CONEY ISLAND LAND Comes to Theatre 68 Arts Complex This Month

CIL Productions has announced the world premiere of Coney Island Land or The Great Existential Actuality at The End of The Universe, a new play by Timothy Braun, at the Theatre 68 Arts Complex (The Emerson) in North Hollywood. Directed by Lucy Smith Conroy, the cast will feature Tate Evans and Thomas Piper. There will be one preview on Friday, February 16, at 8:30pm, and opening is set for Saturday, February 17, at 8:30pm. The run will continue with performances Friday and Saturday at 8:30pm and Sunday at 2:30pm through March 17.

It is Memorial Day Weekend 2021, and two high school sweethearts are meeting in person for the first time in 30 years. They have come to the Best Western Plus Brooklyn Bay Hotel in Coney Island to see what the future holds for them. Coney Island Land is about memory, nostalgia, middle age, and love in the time of a pandemic. Running time is 90 minutes with no intermission.
 
Set design is by Jeff G. Rack, lighting design is by Gavan Wyrick, costume design is by Mylette Nora, sound design is by Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski, projections design is by Gabrieal Griego, and graphic design is by Michelle Hanzelova-Bierbauer. Production stage manager is Jen Palumbo and producers are Misha Riley and Gabrieal Griego.
 
Timothy Braun has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Djerassi, Santa Fe Art Institute, Edward F. Albee Foundation, and Ucross. His plays and operas have been produced across North America, Europe, and Asia. The New York Times, American Theatre Magazine, Huffingtonpost, Austin Monthly, and The Texas Standard have published his essays. He is a member of Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lab, an alum of Forward/Story, and serves on the Board of Directors of Austin Bat Cave. He is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Department of Literature, Writing, and Rhetoric at St. Edward’s University. He is a graduate of Columbia University with an MFA in Playwriting.

Tate Evans, an actor, musician, and producer, has been in numerous regional, off and off-off Broadway productions including Perfect Harmony, 167 Tongues, Approaching America, As I Lay Dying, We’re All Dead, Mr. Gallico, and Invert. She won the award for Best Actress at the Big Easy Film Festival for Life Lines (written and directed by James William Evans) where the film also won Best Dramatic Short. Her upcoming short film The Dead Trick (also written and directed Evans) is due out later this year. She can be seen in multiple national commercials and is a longtime member of the comedy rock band Dirty Lenin. She is a graduate of Duke University.

Thomas Piper’s Los Angeles theatre credits include A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, The Death and Life of Mary Jo Kopechne, Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally, and Macbeth. He has appeared extensively in productions off and off-off Broadway, including Richard 3 and The Great Divorce. He has appeared at numerous regional theatres across the country. He is a co-creator of the groundbreaking Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant and a founding member of Magis Theatre Company in NYC. Film: Life Lines, Vodka Rocks, Zeitgeist, The Con Artist, Doomer Chicks, Open Book, Swimming, You Don't Know Jack. TV: Law and Order: SVU, Rake, As the Word Turns, Dennis Leary's Merry F#%$in' Christmas, You're Not Getting a Dime, The Room Actors: Where Are They Now.  He is a graduate of Duke University, as well as Columbia University’s Graduate Acting Program.

Lucy Smith Conroy is a freelance director based in San Diego whose work has been seen regionally and in NYC, most notably at Portland Stage and Chicago’s Court Theatre. Favorite productions include Fraulein Else (Court Theatre); Julius Caesar, Arcadia, and Fully Committed (Portland Stage); La Bete and As You Like It (Theater at Monmouth); Life Is a Dream and All’s Well That Ends Well (blessed unrest). She is a longtime member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC) and a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA Directing Program.
 
Admission is $20 for the preview on Friday, February 16, and $30 for regular performances beginning February 17. Tickets are available online at www.Onstage411.com/ConeyIsland. The Theatre 68 Arts Complex is located at 5112 Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, 91601.  

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