Theatre Exile Presents That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play 11/11-12/5

By: Sep. 29, 2010
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Theatre Exile presents the Philadelphia premiere of That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play by Sheila Callaghan. Directed by Joe Canuso, Exile's producing artistic director, That Pretty Pretty runs November 11th through December 5th at the newly renovated Christ Church Neighborhood House, with the press opening Wednesday, November 17th at 8pm.

Prepare for a thrilling ride with Theatre Exile's Philadelphia premiere of That Pretty Pretty; or, the Rape Play by nationally emerging talent Sheila Callaghan. Pretty Pretty is a wild, no-holds-barred romp through the stereotypes and truisms of sexual identity. When two ex-strippers go on a road-trip of revenge, Jane Fonda steps in to help guide the women as the patron saint of misogyny and feminism. Worlds, identities and fantasies peel away scene after scene in a striptease of revelations, staged for YouTube and fast as a mouse-click.

Theatre Exile's Joe Canuso, star of last season's Any Given Monday, will direct Pretty Pretty at the newly renovated, audience-friendly Christ Church Neighborhood House. Charlotte Ford, Barrymore-nominated for her roles in Red Light Winter and Mr. Marmalade, teams up with Joe again as the dangerously alluring Agnes. Christie Parker takes no prisoners as Valerie, a radical feminist blogger out for blood, and Amy Smith, founder of Headlong Dance Company and star of Exile's Princess Ivona, joins Charlotte as the iconic Jane Fonda. Allen Radway as Owen and Jered McLenigan as Rodney team up as the bevy of soldiers, right-wingers, doctors and jello-wrestling judges who litter the roadside of this "ribald, shameless and exuberant ride" (Curtain Up Review).

Joe has assembled a hard-hitting design team filled with award-winning Exile regulars for the sharp, challenging Pretty Pretty. Jorge Cousineau (Shining City, Rounding Third, The Philly Fan), the production's video and set designer, will create a multimedia world that travels from hotels to battlefields. Costuming the cast of strippers, outlaws, resistance fighters and convention-goers is Rosemarie McKelvey (Killer Joe, Rounding Third, Burkie and Rhinoceros). Sound designer Michael Kiley (Killer Joe, Red Light Winter), fresh from designing Nichole Canuso Dance Company's Live Arts Festival production of Takes, rounds out the Pretty Pretty team. With Joe combining the exhilarating pulp of his Killer Joe with the frankness of his Red Light Winter, Pretty Pretty is sure to be the most provocative production of the season.

Director

Joe Canuso (Producing Artistic Director)has directed many of Theatre Exile's shows including Mr. Marmalade, Red Light Winter, Full Figured/Loves to Dance, The Philly Fan, Last Call, The Gin Game, Cryptome, Burkie, Amputation Nation, Big Blonde, Live at the Apollo Diner, The Frankenharry Plays, and Belmont Avenue Social Club. He was nominated by the Barrymore Awards for Outstanding Direction of a Play for Killer Joe and was part of the Barrymore Award-winning ensemble of Glengarry Glen Ross. In 2009 he was named Best Director by The Philadelphia Weekly for Blackbird. He has also appeared as an actor in Theatre Exile's productions of the dreamer examines his pillow, Parking, Rocketman, Princess Ivona, Bug, American Buffalo, and most recently the world premiere of Any Given Monday by Bruce Graham.

Cast
Charlotte Ford returns to Exile, after her memorable roles in Red Light Winter and Mr. Marmalade, as Agnes, the epitome of mass-marketed female desirability. Charlotte has performed extensively in the Philadelphia region and internationally, both in her own works as well as with Pig Iron Theatre Company, New Paradise Laboratories, Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, and others. She is a recipient of the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative grant, the Independence Foundation fellowship, and the 2008 & 2009 Leeway Art and Change grant, and has been nominated for three Barrymore awards (two with Exile). Her recent work Chicken, produced for the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, garnered critical accolades.


