Festival, and the first prize winner in the Women’s Voices Festival at Mad Cow Theatre, Orlando. Retitled Mrs. Einstein, it was workshopped at the Durango New Play Festival and will received a staged reading at New Jersey Rep next month.  Madera Canyon was produced in “The Seven Festival” at Fusion Theatre, Albuquerque.  She wrote the screenplay for the independent feature, Downtown Express.

ADRIENNE MOORE (DIRECTOR | she/her)
Adrienne has a long association with SLAC, having served as director or dialect coach on many productions. Directing credits for SLAC include Rapture, Blister Burn, 4,000 Miles, How to Make a Rope Swing, Circle Mirror Transformation, Hold Please and staged readings of Amerikin and Trees in Their Youth. Dialect coaching for SLAC includes Bald Sisters, Silent Dancer, The Cake, Hand to God, Surely Goodness and Mercy, Streetlight Woodpecker, Tribes and Angels in America. Additional directing credits include A Shayna Maidel (Apex Theatre Florida) Into the Breeches, Clybourne Park, Macbeth, Wait Until Dark, (Lyric Repertory Company) The Thanksgiving Play (Westminster College) and numerous productions for Utah State University. She has provided dialect and text coaching for productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Players Theatre, Utah Shakespeare Festival and Pioneer Theatre Company. Adrianne is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association and SDC (The Stage Directors and Choreographers union.)

JENNIE SANT* (EXECUTIVE PRODUCTION MANAGER/PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER | she/her)
Jennie has been at Salt Lake Acting Company for over a decade. During that decade she has Stage Managed over 30 shows and has been the Production Manager for the past 4 years. Previous NPSS readings include, Beloved King, Sunny In The Dark, The Value, Let Down Your Hair, Daddy Issues and Egress to name a few. Upcoming shows include Bat Boy: The Musical and SLAC’s Sumer Show 2025.

CAST BIOS:
LATOYA CAMERON* (MARY | she/her)
Latoya has assisted with developing new plays at Salt Lake Acting Company, Plan-B Theatre Company, Pioneer Theatre Company, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Seven Devil's Conference, Kayenta New Play Lab, Playwrights' Center, New York Musical Theatre Festival, to name a few. She recently performed at SLAC in The Turnaway Play and You Will Get Sick. Other SLAC performances: Passing Strange, Four Women Talking About the Man Under the Sheet, The Cake, and others. She dramaturg for SLAC's Summer Show: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and recently co-directed Whitelisted. Grateful to be a part of this process.

TYSON BAKER (BILL | he/him)
Scotty is extremely excited to return to the SLAC stage. They graduated from the BFA Acting program at Utah State University back in 2020. Recent credits include: You will Get Sick at Salt Lake Acting Company; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Zebulun) at the Eccles Theatre; James and the Giant Peach (Ladahlord) at Hale Center Theatre Orem; West Side Story (Bernardo) and In the Heights (Sonny) at the West Valley Performing Arts Center; Beauty and the Beast, The Nutty Professor, The Light in the Piazza, Hello, Dolly!, Treasure Island, and The Little Mermaid (Jetsam) at The Hale Centre Theatre Sandy. You can also find Scotty performing with the Hale Centre Theatre’s educational outreach program, The Story Weavers, and monthly in the Viva La Diva Celebrity Impersonation and Drag Show at Metro Music Hall. Scotty would like to thank their loving partner for all his support, their generous family for all their time, and their professors and mentors for their patience and goodwill. Lastly, Scotty would like to thank their father, Russell, who has always found time to sit through a show or coach a game. 

RATANAK UNG (READER | he/him)
Ratanak is so excited to be apart of the telling of this hilarious and beautiful new work. He is currently a freshman pursuing a BFA in Musical Theatre at the University of Utah. He wants everyone to know that even in these times of uncertainty, to find the good in all of the big and small things alike. Ratanak would like to thank Jordan Reynosa and the whole SLAC team for this opportunity. “Life goes on. You think it’s going to stop. But it doesn’t. It keeps going.”

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

 SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation and the Salt Lake County's Zoo, Arts, and Parks program whose support allows our growing audiences to attend the New Play Sounding Series at no cost.

