Theatre Exile Presents Gruesome Playground Injuries, Opens Nov 16

Theatre Exile will present the second show of their 15th season with the Philadelphia premiere of Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph. Directed by Exile's co-artistic director Deborah Block and starring Philadelphia favorites Charlotte Ford and Keith Conallen, Gruesome Playground Injuries will be running from November 10th to December 4th, with the official press opening on the 16th of November.

Gruesome Playground Injuries chronicles the relationship between Kayleen and Doug, whose 30 year friendship spans broKen Bones, broken hearts, love and other casualties. Starting with a chance meeting in the school nurse's office, the two eight-year olds form a bond that will feed and sustain each one of them through the dangerous task of living. But when Kayleen and Doug,
a neurotic masochist and an accident prone risk taker, get together, which are more at risk, their hearts or their hides? Amid the debris of their messy pasts, Kayleen and Doug are left with only one option, hope for the future. Theatre Exile is proud to bring you this unconventional love story
that explores the marks that love can inflict, and the ways we learn to love them. With its dark comedy and refreshing lack of sentimentality, Gruesome Playground Injuries cuts right to the heart, never mind all those other body parts in the way.

Theatre Exile continues their legacy of bringing Philadelphia its first taste of the world's most exciting and adventurous playwrights. They have introduced Philly to Tracy Letts, Adam Rapp, Noah Haidle, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Annie Baker, and many other nationally acclaimed playwrights. Now Exile will be the first company in Philadelphia to bring you into the mind of Rajiv Joseph, whose works delve fearlessly into subjects of race, identity and the painful tasks of living day to daY. Joseph's plays have astonished audiences nationally and internationally. His work Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo was a 2010 Pulitzer Prize finalist and had its world premiere production directed by Moisés Kauffman. His critically acclaimed works have been translated into Spanish and Romanian and been produced all over the world. He is one of the most prolific and varied young playwrights creating work today. His refusal to be pigeonholed has led him to create a
rich and diverse group of works.

Theatre Exile is thrilled to work once again with two of Philadelphia's favorite actors. Internationally praised performing artist Charlotte Ford is playing the emotionally fractured and internally scarred Kayleen. Her ability to be both forceful and fragile coupled with her extreme versatility as an actress makes her perfectly suited to the damaged but defiant Kayleen.
Charlotte joined Exile in past seasons in critically acclaimed productions of Red Light Winter and Mr. Marmalade, and most recently she dazzled Exile audiences just last year in That Pretty Pretty, or The Rape Play. Charlotte has devised two original theatre pieces with Geoff Sobelle (CHICKEN, Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl {Fringe First, Edinburgh, 2010}), as well as collaborated with Pig Iron Theatre Company, Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, Emmanuelle Delpech, New Paradise Laboratories and Rainpan 43. Charlotte is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Philadelphia Theater Initiative grant, and this fall, she will begin working on a new project with Emmanuelle Delpech, Sarah Sanford and Lee Etzold that explores female sexuality and comedy using clown.

Theatre Exile also welcomes back fan favorite Keith Conallen as the risk taking, bone breaking Doug. Keith has performed with Exile before in their 2009 production of Shinning City and he most recently delighted audiences in last Spring's The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which went on to receive five Barrymore Award nominations. The twenty minutes that Keith spent hanging upside down in Lieutenant showed Philadelphia that he's no stranger to risk, theatrical or physical, and his candid openness onstage will help him bring the sweetly scarred Doug to life. Keith is also the Board President and Creative Director for Traverse Arts Project/TAP. Together with TAP, Keith has written/directed/produced two successful seasons of POP! - Sketch Comedy for the Gifted!, and the LGBT Artists Showcase, Festivus! in 2009 and 2010. Keith has worked with Flashpoint Theatre Company, Azuka Theatre Company, The Lantern Theatre, Maukingbird Theatre Company, and Simpatico Theatre Project.

Deborah Block has assembled an exciting design team to create this unique world. Playing with images of the playground, set designer Dan Boylen creates a simple and evocative memory space in the Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre. Recent transplant from Washington D.C. Scott Burgess' elegant and spare sound design with original music will score the production. Drew Billau, fresh from his magnificent work on Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental's WHaLE OPTICS, will work closely with Dan to create a color palate and lighting plot that matches the play's transitions and sense
of time and space. Alison Roberts costumes will hint at the subtle shifts in both characters as time passes. Drew and Alison both worked with Deborah on last year's hit, Iron, and Exile is happy to reunite the three artists once again. Deborah's fascination with the magical realism of this play, it's insistence on hope in the face of fear, will guide this production and create a spark of optimism in the wake of the rubble. The entire cast and design team have been assembled because of their unique preparedness to explore the space between truth and memory, and create a living example of that space onstage.

Director
Deborah Block has been a consistent figure in the Philadelphia arts community for over 20 years as a dramaturg, producer, curator, educator and a director of over 50 professional productions. In addition to Philadelphia, her work has been seen in New York, Los Angeles and Alaska. She has received much recognition for her professional and educational work including receiving the Independence Fellowship in the Arts and the Albert Benzie Award for playwriting. She is one of the founders of the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Philly Fringe and was the program director for ten years. She is currently teaching at Temple University where she received her MFA.
Deborah has directed Iron, Hunter Gatherers, dark play or stories for boys, Roosters and Hearts and Soles for Theatre Exile.

Playwright
Rajiv Joseph was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio; his mother is Euroamerican of French and German ancestry and his father immigrated to the States from India. His full-length plays include Huck & Holden, All This Intimacy, Animals Out of Paper, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (A 2010
Pulitzer Prize Finalist), Gruesome Playground Injuries, The North Pool and The Monster at the Door. His works have been produced at the Cherry Lane Theater, the Black Dahlia Theater, McGinn/Cazele Theater, The TBG Theater, Second Stage Theatre, The Boise Contemporary Theater, The Ensemble Theatre in Sydney, Australia, the San Francisco Playhouse, The Kirk Douglas Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, The Alley Theatre, The Woolly Mammoth Theater and TheatreWorks. He has been awarded the Paula Vogel Award by the Vineyard Theatre, the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship and the Whiting Award. He is a former Lark Playwriting Fellow and Dramatist Guild Fellow. Joseph also writes for the popular Showtime Dramedy Nurse Jackie.

TICKET INFO:
Call 215.218.4022 or on the web at www.theatreexile.org for specific prices and dates. Student tickets are available . Substantial savings are offered for groups of 10 or more, please call for details.