[NEohioPAL] Immediate Release: CPT presents provocative THIS IS NOT THE PLAY by award-winning Chisa Hutchinson

Cathleen O'Malley comalley at cptonline.org
Mon May 5 14:39:08 PDT 2014


For Immediate Release
Contact:  Cathleen O'Malley
216.631.2727 ext. 212
comalley at cptonline.org<mailto:comalley at cptonline.org>



May 5, 2013



Cleveland Public Theatre presents provocative new comedy

THIS IS NOT THE PLAY

Onstage May 15-May 31


Cleveland, OH -Cleveland Public Theatre (CPT) Executive Artistic Director, Raymond Bobgan announces the regional premiere of This is Not the Play, written by NYC-based playwright Chisa Hutchinson and directed by CPT's New Play Associate, Emily Ritger. The production will be staged in CPT's James Levin Theatre.

In her own words, multiple award-winning playwright Chisa (pronounced ChEE-zah) Hutchinson "write[s] plays about people who don't ordinarily get plays written about them." Cleveland Public Theatre's production will the 2nd US production of the "courageous and thought-provoking" work, which was originally commissioned by Mad Dog Theatre Company (NYC) and received the 2012 New York Innovative Theatre Award for "Outstanding Original Short Script."

On the origins of This is Not the Play, Chisa says, "I started writing this play about the process of writing a play about white people, as a black person. I didn't think anything was going to come of it really, it's kinda dark. And I tried to write it so that you never see the playwright, but by the time I got to the end of it, I was like, no, the playwright has to make an appearance. For the [Mad Dog Theatre Company] production I got to play the playwright, I got to play 'myself.' Even when you're trying to create something different, when you're trying to write something that isn't you, it's still completely you. In a weird way, you're the reference point. We try to invent things outside of ourselves but even those are us."

About the Show
A gritty, in-your-face comedy that digs into what we naturally turn away from, racism. This Is Not the Play imagines a black playwright trying to write a play about white people. The problem is that the characters seem to have minds of their own. The playwright sends in her agent to interrogate the characters and then she tries to intervene as they expose their pathetically racist and patently disempowered viewpoints. Is this the playwright's reflection on racism, or on her own prejudice? With a pop-art sensibility and larger-than-life characters, the play is as funny as it is profound.

About the Playwright, Chisa Hutchinson:
Chisa Hutchinson earned a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.F.A from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Her plays, which include Dirt Rich, She Like Girls, This Is Not the Play, Sex on Sunday, Tunde's Trumpet (a musical with puppets), The Subject, Mama's Gonna Buy You, Somebody's Daughter, Alondra Was Here and Dead & Breathing have been presented by such venues as the Lark Play Development Center, SummerStage, Atlantic Theater Co, Working Man's Clothes Productions, the BE Company, Partial Comfort Productions, Mad Dog Theater Co. and the Wild Project. In addition to having been a member playwright of New Dramatists (2013), Chisa is a Lark Fellow (2012), Dramatists Guild Fellow (2011), a resident at the William Inge Center for the Arts (2010), a New York NeoFuturist and a finalist for the highly coveted PONY Fellowship, she's won a GLAAD Award, the John Golden Award for Excellence in Playwriting, a Lilly Award, a New York Innovative Theatre Award, the Paul Green Award and a Helen Merrill Award. Her foray into screenwriting won her Best Narrative Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival, and is looking forward to the adaptation of her play, The Subject, into a feature film.


Cast and Crew of This is Not the Play

This is Not the Play was written by Chisa Hutchinson. The CPT production is directed by Emily Ritger, CPT New Play Associate.



This is Not the Play stars Katrice Headd (as Playwright), with Rebecca Frick (White Girl 1), Jessica Annunziata (White Girl 2), Bobby Coyne (The Man) and Laura Starnik (White Woman).


Complete creative and production team includes Emily Ritger (Director), Inda Blatch-Geib (Set Designer), Greg Falcione (Lighting Designer), Carolyn Dickey (Costume Designer), Mike Tutaj (Sound Designer), Becky Cummings (Stage Manager) and Anne Bakan (Wardrobe Assistant).


Ticket & Show Information

This is Not the Play previews Thursday, May 15 and runs Friday, May 16 through May 31. Performances are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday at 7:00pm in CPT's James Levin Theatre, 6415 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44102.



Tickets are $12 - $28.

All Thursday and Monday shows are just $12! Student and Senior discounts ($3 off) are available for Friday and Saturday performances.



**Every Friday is FREE BEER FRIDAY at CPT. Audience members are invited to mingle with the artists after the show and enjoy a drink or two on CPT.**


Tickets are available for purchase www.cptonline.org<http://www.cptonline.org> or by phone at (216) 631-2727 x 501.


For more information about This is Not the Play or other upcoming CPT productions, please visit cptonline.org<http://www.cptonline.org> or contact Cathleen O'Malley, Director of Audience Engagement & Media Relations at (216) 631-2727 x 212 or comalley at cptonline.org<mailto:comalley at cptonline.org>.

Cathleen O'Malley
Director of Audience Engagement & Media Relations
Cleveland Public Theatre
(216) 631-2727 x 212

See what's playing tonight, go to www.cptonline.org<http://www.cptonline.org/>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20140505/9bb9a575/attachment-0002.htm>


More information about the NEohioPAL mailing list