Cry It out Reveals Truths About Class, Parenting, and Empathy

Home , Hangar Theatre, Kitchen Theatre Company, The Women (play)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12/21/2019 CONTACT: Lesley Greene, [email protected] / (607) 272-0403 PHOTOS AND OTHER MEDIA: https://www.kitchentheatre.org/cry-it-out

OPENING: THURSDAY, February 6, 7:30pm. RSVP to [email protected].

A CANDID COMEDY, CRY IT OUT REVEALS TRUTHS ABOUT CLASS, PARENTING, AND EMPATHY. ON STAGE AT THE KITCHEN THEATRE COMPANY FEBRUARY 2 - FEBRUARY 22, 2020

“This play is both cathartic and hugely important because it sheds light on certain realities often relegated to the shadows.”― The Los Angeles Times

“Funny and sharp.” - The Washington Post

(ITHACA) - The 2019-2020 season continues at Kitchen Theatre Company with Cry It Out, the groundbreaking comedy by Molly Smith-Metzler that dives deep into the good, the bad and the ugly of parenthood, relationships and unexpected friendship. Performances of Cry It Out begin at the Kitchen Theatre Company in the Percy Browning Performance Space on Sunday, February 2 and will run through Saturday, February 22. Generously sponsored by Marriott Ithaca Downtown Commons, Cornell University and The Lansing Star, Cry It Out will offer patrons the opportunity to “Pay What You Want” for its first three preview performances (2/2, 2/4, 2/5).

When two women, Jessie, a lawyer, and Lina, a nurse, find commonality in their new babies and adjacent backyards, they form an unlikely bond over a series of naptime coffee breaks and parental anecdotes. But with the addition of their career-oriented neighbor Adrienne, another new mom, and her husband Mitchell, the duo’s friendship and their individual conceptions are put to the test. A candid portrayal that explores parenthood through the lens of both male-and female-centered narratives, Cry It Out is the perfect blend of comedy, strength and truth in the modern era of child care.

Director and Producing Artistic Director M. Bevin O’Gara says, “Cry It Out offers the opportunity to not only laugh, but to seriously examine exactly how parenthood has evolved over the past few decades. I saw this play with my mother, and the conversation this play opened up between us, about how parenting has changed between her generation and mine, felt so necessary to have with our audience. We must think, ‘How has cultural change impacted the expectations of new parents?’ Each character experiences this in one capacity or another in both funny, difficult and heartfelt ways.

Cry it Out will not only feature Broadway veterans Mikaela Izquierdo, Melissa Miller, and Brian Sgambati, but will also star Ithaca’s very own Erica Steinhagen. Playing Jessie, Lina, Mitchell and Adrienne respectively, all four actors make up a seasoned ensemble, lending true authenticity to Smith-Metzler's relatable storyline.

Izquierdo says “There are some things that are universal about motherhood--especially that very new motherhood where everything is in a haze of exhaustion and love and a realization that life will never, ever be the same--and some things that are so specific to each mother and child. Cry it Out manages to be that beautiful play that shows many sides of a vulnerable time with warmth, truth, and humor- and the importance of friendship through it all.”

The creative team for Cry It Out will be rounded out with Scenic Design by Daniel Zimmerman (Girlfriend, Boom), Lighting Design by Tyler M. Perry (Bright Half Life, Throw Pitchfork, Peter

and the Starcatcher, I and You, The House, Opus, etc.), Costume Design by Safarina Bush (The Royale) and Sound Design by Associate Producer, Lesley Greene (The Roommate, Ironbound, among others). Properties Master is Indigo Shea, Technical Director is Brendan Komala and Production Stage Manager is Jennifer Schilansky.

Special events for Cry It Out include Pay What You Want Nights featuring post-show discussions with Producing Artistic Director, M. Bevin O’Gara on February 2, 4, and 5, and Actors’ Forums on February 14 and 21. Opening Night is on Thursday, February 6 and includes a post-show reception with delicious food and drinks. Following its run at Kitchen Theatre Company, Cry It Out will transfer to Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, New York. For more events and information, visit kitchentheatre.org

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

MOLLY SMITH METZLER (Playwright): is the author of Cry it Out, Elemeno Pea, The May Queen, Carve, Close Up Space and Training Wisteria. Her regional credits include: Northlight Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Repertory, Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, Chautauqua Theater Company, City Theatre, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Geva Theatre Center, Mixed Blood Theatre Company and more. In New York City: Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC). Metzler’s awards include the Lecomte du Nouy Prize from Lincoln Center, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg National Student Playwriting Award from The Kennedy Center, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting and a finalist nod for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She is a proud alumna of the Ars Nova Play Group, the Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages and the Cherry Lane Mentor Project. In television, Metzler has written for Casual (Hulu), Orange Is the New Black (Netflix), Codes of Conduct (HBO), and is currently a writer/producer on Shameless (Showtime). She is also a screenwriter, currently adapting Ali Benjamin’s award-winning novel The Thing About Jellyfish into a film for OddLot Entertainment with Made Up Stories and Pacific Standard (Reese Witherspoon’s company). Metzler was educated at the State University of New York at Geneseo, Boston University, New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts and the Juilliard School. She lives in Los Angeles and Kingston, N.Y.