THE TURNAWAY PLAY
by Lesley Lisa Green

PANELISTS:
Josephine Holubkov
Jackie Morgan
Representative Angela Romero
Annabel Sheinberg (Moderator)
Erica Torres

CAST LIST:
Latoya Cameron– Serena, Angel, Kiara
Jazmin Delgado – Luisa, Sofia, Martina
Adriana Lemke – Rhonda, Amy, Brenda
Tracie Merrill-Wilson – Dr. Foster

PRODUCTION TEAM:
Director – Cynthia Fleming
Production/Stage Manager – Jennie Sant
Lighting Designer – Elliot Moore
Projection Programmer – Bridgette Lehman 
Hat Designer – Erika Ahlin

BIOS:

PANELISTS:

Josephine Holubkov
Josephine Holubkov grew up in Salt Lake City and was interested in reproductive justice and political activism from a young age. While attending West High School, Josephine was on PPAU's Teen Council for two years, serving on the Teen Council Advisory Committee for one year. 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Josephine worked the 2020 election as a grassroots organizer with Planned Parenthood North Central States. In college, she worked as a Communication and Consent Educator (CCE) for three years, and was promoted to be a Project Coordinator during her senior year, where she developed a community-centered framework of survivor support. After receiving her B.A. in Linguistics from Yale University, Josephine is now preparing to apply to veterinary school, and plans to continue advocating for survivors and racial and reproductive justice while pursuing her career.

Jackie Morgan
Jackie Morgan is a seasoned political strategist, with years of experience working on political and issue campaigns, public affairs, and legislation. She has worked in Utah politics for over 10 years, helping numerous campaigns, candidates, and causes including as the Deputy Communications Director on the Mike Weinholtz for Governor campaign, Volunteer Director on Better Boundaries, and Campaign Manager or Senior Advisor for more than 25 local candidates. She most recently served as the National Campaigns Director at Stand for Children where she worked with nonprofit and advocacy organizations to drive educational equity and racial justice across the country. Currently, Jackie is a Senior Partner at Elevate Strategies, where she focuses on helping Democratic candidates in Utah make meaningful progress and change. Through Elevate, she leverages data-driven strategies, mentoring, and support to reshape Utah’s political future.

Representative Angela Romero
Representative Angela Romero represents House District 25 in the Utah State Legislature and is currently the House Minority Leader. She heads the first all-female House minority leadership team in the Utah State Legislature.

At the state legislature, Representative Romero has been a champion for women and children. Representative Romero works on legislation for victim’s rights, human trafficking, and sexual assault and domestic violence prevention. During her service, Representative Romero successfully passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act and the Statewide Sexual Assault and Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program appropriation request of 3.6 million dollars. She also worked diligently to secure funding to end the rape test kit backlog. Representative Romero also sponsored legislation creating Utah’s Murdered and Missing Indigenous Relatives Task Force.

Outside her legislative capacity Representative Romero works with local government, overseeing community programs and initiatives in the Division of Youth and Family Programs, including supervising the YouthCity Government Program and My Brother’s Keeper. Representative Romero is dedicated to ensuring youth have access to the political process and civic engagement.

Annabel Sheinberg
Annabel Sheinberg is a member of The Turnaway Play Team with a long history of working to advance sexual and reproductive freedoms in Utah.  She has a special interest in projects focused on youth development, community organizing, non-profit management and promoting democracy and justice. During her career she worked in several states including 15 years with Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. She is thrilled to partner with SLAC in bringing The Turnaway Play to Utah for the first time.

Erica Torres
Erica Torres is dedicated to uplifting and empowering communities through a strong commitment to social and reproductive justice. She strives to create meaningful change through education and community engagement. With a background in Public Health focused on community health, Erica brings over 15-years of experience in women's health, including a decade specializing in abortion care, contraceptive counseling, pregnancy options education and community health education.

Currently, she serves as an instructor at the University of Utah's School for Cultural and Social Transformation, where she teaches Reproductive Justice. Additionally, she works as a Community Engagement and Training Specialist at the ASCENT Center for Reproductive Health within the Family Planning Division of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Utah; a role that she is also able to sprinkle in some research to keep her work exciting and impactful.