Jered McLenigan (Rodney) adds Exile to his list of credits that includes EgoPo, Nice People Theatre, The Lantern Theater Company, Inis Nua Theatre, the Prince Music Theater (Barrymore Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play), 1812 Productions, and Barrymore-nominated ensembles at the Wilma Theater and Iron Age Theatre. Most recently Jered performed alongside Pretty Pretty director Joe Canuso in EgoPo's Marat/Sade, under the direction of Exile artistic associate Brenna Geffers.

Christie Parker explodes onto the Exile stage as the volatile Valerie, a woman on a mission to make men pay. Christie has frequently performed with the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival, Lantern Theater Company, Pig Iron Theatre Company and others, and is featured regularly with the Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret. Her Desdemona for the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's production of Othello earned her a Barrymore nomination for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play. She was last in Exile as Isobel in Princess Ivona, alongside Amy Smith.
Allen Radway returns to Exile as the outrageous Owen. Allen previously appeared with Exile in two world-premiere one-acts by Michael Hollinger, and has been seen recently on the stages of Delaware Shakespeare Festival, Lantern Theater Company, New City Stage, and Simpatico Theatre Project. He is currently directing the Philadelphia premiere of David Mamet's The Cryptogram for Simpatico Theatre Project, where he serves as Artistic Director.

Amy Smith, founder and Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater, plays the pop-culture icon Jane Fonda. In addition to her work with Headlong, Amy has performed in the work of Deborah Hay, Ishmael Houston Jones, and many other dance artists. Exile audiences will remember her as Ivona in Princess Ivona; she was also part of the Barrymore Award-winning ensemble of 1812's Suburban Love Songs.

Designers

Set, lighting, and video designer Jorge Cousineau (Shining City, Rounding Third, The Philly Fan) has been living in Philadelphia for thirteen years, designing sets, lights, sound and video for dance and Theater Productions in and out of the city and co-directing his company Subcircle. Most recently Jorge designed When Tang Met Laika at the Denver Center, Language Rooms at the Wilma Theater, and Sunday In The Park With George and History Boys at the Arden Theatre Company.
Michael Kiley is a sound designer/composer who works in dance and theatre. Highlights include Exile's Killer Joe and Red Light Winter, Brat Production's Haunted Poe, SubCircle's Only Sleeping, and Wandering Alice and Takes with Nichole Canuso Dance Company. He is also the founder of The Mural and The Mint, a free music project. This December TM&TM will be creating a piece entitled As The Eyes Of The Seahorse in collaboration with Nichole Canuso Dance Company at HERE Arts Center in SoHo.

Rosemarie McKelvey, who designed costumes for Exile's Killer Joe, Rounding Third, Burkie and Rhinoceros, won Barrymores in 2007 for her work on Caroline, or Change and in 2009 for Something Intangible, both at the Arden Theatre Company; she was also nominated in 2009 for Cinderella with People's Light & Theatre Company. She has also designed for New Paradise Laboratories, 1812 Productions, Interact Theater Company, Villanova University, Azuka, Pig Iron, The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival and The Minneapolis Children's Theatre.

Playwright

Sheila Callaghan's plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwright's Horizons, South Coast Repertory, Clubbed Thumb, The LARK, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, Woolly Mammoth, and Rattlestick Playwright's Theatre, among others. Sheila is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright's Center in Minneapolis, a MacDowell Residency, a 2005 Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, and the prestigious Whiting Award. She has received grants from NYFA, NYSCA, and the MAP Foundation. Her plays have been produced internationally in New Zealand, Norway, Germany, and the Czech Republic. She has been commissioned by Playwright's Horizons, South Coast Repertory, The Playwright's Foundation, Clubbed Thumb, and EST/Sloan. Her full-length plays include Scab, Crawl Fade to White, Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), We Are Not These Hands, Dead City, Lascivious Something, Kate Crackernuts, and Fever/Dream. Several of her plays are published by Playscripts.com and Samuel French, and her monologues can be found in various anthologies. She has taught playwriting at Columbia University, The University of Rochester, The College of New Jersey, and Florida State University, and she is currently on the faculty at Spalding University's MFA program in creative writing. Sheila is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb and a member of the Obie winning playwright's organization 13P. Sheila is also a resident of New Dramatists. Currently, Sheila is a writer on the Showtime series The United States of Tara.

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