M. BEVIN O'GARA (Director) is Producing Artistic Director at the Kitchen Theatre Company, where she directed Proof, Tribes, Grounded, Ironbound, Girlfriend, Brawler, and Brahamn/i. Other credits include: The Who & The What by Ayad Ahktar, Milk Like Sugar by Kirsten Greenidge (Elliot Norton Award nomination for Best Production) and Becoming Cuba by Melinda Lopez at the Huntington Theatre Company; Small Mouth Sounds (Elliot Norton Award for Best Ensemble), The Bridges of Madison County, appropriate, A Future Perfect, Tribes (Elliot Norton and IRNE Awards for Best Production), and Clybourne Park with SpeakEasy Stage Company; Brahman/i, Chronicles of Kalki, You for Me for You, Love Person, and The Pain and the Itch with Company One Theatre; Phedre with Actors’ Shakespeare Project; Fast Company with the Lyric Stage Company, Marjorie Prime with the Nora Theatre Company, How Soft the Lining and Translations with Bad Habit Productions, Two Wives in India and Gary with Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 2.5 Minute Ride with New Repertory Theatre, and Melancholy Play with Holland Productions.

MIKAELA IZQUIERDO* (Jessie) Broadway: Cyrano de Bergerac (Roundabout Theatre Company) Off- Broadway/Other: Perfect Arrangement (Primary Stages), Stay (Rattlestick), 10x25, The New York Idea (Atlantic Theater Company), Yours Unfaithfully (The Mint), Lone Star Spirits (Crowded Outlet), The Cloud (Slant/HERE Arts), Only You Can Prevent Wildfires (Ricochet Collective), L(y)re (ArsNova ANTfest), West Lethargy (59E59/Edinburgh Fringe/FringeNYC), Unrequited (Public Theater Shakespeare Lab) Film/TV: Liberté: A Call to Spy, Paper Year, a short form series about marriage which she wrote, produced, and stars in. Training: B.F.A NYU Tisch, Public Theater Shakespeare Lab Alum.

MELISSA MILLER* Broadway: Tartuffe (Roundabout Theatre). Select Off-Broadway: The Merchant of Venice (TFANA/National Tour); The Antipodes (Signature Theatre); Middle of the Night (Keen Company). Regional: Queens by Martyna Majok (La Jolla Playhouse); The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare Theatre of NJ); Tartuffe (Huntington Theatre); Curious Incident (Pioneer Theatre). Other theatres include: Clubbed Thumb, Flea Theater, McCarter Theatre, Pittsburgh Public, Long Wharf, Alley Theatre, Hartford Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Premiere Stages, Penguin Rep. TV: The Path on Hulu, Law and Order: SVU, Elementary, Ed, All My Children and Fire at the Triangle on PBS. Film: Worth and Life Itself. Education: Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vassar College. www.melissamiller.org

BRIAN SGAMBATI* (Mitchell) Credits include the Broadway productions of The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino, King Lear with Christopher Plummer, and The Coast of Utopia. National Tour: Frost/Nixon. Off-Broadway credits include Lucas Hnath's A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney at Soho Rep, Alternating Currents with Working Theatre, The Iceman Cometh at BAM, Man and Superman at Irish Rep, Smudge for The Women's Project, Landscape of the Body at Signature Theatre Company, and Amazons and Their Men with Clubbed Thumb. Selected Regional: Tiny Beautiful Things at Long Wharf, Art at Penguin Rep, Prelude to a Kiss at the Huntington, Passion Play at the Goodman, and Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Globe. Film and Television credits include: New Amsterdam, Bull, Unforgettable, Blue Bloods, Law and Order, and The Word. Associate Artist, The Civilians. MFA: University of California San Diego.