ACTORS:

Latoya Cameron
Latoya Cameron (she/her) is thrilled to be part of this important reading at SLAC during such a crucial time. She is an actor, singer, writer, director, and an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Dramaturg. She recently co-directed Whitelisted which is currently in performances in the Upstairs Theater at SLAC (if you have not seen it yet, you do not want to miss it! If you have, THANK YOU and come again with some friends). You might have seen her at SLAC in: You Will Get Sick, Passing Strange, Four Women Talking About the Man Under the Sheet, Form of A Girl, Stupid Fucking Bird to name a few. Other stages: The Clean-Up Project (named the Utah Review's Top Utah Enlightenment Moment in 2022), Singing to the Brine Shrimp, A/Version of Events, Mama, Ruff!, Different = Amazing, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, (Plan-B Theatre Company), Rocky Horror Show (2014 & 2015), Elf, the Musical (2013), RENT (Pioneer Theatre Company), Shakespeare in Love, Treasure Island, As You Like It, Henry V, Mary Poppins, Much Ado About Nothing (Utah Shakespeare Festival), The Color Purple, Closer (Wasatch Theatre Company), A Christmas Carol (Denver Center of the Performing Arts), Shelter, the Musical (New York Musical Theatre Festival). Directed: Whitelisted (co-directed with Tito Livas), Sankofa, this Journey: Go Back and Get It! (Salt Lake Acting Company and UBLAC collaboration), Town Hall (University of Utah), Title of Show (The Grand), RENT (The Ziegfeld Theater). Thank you for being here tonight.

Jazmin Delgado
Jazmin Delgado (she/her) graduated last May with a BFA in musical theater from the University of Utah! Previous credits include Natasha u/s in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Pioneer Theatre Company), Annabeth u/s in The Lightning Thief (Babcock Theatre), Juniper in Smoke and Mirrors (Lagoon) and Teresita in West Side Story (West Valley Arts). Jazmin would like to thank SLAC for the opportunity and she dedicates this show to the upcoming election. Instagram: @jazmin.viquez

Adriana Lemke
Adriana Lemke (she/her) is a Salt Lake City based theatre-artist and movement professional. She was last seen on SLAC’s stage in the NPSS reading of Burst by Rachel Bublitz. As fight and intimacy director, her work has been part of SLAC’s productions of Whitelisted, Hairy & Sherri, and Sleeping Giant. Some of her favorite acting credits include Fabiana Cunningham in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and Des-Neiges Verrette in Les Belles Soeurs.

Tracie Merrill-Wilson
Tracie Merrill-Wilson (she/her) is always grateful to work with SLAC, and is excited to be among this amazing group of artists. Previous SLAC credits include The Wolves, Rapture Blister Burn, Ice Glen and the 2010 Fearless Fringe Festival (SB Dance’s Yoga Confidential and The Harvey Girls). Other favorite local and regional works include: PG Anon, One Big Union, Lady Macbeth, and Di Esperienza with Plan-B; Eleemosynary, Selma 65, Cheat, and Stop Kiss with Pygmalion; Rings at The Grand Theatre; Dracula at PTC; Rare Bird at the U; The Rainmaker at Hale; Metamorphoses and As You Like It at the Clarence Brown Theatre; La Bete and The Tempest at Theater at Monmouth; and three Shakespeare tours (Taming of the Shrew, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet). Film and TV credits include 127 Hours and Disney Channel’s Den Brother. A member of AEA, she received her MFA from UT-Knoxville and a classical degree from Weber Douglas Academy in London. Tracie also takes great pride in being involved in readings to develop new plays. Endless love to her family, and huge thanks to her Dad for hours spent running lines. 

We are pleased to announce our next New Play Sounding Series free reading of Can I Say Yes to That Dress? by Sarah Shippobotham. The reading will take place on Monday, February 27th, 2023 at 7 PM.

