DYING CITY

a regional premiere 
by Christopher Shinn

Southern Rep
Mainstage
New Orleans, LA

2010 Big Easy Award nomination for "Best Drama"  Will Coviello, GAMBIT WEEKLY

"'Dying City' is Another stunning stage experience at Southern Rep.

It was a revelation seeing it enacted on the stage of Southern Rep ... "Dying City" still had the power to surprise and disturb as 
it delved with a vibrant immediacy into increasingly serious subject matter and dark humor.

There are almost endless levels to "Dying City," and under Julie Hamberg's meticulous, penetrating direction, they are deftly
unearthed and laid bare."  David Cuthbert, TIMES PICAYUNE

“Under Julie Hamberg's direction, the acting is superlative and the story fascinating in this first-class production.” Dalt Wonk, GAMBIT WEEKLY

"Dying City was a masterpiece of directorial and acting restraint ... The direction of Julie Hamburg was faultless." AMBUSH
          

CAST 

PRODUCTION TEAM 

PETER McELLIGOTT

ANGELENA SWORDS

Craig / Peter

Kelly

CHRISTOPHER SHINN

JULIE HAMBERG

GEOFFREY HALL

KELLIE GRENGS

MARTIN SACHS

MIKE SINGLETON

SARAH ZOGHIBI*

LISA SHEDLOCK

CHASTITY HARTMAN

JOHN B. BARROIS

AIMEE HAYES

* Sarah Z. Singleton

Playwright

Director

Scenic Designer (see graphic)

Costume Designer

Lighting Designer

Sound Designer

Production Stage Mgr/Props Mstr

Assistant Stage Manager

Run Crew

Photographer

Artistic Director

(as originally listed)

THE SKINNY ... bits from the press release

In this “transfixing tale” (The New York Times), it seems at first to be a story about the wife and twin brother left grieving after a soldier’s baffling death in Iraq. But as the layers are peeled away, we find that it is a tender, then shockingly raw and complex, portrait of three very different people. Young therapist Kelly, whose husband Craig was killed, is attempting to move on with her life when Craig’s handsome gay twin brother arrives unannounced. Through a series of flashbacks to Kelly and Craig’s marriage, the former in-laws are forced to find the truth. Called “achingly compassionate” by Variety, this piece explores, with humor and grace, how profoundly outside events can affect each of us.

Named one of the Best Plays of 2007 by The New York Times, DYING CITY was much praised on both sides of the Atlantic. “Dying City is the finest new American play I've seen in a long while” wrote the critic for The NY Observer, while Variety’s said that “Shinn's achievement is to have written a drama of rare delicacy in which politics are not in the character's mouths, but in their circumstances and lives.” London’s Daily Telegraph called it a “clever, intricately calculated and quietly moving new play.” “Anyone who doubts that Mr. Shinn is among the most provocative and probing of American playwrights today need only experience the…sophisticated welding of form and content that is ‘Dying City’” (NY Times).

Pete McElligott tackles the twin brothers’ roles. An active member of The NOLA Project, he memorably starred in SRT’s co-production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore for which he won a Big Easy Award. An NYU grad, McElligott is also teaching and acting in New York, where his most recent role was in The Tragedy of King Richard III. Angelena Swords plays Kelly. She’s is a Louisiana native and 
studied acting at LSU. She’s recently back from Los Angeles, where she appeared in episodes of “The OC,” “CSI: Miami,” and co-starred on “24.” Recently, she wrapped the Louisiana-based film WHISPERWOOD.

The playwright Christopher Shinn is just 33 and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for DYING CITY, which had its U.S. premiere at Lincoln Center last year. His latest play, Now or Later, opened at the London’s Royal Court in September, while his adaptation of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler premieres on Broadway at The Roundabout Theatre in January. The Royal Court has been a great champion of his work, premiering Dying City, Where Do We Live, Other People and his first play, Four, when he was but 23. Shinn’s work has been produced at major theatres such as Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, the Vineyard Theatre, and South Coast Rep. His many honors include: an OBIE Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and an NEA/TCG Residency. Shinn teaches playwriting at the New School in NYC. 

SOUTHERN REP

Founded in 1986, Southern Rep's mission is to develop and produce new plays, to provide our audience with professional theatre of the highest artistic quality and achievement, and to establish a creative working environment that nurtures theatre professionals. We strive to use the artistry of theatre to enlighten, educate, and entertain audiences in the metropolitan New Orleans area and South Gulf Coast region, and aim to extend that service through educational and outreach programs. 

John B. Barrois, New Orleans