ERICA STEINHAGEN* (Adrienne) is an AEA actor, voice teacher, and singer. She has proudly found her artistic home in this thriving theatre community and has had the pleasure of working in and near Ithaca at The Kitchen Theatre Company, The Hangar Theatre, The Cherry Arts (of which she is a founding company member and board Artist Liaison), The Cider Mill Playhouse, as well as with Civic Ensemble, The Homecoming Players, and the Cornell Interactive Theatre Ensemble for social change. She has had the distinct honor of collaborating on and originating roles in world premiere works no fewer than a dozen times. She has tackled the intense solo play White Rabbit Red Rabbit, the first English-language production of the incredible French play George Kaplan, and the title role in The Snow Queen for The Cherry Arts. Other credits include Stage Kiss (SHE), The Best of Kathy and Mo, Wider than the Sky, and Antigone. At the Hangar Theatre: Into the Woods (Baker’s Wife); Kinky Boots (Trish); Ever So Humble (Dana); The Sound of Music (Sister Margaretta); Cats (Jellylorum); Beauty and the Beast (Mrs. Potts); and My Fair Lady. The Kitchen Theatre includes: Hand to God (Margery); The Drunken City (Melissa); Dario Fo’s We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay! (Margherita); Nora (Christine Linde); The Servant of Two Masters (Smeraldina); Bed and Sofa (Ludmilla). In NYC: The Metropolis Opera Company’s world premiere electronica opera One Hot Kitchen (Helena). Regionally: The Drowsy Chaperone at the Human Race Theatre Co.; The Unfortunates, a one-woman play by Aoise Stratford. Erica premiered her one-woman cabaret Imagine My Surprise at the Hangar Theatre in 2012 and revamped it in 2017 for The Cherry. ericasteinhagen.com

LESLEY LISA GREENE (Sound Designer) is the Kitchen Theatre's Associate Producing Director. Sound & projection designs at the Kitchen include Proof, The Roommate, Ironbound, Hand to God, Mary's Wedding, The Brothers Size, The Whipping Man, and many others. She has composed ten musicals for family audiences with collaborator Rachel Lampert, including Emmett & Ella: The Puppy Plot, Physics Fair, and Winter Tales, and she has been an actor and musician for many Theatre for All Ages productions. She is a co-founder and organizer of Porchfest, a music festival held on the porches of the Fall Creek and Northside neighborhoods since 2007.

DANIEL ZIMMERMAN (Scenic Design) Kitchen Theatre: The Children, Girlfriend, boom. Select Off-Broadway: Fashions for Men (Drama Desk nomination; The Mint); After the Blast and Kill Floor (Lincoln Center); Friend Art (Second Stage); Suicide, Incorporated (Roundabout); You Got Older (Page 73 Productions); Be a Good Little Widow (Ars Nova); NYC: The Play Company, Clubbed Thumb, Cherry Lane, Colt Coeur, Lesser America, The Pearl. Regional: Arena Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Humana Festival of New American Plays, NYS&F, Cincinnati Playhouse, Center Stage, Playmakers Rep, Trinity Repertory Company, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Theatreworks Palo Alto, Portland Stage Company, People’s Light, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Daniel teaches set design at Ithaca College.

TYLER M. PERRY (Lighting Designer) is thrilled to be doing his 30th main stage production with Kitchen Theatre Company. Favorites include Bright Half Life, Throw Pitchfork, Peter and the Starcatcher, I and You, The House, and Opus. He has designed regionally at theatres including Florida Repertory Theatre, Axelrod Performing Arts Center, Northern Stage, and Hope Summer Repertory Theatre. Tyler is the Assistant Lighting Designer for 2017 Broadway revival of Miss Saigon, and national tours of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Tyler is the Interim Lighting Design Professor at Ithaca College for Spring 2020. Tylermperrydesign.com

SARAFINA BUSH (Costume Designer). Off-Broadway: Broadway Bounty Hunter (Greenwich House), Plot Points, Pass Over (LCT3). Regional: Not Medea and Grace, or The Art of Climbing (Art House Productions); The White Dress (Araca Project), One Flea Spare (Playhouse Creatures), This Time (Rising Circle), Good Men Wanted (Arena Stage), Couriers and Contrabands (Barrow Group), Why You Beasting? (New York Rep). Associate and assistant costume design credits on and off Broadway. Education: BFA, Adelphi University.

INDIGO SHEA (Properties Master) is from Point Pleasant Beach, NJ and is a proud alum of Ithaca College! Her recent credits include lighting design for Tatjana in Color, Ragtime, and A Bicycle Country and scenic design for Skeleton Crew, The Medium & The Old Maid and The Thief all at Ithaca College. Indigo also spent the summer as the theatre production and design intern at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and is currently an applicant of I.A.T.S.E. Local 52.

*member, Actors’ Equity Association