Written and performed by SLAC alum Sarah Shippobotham (SLACabaret: Down the Rabbit Hole, Tribes) and directed by Jamie Rocha Allan (Land of No Mercy) with Alexandra Harbold (Hand to God) as Dramaturg, and Jennie Sant* as Production Stage Manager. Can I Say Yes to That Dress? is described by the playwright as follows: 

Stuck in a wedding dress changing room, a middle-aged woman questions her life choices and what it means to be a woman. This one-person show asks what happens if you feel like you don't fit into the socially accepted norms of femininity and femaleness.

RSVP Here

While admission to the NPSS reading of Can I Say Yes to That Dress? is free, reservations are required. They can be reserved directly via the link above, or by contacting the SLAC Audience Relationship Team at or 801-363-7522.

*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, September 25 @ 7pm

Director: Adrianne Moore

Actors: Daisy Blake, Nicholas Dunn, Jacob Johnson, Kathryn Mungin, Matthew Sincell, Darryl Stamp, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

Reader: Mary-Helen Pitman

Stage Manager: Kallie Erickson

A man takes an ancestry test a part of his initiation into a white supremacist group gets an unsettling surprise.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program. 

New Play Sounding Series
Free Reading

Monday, September 25 @ 7pm

Director: Adrianne Moore

Actors: Daisy Blake, Nicholas Dunn, Jacob Johnson, Kathryn Mungin, Matthew Sincell, Darryl Stamp, Cassandra Stokes-Wylie

Reader: Mary-Helen Pitman

Stage Manager: Kallie Erickson

A man takes an ancestry test a part of his initiation into a white supremacist group gets an unsettling surprise.

SLAC thanks the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their generous support of this vital program. 

SLAC's New Play Sounding Series presents a free reading of STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER by Shawn Fisher on Monday, April 28th at 7:00 PM. 

ABOUT THE PLAY

STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER follows the story of Benji, an undersized Marine who has returned to his Irish-Catholic neighborhood in Philadelphia after being critically injured during battle. He bears not only the medals he earned but also the scars, and now that he has come home he must face the emotional wounds he avoided by going to war.  

When his father’s suicide renders him homeless just days after his return, Benji moves in with his childhood friend Sam. Soon questions that threatened Benji throughout his youth resurface, questions about his manhood and his relationship with Sam, and he distracts himself with booze, pills, and reckless fighting. Meanwhile, as Sam tries to protect him from self-destruction, Benji plots to kill a woodpecker that loudly bangs the metal streetlights in the neighborhood.

Shawn Fisher (Playwright) original scripts include SCOPE, THE CROW SONG, CHUMMING, STREETLIGHT WOODPECKER, and DO NOT HIT GOLF BALLS INTO MEXICO which was a National Finalist for the MetLife Nuestras Voces Playwriting Award and the David M. Cohen National Playwriting Award. HOW TO MAKE A ROPE SWING, which had a rolling premiere at both Salt Lake Acting Company and Cape May Stage, won an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, was a national finalist for New York's Urban Stages Emerging Playwright Award, and was a nominee for both the Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association and the Barrie & Bernice Stavis national playwriting awards. His work has been produced or had staged-readings at Cape May Stage, the Spanish Repertory Theatre (Off-Broadway), the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Urban Stages (Off-Broadway), and Salt Lake Acting Company, among others. Shawn is also the Co-founder and Director of the National Playwrights Symposium at Cape May Stage. He earned his MFA in Theatre from Brandeis University and currently serves as a Professor and Head of Graduate Studies in Theatre at Utah State University. He is a native of New Jersey and is a proud member of The Dramatists Guild of America.

Richie Call (Director) is thrilled to be directing a reading for the first time at SLAC. He was previously part of the cast of SLAC's presentation of Do Not Hit Golf Balls Into Mexico, also by Shawn Fisher. Richie's acting credits include work for American Globe Theatre and Gorilla Rep in New York, Mile Square Theatre in New Jersey, and Pioneer Theatre Company, Salt Lake Shakespeare, and the Old Lyric Repertory Company in Utah. Richie is currently an Assistant Professor of Acting at Utah State University, and he is serving as a Co-Artistic Director of the Old Lyric Repertory Company. He received an MFA in Acting from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts and a BFA in Performance from Utah State University.

