News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PRESS CONTACT: Ben Randle, Artistic Associate ~ 415.694.6156 ~ [email protected] PHOTOS & PRESS KIT
NEW CONSERVATORY THEATRE CENTER PRESENTS REGIONAL PREMIERE OF TONY AWARD WINNER STEPHEN KARAM’S SONS OF THE PROPHET
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST TO BE DIRECTED BY NCTC ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE BEN RANDLE
San Francisco, CA (October 13, 2016) – In November, New Conservatory Theatre Center presents the regional premiere of Stephen Karam’s Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Sons of the Prophet, to be directed by NCTC Artistic Associate Ben Randle. Karam, who recently won the Tony Award for his play The Humans, was named a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Sons of the Prophet, his refreshingly honest take on how we cope with wounds that just won’t heal. If to live is to suffer, then Joseph Douaihy is more alive than most. With unexplained chronic pain and the fate of his reeling family on his shoulders, Joseph's health, sanity, and insurance premium are on the line. Sons of the Prophet is the funniest play about human suffering you'll ever see.
Sons of the Prophet runs November 11 – December 18. Opening Night is Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 8pm. Tickets are $25–50 and available at nctcsf.org or by calling (415) 861-8972.
Karam’s award-winning play premiered to acclaim at Boston’s Huntington Theatre Company in 2011, and later that year transferred Off-Broadway to Roundabout Theatre Company. In addition to its Pulitzer honors, it received Best Play awards from New York Drama Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel Awards, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, hailing the discovery of an “important playwright in Stephen Karam” (New York Magazine):
"Explosively funny,” hails The New York Times. “Written with insight and compassion.”
Ed Decker Barbara Hodgen ARTISTIC DIRECTOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
"Ravishing is the best word to describe [it],” declares The New Yorker. “Karam's nuanced, comic storytelling—a delicate weave of the spoken and the unspoken, the outrageous and the unconscionable—holds pain and pleasure together in startling equipoise, never trivializing either."
Newsday says, “This is a major, devastating new play, elegant and subtle and infused with the kind of wit that understands how perilously life lingers near the emotional abyss."
"Devastating and thrilling”, says Vogue. “By turns grave, poetic, wrenching, wry, and madcap, Sons of the Prophet defies easy categorization. And it confirms Karam as a major voice in American theater."
Playwright Stephen Karam is the author of The Humans (Tony Award, Obie Award for Playwriting, Drama Critics Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, Drama League Award, and 2016 Pulitzer Prize finalist); Sons of the Prophet (Drama Critics Circle Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Hull-Warriner Award and 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist); and Speech & Debate, the inaugural production of Roundabout Underground. He wrote the libretto for Dark Sisters, an original chamber opera with composer Nico Muhly. For film, Karam has written screenplay adaptations of Chekhov’s The Seagull (starring Annette Bening, Elisabeth Moss, Corey Stoll and Saoirse Ronan), and Speech & Debate. Karam is a MacDowell Colony fellow, and the recipient of the inaugural Sam Norkin Off-Broadway Drama Desk Award. He a graduate of Brown University and teaches playwriting at The New School.
Director Ben Randle is NCTC’s first Artistic Associate and has directed several acclaimed productions for the Company. Most recently, he directed the world premiere of Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kaufman. Other world premieres include Into the Clear Blue Sky by JC Lee (Bay Area Critics Circle Award Nominations, Best Director, Scenic Design); Salome, Dance for Me, an original glam rock musical he conceived and directed by trixxie carr with Robert Mollicone, at NCTC; The Fisherman’s Wife by Steve Yockey for Impact Theatre; Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dionysus: A Greek Comedy Rock Epic (co-written with trixxie carr) at CounterPULSE; and Evan Johnson’s celebrated solo play Pansy, which has played to acclaim on tour across the country following two sold-out runs at NCTC. West Coast premieres include The Submission by Jeff Talbott and Don’t Ask at NCTC, where he also directed Shakespeare’s R&J, Doubt (BATCC Nomination, Best Director), Treefall, and Baptized to the Bone. Other credits include Chalk Boy by Joshua Conkel, for Impact Theatre; Sweeney Todd for Ray of Light Theatre, and Hank Williams: Lost Highway at Douglas Morrison Theatre. Randle has also worked at California Shakespeare Theater, Aurora Theatre, West Edge Opera, Brava!, and Thrillpeddlers. He has a B.A. in Theatre from San Francisco State University and was a member of Lincoln Center Theatre Directors Lab 2010.
The cast of Sons of the Prophet features Donald Currie, Nancy French, Stephen Kanaski, Eric Kerr, Cheryl Smith, JD Scalzo, Marcus Drew Steele, and Loralee Windsor.
Ed Decker Barbara Hodgen ARTISTIC DIRECTOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
The creative team of Sons of the Prophet includes scenic design by Devin Kasper, costume design by Jorge R. Hernandez, lighting design by Virginia Herbert, sound design by Sara Witsch, prop design by Daniel Yelen, and stage management by Kaitlin Rosen.
New Conservatory Theatre Center has been San Francisco’s premier LGBTQIA and allied performing arts institution and progressive arts education conservatory since 1981. NCTC is renowned for its diverse range of innovative, high-quality productions, touring productions and shows for young audiences; its foundational anti-bullying work with youth and educators through YouthAware; and its commitment to developing new plays to continue expanding the canon of queer and allied dramatic work.
### Sons of the Prophet FACT SHEET
WHO: By Stephen Karam Directed by Ben Randle Featuring Donald Currie, Nancy French, Stephen Kanaski, Eric Kerr, Cheryl Smith, JD Scalzo, Marcus Drew Steele, and Loralee Windsor. Scenic design by Devin Kasper Costume Design by Jorge R. Hernandez Lighting Design by Virginia Herbert Sound Design by Sara Witsch Prop Design by Daniel Yelen
WHAT: Regional Premiere of Pulitzer Prize Finalist Sons of the Prophet
WHERE: New Conservatory Theatre Center Walker Theater, 25 Van Ness Ave @ Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102
WHEN: November 11 – December 18, 2016 Wednesdays – Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 2pm Opening Night: Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 8pm
COST: $25-50
TICKETS AND BOX OFFICE: 415-861-8972, [email protected]
PHOTOS & PRESS KIT
Ed Decker Barbara Hodgen ARTISTIC DIRECTOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR