One-Night-Only Staged Reading Of John Glore's CREEP Set for May 8 at Chance Theater

Chance Theater, Anaheim's official resident theater company, is pleased to present a staged reading of award-winning playwright John Glore's Creep. This staged reading is being directed by Artistic Director Oanh Nguyen as part of Chance Theater's OTR New Works Series. Creep will be presented for one night only on Wednesday, May 8 at 7:30pm at Chance Theater @ Bette Aitken theater arts Center on the Cripe Stage.

In Creep (adapted from stories by Edgar Allan Poe), a wealthy man has holed up inside his castle with several hundred of his closest friends to escape the plague that devastated the populace on the other side of the castle's stone walls. The moneyed elite can only wait out the devastation, but what better way to do so on this All Hallows Eve than with a costume ball? - and better yet, the celebrants will provide their own entertainment by relating terrifying tales of murder, mayhem and supernatural malice. One by one, the story-tellers do their best to top one another while an Uninvited Guest waits for his turn to curdle their blood with a tale that comes with a deathly surprise at its conclusion. The American master of the poetical macabre provides the stories, accompanied by rock music whose chilling undertow perfectly suits the morbid moods of Mr. Poe.

"One of the very first record albums I ever owned was a recording of Vincent Price reading Poe's Tell Tale Heart, and I'd listen to it obsessively," shared playwright Glore, explaining the inspiration for this new story. "It really got under my skin, and I still remember some of Price's line readings. So when I was thinking about finding a new adaptation project for myself, and mentally sorting through the great American writers of the 19th century, Poe came to mind. The horror component of his writing is really timeless. The things that scared people in his day - mortality, madness, incomprehensible evil and things that go ba-bump in the night - still scare us today. Also, I'm finding ways to spin some of the stories so that they do invite us to think about some of the realities of our own time and place."

Through the course of writing the play, Glore also had another moment of inspiration: "At some point, I began thinking about incorporating the music of one of my favorite contemporary bands, because their songs are moody and dark and obsessive in a way that's similar to Poe. And I liked the collision of Poe's old world with the contemporary sound of that music. It turned the piece into more of an event to think about having a live band playing these songs as interludes, commentary and underscoring for Poe's stories."

ABOUT OTR NEW WORKS SERIES

For the last nine years, our On The Radar (OTR) New Works Series has simultaneously provided a safe, collaborative environment for emerging playwrights and an opportunity for our patrons to "peek behind the curtain" and engage in brand new works-in-progress. Expanding into the OTR LAB Series in 2015, this workshop program takes a new play or musical into the next stage of development. The cast and director have a longer rehearsal period, additional workshop performances and the opportunity to continue rehearsals and make changes between each performance. Many plays and musicals from this series have gone on to receive world premieres all over the country, including Lincoln Center, Manhattan Theatre Club and the Chance.

MEET THE TEAM

John Glore (Playwright) is the Associate Artistic Director of South Coast Repertory (SCR), in Orange County, Calif. He is an award-winning playwright whose work for young audiences includes his adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, which debuted at SCR in 2010 and has since moved on to numerous productions nationwide; an adaptation of Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, which had its professional premiere at the Coterie Theatre and has since had dozens of productions nationwide; and his newest, an adaptation of Laura Amy Schlitz's The Night Fairy, which has been produced at SCR and Imagination Stage in Washington, D.C. Other plays for young audiences include Wind of a Thousand Tales, Folktales Too, Rhubarb Jam, and The Day After Evermore. His plays for adults include On the Jump (produced by SCR and Arena Stage in Washington D.C.), The Company of Heaven, Preludes and Fugues, and City Sky (a scenario for a dance piece). With the performance trio Culture Clash he has co-authored adaptations of two plays by Aristophanes, The Birds and Peace. In addition to the theatres already named, his work has been produced at Berkeley Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Round House Theatre, The Children's Theatre Company, First Stage, Childsplay, Oregon Children's Theatre, the Getty Villa and many others. He received a 2000 Playwrights Fellowship from the California Arts Council and has occasionally taught playwriting and related subjects at UCLA and Pomona College.

Oanh Nguyen (Director) has been serving as Chance Theater's founding Artistic Director since 1999. Oanh is a recipient of TCG's New Generations Grant and the TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color Fellowship. He was awarded the Outstanding Artist Award by Arts Orange County, profiled in Orange County Register's "Most Influential People" series and OC Weekly's People Issue, inducted into Anaheim High School's Hall of Fame and was a commencement speaker for Chapman University College of Performing Arts. Oanh was Producing Associate at South Coast Repertory for four years. He also served on the advisory board of the Anaheim High School Performing Arts Conservatory, the board of Network of Ensemble Theatres, LA's 99-seat Transitional Committee, and OC Theatre Guild, as well as panels and committees for Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, National Endowment for the Arts and Theatre Communications Group. Oanh is a proud member of SDC and SAG-AFTRA. His directing credits include productions at Chance Theater, East West Players, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, South Coast Repertory, Chapman University, Azusa Pacific University, AMDA, CSU Fullerton, and served as the Associate Director for the international tour of David Henry Hwang's Chinglish (Berkeley Repertory, South Coast Repertory, Hong Kong Arts Festival). His selected film credits include Two Brothers directed by Jean-Jacques Annaude, Rush Hour 3 directed by Brett Ratner, and Lonely Boy directed by Dale Fabrigar (Best First Feature Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Louisiana International Film Festival and Audience Award Winner at the 2013 BolderLife Festival).

In addition to Nguyen, the creative team for Creep includes some Chance Theater Resident Artists, including dramaturg Jocelyn L. Buckner (Skylight), stage manager Aaron McGee (most recently the Puppet Designer for Big Fish and James and The Giant Peach), and producing associates Jennifer Ruckman and James McHale. They are joined by assistant director Jonathan Josephson (The Legends of Sleepy Hollow).

The cast for this staged reading includes more Resident Artists Andrew Puente (After The Revolution), Robert Foran (Good People), and James McHale (in a word). They are joined by returning Chance artists Adam Lebowitz-Lockard (The Eight: Reindeer Monologues), Amanda Zarr (Good People), and Lola Kelly (Elevada). Making his Chance debut with this reading is Craig Fleming.

The producers for the entire 2019 OTR Series are The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation and the Elizabeth George Foundation.