Stefan Espinosa (Benji) is thrilled to be joining SLAC on this project – there is truly nothing more exciting or artistically satisfying than helping to bring a talented playwrights' new work to life. A native of Tucson, Arizona,Stefan has been fortunate to perform with wonderful theatres across the country. Favorite past regional theatre credits include: The Importance of Being Earnest, Urinetown (PCPA); The Pirates of Penzance, Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, Pride and Prejudice (Arizona Theatre Company); Richard III, Henry V, Wild Oats (Wortham Theatre); Big River, Amadeus, Little Shop of Horrors, Lend Me A Tenor (Old Lyric Repertory); Camelot, The Mikado, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof (Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre) and Stefan will be playing Thenardier in UFOMTs upcoming summer production of Les Miserables. Stefan has a BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Arizona, and an MFA in Acting from the University of Houston. Stefan also runs the Utah Festival Conservatory for the Performing Arts and is an adjunct member of the Theatre faculty at Idaho State University.

Jason Spelbring (Sam) is thrilled to be a part of SLAC's New Play Sounding Series. Jason is an actor, director and educator. He is currently an assistant professor of acting at Utah State University's Caine College of the Arts. Theatre credits include six seasons at the Tony Award winning Utah Shakespeare Festival, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, Ensemble Theatre Company, Santa Barbara and PCPA Theaterfest. This fall Jason will be directing Pierre Marivaux's The Game of Love and Change for the Caine College of the Arts. www.jasonmichaelspelbring.com

Angela Roundy (Elizabeth) attended Utah State University where she earned her BFA in Acting. While at USU she appeared in such productions as KING LEAR, JAMES and the GIANT PEACH, TARTUFFE, and ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD. Her acting training began at the College of Eastern Utah where credits included THE CRUCIBLE, PICASSO at the LAPIN AGILE, and THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN. Angela also appeared in The Neil Simon Festival's production of COME BLOW YOUR HORN.

Richard Johnson (Matt) is thrilled to make his SLAC debut with a talented and seasoned cast of peers. Richard has been seen locally this past summer in THE ODD COUPLE with Old Lyric Repertory Company. California credits include AS YOU LIKE IT with New Village Arts/Moonlight Cultural Foundation, LOST APOLLONIA and PICTURING MY SISTER with New Village Arts/Playwrights Project, JACOB MARLEY'S CHRISTMAS CAROL with Oceanside Theatre Company, and HENRY IV pt1 and THE TEMPEST with North Coast Repertory Theatre/MiraCosta College.

Lance Rasmussen (Reader) has performed for three seasons at the Old Lyric Theatre Company where he played in THE ODD COUPLE, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, and AMADEUS among others. He is about to graduate from Utah State University with a BFA in Theatre Performance. At USU he has acted in plays including CANDIDA, LEARNED LADIES, TALKING PICTURES, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD, and TWENTIETH CENTURY. He intends to pursue an MFA in acting.

Playwright William Missouri Downs Coming to Salt Lake for
Salt Lake Acting Company's New Play Sounding Series Free Reading of
MAD GRAVITY

SLAC's New Play Sounding Series presents a free reading of MAD GRAVITY by William Missouri Downs and directed by John Caywood on Monday, September 30, 2013 at 7:00pm. SLAC is thrilled to welcome Williams Missouri Downs back to the theatre after producing his play THE EXIT INTERVIEW last April. This one night event will feature a reading of this hysterical new play along with a question and answer session with the director, cast and the talented and engrossing Williams Missouri Downs. This creative, absurd play is the Winner of the 2013 Reva Shiner Comedy Award from the Bloomington Playwrights Project and a 2013 finalist at the Eugene O'Neill. The New Play Sounding Series is a part of SLAC's outreach programming which provides an essential testing ground on which playwrights can see their work in progress and receive insightful feedback from the audience in a post-play discussion. We thank the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation for their support of this vital program.

MAD GRAVITY is a comedy about Archie and Eudora, two Dada performance artists who have built a theatre in their living room. Every night before a live audience they act out their lives. You've heard of reality television; think of it as reality theatre. They want to build a second experimental space in their kitchen but they just cannot take any more kitchen sink realism. Artaud would be proud of them.

