Dallas Theater Center Presents the World Premiere of MILLER, MISSISSIPPI

By: Aug. 03, 2017
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2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award® Recipient Dallas Theater Center presents the world premiere of Miller, Mississippi; a new play written by Boo Killebrew and directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Beginning with a Pay-What-You-Can performance on Wednesday, Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m., the production runs through Sunday, Oct. 1 at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre Studio Theatre. Press Night will be Wednesday, Sept. 6 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets to Miller, Mississippi are on sale now at www.DallasTheaterCenter.org and by phone at (214) 880-0202.

"I am thrilled to introduce the work of playwright Boo Killebrew to Dallas audiences with the world premiere of Miller, Mississippi," said Enloe/Rose Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty. "Boo writes with both unsparing honesty and deep compassion for her characters and she's an equally open-hearted and generous person. I'm certain that our audiences will respond deeply to her writing. Indeed, we've already commissioned her to write an additional new play for DTC to premiere in future seasons. I look forward to a meaningful, ongoing dialogue between Boo and the DTC audience for many years to come."

A native from Gulfport, Mississippi, Killebrew is a Lila Acheson Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and her work has been presented at theaters around the country. She has been commissioned by DTC, Victory Gardens and Manhattan Theatre Club. Killebrew is also a writer for Longmire on Netflix and created the TV pilot Aim High, which is currently in development at AMC.

"I am honored that the world premiere of Miller, Mississippi will take place at Dallas Theater Center," said Killebrew. "DTC is the ideal creative safe-haven where this daring new play can come to life and (hopefully!) catalyze vitalizing discourse among audiences."

In the south, tradition is sacred and change is slow, so when the Civil Rights movement comes to Jackson, Mississippi it's in for a brutal fight. Spanning the 1960s and '70s, Miller, Mississippi tells the story of one family that falls apart as the country attempts to come together. In the classic Southern Gothic tradition, the world premiere of this tragic new play will stun minds and break hearts, as the personal and political combine to bring about the Miller family's undoing.

"We have a complicated relationship to our history in this country," said Evans. "I think we have a tendency to keep history at arms length, or say 'that wasn't me, that's not a part of my world.' In Miller, Mississippi we want to create a visceral, present-tense experience of this family in Jackson in the 1960s."

The cast is made up of Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company Members Liz Mikel (Inherit the Wind, Bella: An American Tall Tale, A Christmas Carol 2016) as Doris; Alex Organ (Inherit the Wind, The Tempest, Constellations) as Thomas and Sally Nystuen Vahle (Electra, A Christmas Carol 2016, Medea) as Mildred. Completing the cast is Leah Karpel as Becky and Dylan Godwin as John.

The creative team of Miller, Mississippi includes set and video design by Brett Banakis; costume design by Karen Perry (Dreamgirls, A Raisin in the Sun, The Trinity River Plays); original music and sound design by Daniel Kluger, lighting design by Eric Southern (Clarkston) and wig and makeup design by Leah Loukas (Gloria, The Fortress of Solitude).

DTC's Come Early, a pre-show lecture about the play, will take place one hour before every performance and DTC's Stay Late sponsored by Wells Fargo, a post-show discussion led by a member of the cast, will take place after each performance.

Support for Miller, Mississippi is provided by Presenting Sponsor Donna Wilhelm Family Fund and Executive Producing Partner Embrey Family Foundation.

ABOUT Dallas Theater Center:

One of the leading regional theaters in the country and the 2017 Regional Theatre Tony Award® Recipient, Dallas Theater Center (DTC) performs to an audience of more than 100,000 North Texas residents annually. Founded in 1959, DTC is now a resident company of the AT&T Performing Arts Center and presents its Mainstage season at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, designed by REX/OMA, Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas and at its original home, the Kalita Humphreys Theater, the only freestanding theater designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright. DTC is one of only two theaters in Texas that is a member of the League of Resident Theatres, the largest and most prestigious non-profit professional theater association in the country. Under the leadership of Enloe/Rose Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and Managing Director Jeffrey Woodward, DTC produces a seven-play subscription series of classics, musicals and new plays and an annual production of A Christmas Carol; extensive education programs, including the National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award-winning Project Discovery, SummerStage and partnerships with Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; and community collaboration efforts with the Sixth Floor Museum, the City of Dallas, North Texas Food Bank, the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Public Library, Dallas Holocaust Museum, Dallas Opera, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, and leading the DFW Foote Festival. In 2017, DTC launched Public Works Dallas, a groundbreaking community engagement and participatory theater project designed to deliberately blur the line between professional artists and community members, culminating in an annual production featuring over 200 Dallas citizens performing a Shakespeare play. Throughout its history, DTC has produced many new works, including The Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones in 1978; Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men, adapted by Adrian Hall, in 1986; and recent premieres of Hood: The Robin Hood Musical Adventure by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn; Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs; Deferred Action by Lee Trull and David Lozano; Clarkston by Samuel D. Hunter; Moonshine: That Hee Haw Musical by Robert Horn, BRandy Clark and Shane McAnally; FLY by Rajiv Joseph, Bill Sherman and Kirsten Childs; Fly by Night by Kim Rosenstock, Michael Mitnick and Will Connolly; Giant by Michael John LaChiusa and Sybille Pearson; The Trinity River Plays by ReGina Taylor; the revised It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Charles Strouse and Lee Adams; Give It Up! (now titled Lysistrata Jones and recently on Broadway) by Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn; Sarah, Plain and Tall by Julia Jordan, Laurence O'Keefe and Nell Benjamin; and The Good Negro by Tracey Scott Wilson. Dallas Theater Center gratefully acknowledges the support of our season sponsors: Texas Instruments, American Airlines, Lexus and City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.



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