ATYP to Present STOP KISS, 5-22 March

Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) launch their 2014 Selects season (previously known as Under the Wharf) with the Australian premiere of Diana Son's critically acclaimed play Stop Kiss. Presented by Unlikely Productions, the production opens on the 7th of March and is an official 2014 Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras event.

Directed by Sydney Theatre Award winning director Anthony Skuse (On the Shore of the Wide World, Punk Rock) the cast will be led by Olivia Stambouliah (Packed to the Rafters, Frankenstein) and Gabrielle Scawthorn (The Killing Field, Deadly Women) as two women at a crossroads. Sara (Scawthorn), new to New York City, meets Callie (Stambouliah) through a friend, but their relationship moves quickly and unexpectedly away from friendship. Caught by surprise, the conservative Callie struggles to comprehend the growing attraction, and the two circle each other warily, willing the other to make the first move. When the long awaited moment comes and they kiss for the first time on the streets of New York's West Village, it prompts a devastating act of violence. With Sara hospitalised and comatose, this apparent 'gay-bashing' is thrown under the full limelight of the media, which in turn places the women's fledgling relationship under scrutiny from their puzzled friends and family.

Olivia Stambouliah is a staple of the Australian theatre scene, having been seen recently in the Ensemble Theatre's national tour of Frankenstein and Griffin Theatre's References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot. She is also known to a wider audience through her recurring role as 'Voula' on Channel 7's hit television show Packed to the Rafters. NIDA graduate Gabrielle Scawthorn recently made a splash as part of the "I'm With Stupid" collective's Balmoral Protection Unit web series. She will be seen in upcoming feature film Dick's Clinic, and Channel 7's telemovie The Killing Field, starring Rebecca Gibney.

Playing the role of Callie's on-off boyfriend, George, is WAAPA graduate Aaron Tsindos, who recently won Best Actor (shared with co-star and director Mathew Hardie) for his role in the controversial Tropfest winning short film Bamboozled. As Sara's recently deserted boyfriend Peter, Ben McIvor returns to the Sydney stage after his work in The Great Gatsby and the national tour of Warhorse. Rounding out the cast are Robert Jago (Macbeth, All Saints), Suzanne Pereira (who also serves as Associate Director) and recent ACA graduate Kate Fraser (Starlight Stories).

Stop Kiss premiered at New York's Public Theater in 1998 to much critical acclaim. Starring Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy) and Jessica Hecht (Friends, Breaking Bad), the production garnered rave reviews and had its season extended three times due to popular demand. The playwright, Diana Son, went on to write several more successfully produced plays, and also moved into television, becoming a writer/producer for the series Blue Bloods, Southland, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and The West Wing. Stop Kiss won the GLAAD Media Award for Best New York Production and Diana Son the Berilla Kerr Award for playwrighting.

As described by Ben Brantley in his New York Times review of the original production: "You may have heard that ''Stop Kiss'' is about gay-bashing, which isn't quite right. The signal event in the play is indeed the brutal beating of a young woman after she is seen kissing another woman. What Ms. Son does, however, is slyly place the occurrence in the context of a larger consideration of the perils of living life fully. Making choices and commitments is a scary business, ''Stop Kiss'' suggests, but what is the alternative?"

Anthony Skuse, fresh off the back of a sell out season of On the Shore of the Wide World at Griffin in January, is excited to bring Stop Kiss to a Sydney audience. "What a pleasure to be able to bring together this fantastic group of young artists who are all so passionate about this play. The old 'girl-meets-girl' story has been infused with the pace and humour of HBO's Girls, and the result is electric."

For more information, visit http://www.atyp.com.au/whats-on/productions/stop-kiss.