This Theatre of Cruelty performance concerns their teenage daughter who wants to marry the son of Joe and Mary. All the parties involved have been invited to the house/theatre. But when the kids forget to tell Joe and Mary about the live audience all hell breaks lose.

Things go from bad to worse when they discover that a comet has been spotted in the night sky. There is a 50/50 chance it will hit the earth. Everyone, including the audience, may have only an hour to live. This forces the parents to stop arguing about insignificant things like marriage and start arguing about great philosophical questions of life: Is the comet a sign from God or is it just gravity? And what the hell is performance art?

The one page second act (that's right the second act is one page long) does something no play has ever attempted in the history of theatre - it lets the audience in on the meaning of life.

Playwright William Missouri Downs is a unique and creative talent and SLAC is excited to give Salt Lake City audiences the special opportunity to not only enjoy his hilarious play, but to also interact with Downs and learn more about him, the play and his creative process. This special free night of theatre is not to be missed.

THE PLAYWRIGHT

WILLIAM MISSOURI DOWNS
William holds an MFA in acting from the University of Illinois and an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA. He was also trained in playwriting at the Circle Repertory Theatre in New York under Lanford Wilson and Milan Stitt. Since, he has authored over twenty plays, including INNOCENT THOUGHTS, the winner of the National Playwright's Award; JEWISH SPORTS HEROES AND TEXAS INTELLECTUALS, which took first place at the Mill Mountain Theatre's Festival Of New Plays; SEAGULLS IN A CHERRY TREE, the winner of the Larry Corse Prize for playwriting; KABUKI MEDEA, which won the Bay Area Critics Award for best production in San Francisco and the Jefferson Award for best production in Chicago; and THE EXIT INTERVIEW, the winner of the 2012-2013 rolling opening from the National New Play Network. Mr. Downs has had nearly 100 productions from New York to Singapore and from Israel to South Africa, including LORT theatres like the Kennedy Center and the Berkeley Rep. He is a full voting member of both the Dramatists Guild and the Writers Guild of America. While in Hollywood, Mr. Downs wrote for such NBC sitcoms as MY TWO DADS (starring Paul Reiser), AMEN (starring Sherman Hemsley), and THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL-AIRE (starring Will Smith). He also won the Jack Nicholson Award for screenwriting and sold the movie EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE to Tri-star.

After many years in Manhattan and Hollywood, Mr. Downs now enjoys living in the wide-open spaces of Wyoming. As head of the playwriting program at the University of Wyoming, Bill has won over a dozen teaching and research awards. He also teaches in the Religious Studies Department. His favorite thing to do is to find ancient temples and theatres - this quest has taken him to Egypt, France, Turkey, England, Greece, Italy, and China. Additionally, Mr. Downs is also the author of a number of books including: THE ART OF THEATRE (Wadsworth) an introduction to theatre book used at over 100 universities, NAKED PLAYWRIGHTING (Silman/James) a popular writing guide, and SCREENPLAY: WRITING THE PICTURE (Silman/James), which is used at top film schools in the United States and Poland. Samuel French and Playscripts have also published several of his plays.

THE DIRECTOR

JOHN CAYWOOD
John is pleased to return to SLAC following earlier productions of GOD OF CARNAGE, BATBOY, INCORRUPTIBLE and six versions of SATURDAY'S VOYEUR. John landed in SLC in 1987 from New York City for a one season residency at Pioneer Theatre Company. After 13 seasons with the company, John became Producing Artistic Director at Park City's Egyptian Theatre Company. Other Utah directing assignments include The Grand, Tuacahn,, Sundance Summer Theatre and Utah Musical Theatre. Favorite projects include BATBOY, THE MUSICAL RUTHLESS, THE MUSICAL, and of course, THE EXIT INTERVIEW. John is the Interim Executive Director of Kingsbury Hall at the University of Utah. It is fairly clear that he prefers Utah to New York.

CAST
Anne Louise Brings, Darrin Doman, Andra Harbold, Tracie Merrill, Zack Phifer, Holly Fowers - Reader