Yockey's Thrush & Woodpecker at Custom Made This August

"Revenge Play" stars Stacy Ross, directed by Tracy Ward, and is a special addition to Custom Made's 2016/17 season.

A "heart racing psychological thriller that takes eerie twists and delves deep into the psyches of motherhood and revenge and obsession." - Arnold Wayne Jones, Dallas Voice

Press night/opening is Sunday, August 7, 7pm.

San Francisco. July 2, 2016. As part of "Year of the Yockey" Custom Made is thrilled to present a special event, their first National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, The Thrush & The Woodpecker starring local legend Stacy Ross*, Shotgun Players Company Member Fontana Butterfield, and hot up-and-coming actor, Adam Magill (Berkeley Rep's Macbeth, SF Playhouse's Stupid f-ing Bird.) Tracy Ward (Hunter Gatherers) directs.

Brenda Hendricks has her hands full dealing with her son Noah after he is expelled from a prestigious college and unexpectedly returns to their isolated Northern California home. When an elegant and mysterious woman arrives on their doorstep dragging along buried secrets and stories about mysterious birds, Brenda and Noah find their world turned upside down in ways both intimate and epic. Both engaging and disturbing, The Thrush & the Woodpecker is a morality play with a fantastical twist.

"A fiercely imaginative and tuned voice." -SF Chronicle

The Thrush & The Woodpecker runs Aug 4 - Aug 20 at Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco, 94102.

The Thrush & The Woodpecker is Steve Yockey's fifth rolling world premiere with the National New Play Network and he is the first playwright to have two such premieres in a single season. Prior to its Custom Made production, Thrush played at Actor's Express in Atlanta and Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas.

*member, Actors' Equity Association

Steve Yockey is a Los Angeles based writer with work produced throughout the country, Europe, and Asia. His plays include Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, Very Still & Hard to See, The Fisherman's Wife, and Niagara Falls & Other Plays. Yockey was selected for the first US/Australia playwright exchange in 2013 for his play Pluto, sponsored by the National New Play Network and Playwriting Australia. This season, Blackberry Winter will be an NNPN Rolling World Premiere with productions at Actor's Express/Out of Hand, Salt Lake Acting Company, New Rep, Forum, Kitchen Dog, Capital Stage Company, and Oregon Contemporary Theatre. The Thrush & The Woodpecker will also be an NNPN rolling world premiere with productions at Actor's Express, Kitchen Dog, and Custom Made Theatre. Steve holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He currently contributes issues to the Zenescope comic book series Grimm Tales of Terror and writes on HBO's The Brink.

The National New Play Network is the county's alliance of nonprofit theaters that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. NNPN strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ides and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights.

Since its founding in 1998, the National New Play Network has supported nearly 150 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates NNPN Rolling World Premieres of new plays; granted more than a million dollars to its Member theaters, their staffs and affiliated artists; and provided hundreds of playwrights and other theater-makers with developmental workshops, commissions, and paid residencies. Now, after seventeen seasons, hundreds of thousands of Audience members around the world have seen plays that were created and honed with support from NNPN.

Venue: Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco

Previews: August 4 - 6, 2016

Opens: Sunday, August 7, 7pm 2016

Runs: Wednesdays & Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.; Fridays & Saturdays at 8:00 p.m.; and Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. through August 20, 2016

Running Time: approx. 75 minutes; no intermission

Tickets: $50 Opening Night; Other times $28-32 (415) 798-CMTC (2682), www.custommade.org

The Thrush & The Woodpecker. Stacy Ross stars in Steve Yockey's World Premiere of an engaging and disturbing morality play with a fantastical twist. A mother has her hands full dealing with her son after he is expelled from a prestigious college and an elegant and mysterious woman arrives on their doorstep dragging along buried secrets. Directed by Tracy Ward. Custom Made Theatre, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco. Previews Aug. 4 - 6, $25-28. Opens Aug. 7, 7:00 pm, $50. Runs through Aug. 20. Wed-Thurs, 7:30 pm; Fri-Sat, 8 pm; Sat 2 pm. Tickets $28-32. (415) 798-CMTC (2682), www.custommade.org

And Kicking Off the 2016-2017 Season...

Chess - lyrics by Tim Rice; music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus. Directed by Brian Katz; Musical Direction by Armando Fox. September-October