Teatro Paraguas Presents Gritty Comedy THE MOTHERF**KER WITH THE HAT by Stephen Adly Guigis

Teatro Paraguas closes its 13th season with Stephen Adly Guirgis' gritty hard-hitting comedy The Motherf**ker With The Hat, which originally premiered at Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on April 11, 2011.

Described as "a high-octane verbal cage match about love, fidelity and misplaced haberdashery," the story is about struggles with addiction, friendship, love, and the challenges of adulthood. Jackie, a petty drug dealer, is just out of prison and trying to stay clean. He's also still in love with his coke-addicted childhood sweetheart, Veronica. Ralph D. is Jackie's too-smooth, slightly slippery sponsor. He's married to the bitter and disaffected Victoria, who, by the way, has the hots for Jackie. Jackie's gay cousin, Julio, tries to provide the ballast to keep total chaos at bay.

Rick Vargas directs Teatro Paraguas' production and the cast includes Matthew Montoya as Jackie, Noah G. Simpson as Ralph D., Madeleine Robb as Veronica, Pablo Adrián Ángeles as Julio, and Eibhlin Brennan as Victoria.

Guirgis, the son of an Egyptian father and an Irish American mother, was raised on New York City's Upper West Side. He attended school in nearby Harlem and graduated from University at Albany, SUNY in 1992. A playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor, he is a member and a former co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced both Off-Broadway and on Broadway as well as in the UK. He has won many awards, including the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award (2014) and the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Between Riverside and Crazy.

His plays include Jesus Hopped the 'A' Train (2000), The Little Flower of East Orange (2008), Our Lady of 121st Street (2003), In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings (1999), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (2005), Dominica the Fat Ugly Ho, (2006) The Motherfucker with the Hat (2011), and Between Riverside and Crazy (2014).

Originally from Chicago, Rick Vargas is a film and stage actor, director and screenwriter. For Teatro Paraguas, he has directed Death and The Maiden, and Port Authority Throw Down, and acted in Welcome to Arroyo's, In The Time of The Butterflies, and Two Sisters and a Piano.

The MotherF**ker With The Hat opens April 13, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm through April 30th. The Gala performance

is Saturday, April 15. Tickets are $20 general admission and $12 limited income. All tickets on Thursday are $10. Tickets for the Saturday April 15 Gala are $25. Tickets may be purchased in advance at mofo2017.brownpapertickets.com, or reserved by phone at 505-424-1601 and purchased at the door.

This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, the Santa Fe Arts Commission and the 1% Lodgers' Tax, the Santa Fe Community Foundation, and the McCune Foundation.

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