Mat Smart's KILL LOCAL to Make World Premiere at La Jolla Playhouse

La Jolla Playhouse announces the world premiere of Kill Local, by UC San Diego MFA playwriting graduate Mat Smart, directed by Jackson Gay (Kingdom City), as part of its 2017/2018 season, to run in August, 2017 in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

Sheila and her sister Abigail work for their mother's small family business. Sheila's job used to be a source of joy and exhilaration; now she's questioning everything. But when you're an assassin, being uninspired means getting sloppy, and getting sloppy means getting killed. Kill Local is a pitch-black comedy about blood ties, revenge and trying to get unstuck - especially when your life is dedicated to ending others'.

"During its DNA New Work Series reading this past December, I witnessed how this savage - and savagely funny - play electrified the crowd, and was determined to share it with a larger audience as part of our 2017/2018 season," said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley. "This will be both a homecoming for Mat, a UC San Diego MFA playwriting alum, as well as a golden opportunity for us to re-introduce San Diego to his singular voice."

Kill Local received its first reading as part of The Playhouse's acclaimed DNA New Work Series, which offers playwrights the opportunity to develop a script and receive valuable audience feedback. Several mainstage Playhouse productions have been developed through the DNA New Work Series, including Miss You Like Hell, The Last Tiger in Haiti, Blueprints to Freedom, The Who & The What and Chasing the Song.

A graduate of the UC San Diego MFA playwriting program, Mat Smart won the 2015 Equity Jeff Award for Best New Work in Chicago for The Royal Society of Antarctica (Gift Theatre, upcoming at Stage West). Other plays include: Naperville (Slant Theatre Project, Theater Wit), Tinker to Evers to Chance (Geva, Merrimack Rep), Samuel J. and K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Steppenwolf), The Hopper Collection (Magic Theatre, Huntington) and The 13th of Paris (City Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre). Awards & Fellowships: 2014 Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the William Inge Center for the Arts, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, two Jerome Fellowships and a McKnight Advancement Grant. Commissions: South Coast Rep, Huntington, Denver Center, and currently, La Jolla Playhouse, The Second City, and Geva Theatre Center.

Jackson Gay directed La Jolla Playhouse's world-premiere production of Kingdom City. Her upcoming works include the new musical CHIX 6 by Lourds Lane at La MaMa and Chekhov's Three Sisters at Studio Theatre/New Neighborhood). Recent credits include Lisa Lampanelli's Stuffed (Women's Project); Transfers by Lucy Thurber (New York Stage & Film); Much Ado About Nothing, adapted with Kenneth Lin (Cal Shakes); Suzanne Vega's Lover, Beloved, An Evening with Carson McCullers with music by Duncan Sheik (Rattlestick West LA and Alley Theatre); These Paper Bullets! adapted from Shakespeare's Much Ado by Rolin Jones with music by Billie Joe Armstrong (Atlantic Theater Company, Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep; Critics Pick Time Out NY, Best Production and Adaptation LA Stage Awards, Best of 2015 Time Out Los Angeles, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Best Production and Best Director). She teaches directing at Yale College and is from Sugar Land, Texas.

The Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is internationally-renowned for creating some of the most exciting and adventurous work in American theatre, through its new play development initiatives, its innovative Without Walls series, artist residencies and commissions. Currently led by Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg, The Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and reborn in 1983 under the artistic leadership of Des McAnuff. La Jolla Playhouse has had 26 productions transfer to Broadway, garnering 35 Tony Awards, among them Jersey Boys, Memphis, The Who's Tommy, Big River, as well as Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays and the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, both fostered as part of The Playhouse's Page To Stage Program. Visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org.