STAGE TUBE: Meet the Diverse 'Wolfpack' of Encores! Off-Center's RUNAWAYS - MJ Rodriguez, Sophia Anne Caruso & More!
By: Tyler Peterson May. 25, 2016
Click Here for More on ENCORES!
New York City Center today announced the cast of the Encores! Off-Center production of Runaways, Elizabeth Swados' landmark musical about the stories, fears, and fantasies of runaway children. Cast largely from an open call attended by over 300 teenagers of "all ethnicities, body types, gender identification, and ability levels," the "wolfpack" of 25, as director Sam Pinkleton affectionately calls them, embody the ferocious kinetic energy of today's New York-just as the original cast reflected the New York of 1978.
Including ASL interpreters, tattoo artists, transgender youths, unicyclists, and Jimmy Page fans, all but two members of the cast are between 12 and 19 years of age. They are: Frenie Acoba, Sumaya Bouhbal, Kenneth Cabral, Maxwell Cabral, Taylor Caldwell, Sophia Anne Caruso, Xavier Casimir, Joshua DeJesus, Adleesa Edwards, Aidan Gemme, Reyna Guerra, Matthew Gumley, Christina Jimenez, Kylie McNeill, Cele Pahucki, Sam Poon, Siena Rafter, Claudia Ramirez, Ren, MJ Rodriguez, Deandre Sevon, Jeremy Shinder, Ripley Sobo, Chris Sumpter, and Maxwell Vice.
Meet the cast in the just-released announcement below!
Tickets, starting at $25, can be purchased online at NYCityCenter.org, by calling CityTix at 212.581.1212, or in person at the City Center Box Office. New York City Center is located at 131 West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues.
In 1977, Swados spent several months observing and interviewing child runaways before shaping their stories, fears, and fantasies into a musical. A deeply unconventional work in its day, Runaways feels like the funkiest, most heartbreaking mixtape ever to come out of a 1970s boom box, packed with reggae anthems, hip-hop, soul-food lullabies, and spoken-word poetry. The Encores! Off-Center production will honor a theater visionary who was ferocious, inspiring, and left us far too soon.
Videos