Nashville Repertory Theatre's Professional Interns to Stage GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES

Nashville Repertory Theatre's Professional Internship Program is proud to produce the quirky and dark love story of Gruesome Playground Injuries, an engaging drama that follows childhood friends Kayleen and Doug over the course of 30 years of physical and emotional bumps and bruises. Gruesome Playground Injuries will run April 29-30 in Studio A at Nashville Public Television

"On a deeper level...It's about lost love," says Gruesome Playground Injuries playwright Rajiv Joseph in an interview with Rogue Machine Theatre, "it's about pain, and regret...I know that these are things that almost everyone in humanity has some experience with."

About the Show

Kayleen and Doug have an unbreakable bond that is stitched up over 30 years through hospital rooms, nurses' offices and an ice skating rink. Whether they are 8 or 38 they always seem to be recovering from some self-inflicted, almost masochistic trauma. They form a unique, but loyal friendship through their pain. This quirky and dark love story will show the connections between physical and emotional injuries, will open your eyes to see how people grow, but sometimes don't change, and how real love and friendship can mend any wound.

This engaging drama is told through a nonlinear story structure that moves the story along in an extremely unique, yet attainable manner. Joseph says, "The jumping around in ages was kind of important to me...I thought it was an interesting way of telling the story, but it also acts as the way that I think most of us will recount our lives...it's more like a prism of memory that is disjointed and connected through something that is not necessarily time, but emotion and sensation and pain."

NOTE: This play contains some adult language.

Joseph created Gruesome Playground Injuries through a conversation he had with a childhood friend. His friend was regaling Joseph with stories of various injuries he had obtained through different stages of his life, and Joseph realized that injuries could "chart an experience, a relationship, a lifetime."

Nashville Rep's cast for Gruesome Playground Injuries includes Fred Brown (Doug), and Lacy Hartselle (Kayleen).

Tickets

The show runs Friday, April 29th and Saturday, April 30th at 7:00PM. Tickets are a suggested $10 donation, or $5 for actors and students, and can be purchased online at nashvillerep.org or by calling 615-349-3223.

Gruesome Playground Injuries is written by Rajiv Joseph and directed by Kate Prosser. Designers are Corwin Amyx (Co-Scenic Designer), Erin Murphy (Co-Scenic Designer), Rebecca Schafer (Costume Designer), Clayton Landiss (Lighting Designer), Taylor Russell (Sound Designer/Scenic Charge Artist), and Kate Prosser (Properties Designer and Master). Technical Director is Corwin Amyx.