NJ Rep to Present NOBODY'S GIRL, 8/20-9/20

New Jersey Repertory Company, located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch, is proud to announce the U.S. Premiere of Nobody's Girl by Australian Playwright Rick Viede.

Is there anything more scandalous than a juicy tell-all memoir? Viciously funny, Nobody's Girl features a potpourri of outrageous characters who wheel and deal in a high stakes game for glory. It is an unforgiving, hilarious satire of today's frenzied media and those who will do anything to be on top. Be prepared for plenty of twists and turns, and razor sharp wit.

The cast includes Gregory Haney, Judith Hawking, Layla Khoshnoudi, and Jacob A. Ware and is directed by Erica Gould. Sneak preview performances to this limited engagement begin Thursday, August 20 with opening night Saturday, August 22 at New Jersey Repertory Company (179 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ), and will run through Sunday, September 20, 2015. Tickets may be purchased by calling 732-229-3166 or at www.njrep.org.

The production team includes: Jessica Parks (Set Design & Props), Brian Snyder (Technical Director,) Jill Nagle (Lighting Design), Merek Royce Press (Sound Design), Patricia Doherty (Costume Design), and Jennifer Tardibuono (Stage Manager).

Rick Viede (Playwright) Rick Viede is an Australian writer and performer now living in New York. He won the prestigious 2008 Griffin Award for his debut play Whore, which premiered in 2009 at Belvoir St Theatre. The Australian production of Whore was closely followed by a production at New York's Summer Play Festival at the Public Theatre, directed by Stephen Brackett. In 2010 Rick was awarded the highly prestigious Queensland Premier's Literary Award for Whore. He was Affiliate Playwright with Griffin Theatre Company, Australia's new writing theatre, where he worked on two commissions: Autumn and Poised; as well as developing a neo-restoration gender bending comedy for Australia's premier Shakespeare Company Bell Shakespeare, entitled Gull, or the lamentable comedie called love (hereto known as the Trannies' Revenge). Rick's play A Hoax took out the 2011 Griffin Award, was showcased at the National Playwriting Festival and played to rave reviews and sell out houses at La Boite and Griffin Theatre Co throughout 2012. A Hoax was also shortlisted for the highly prestigious NSW Premier's Literary Awards, and premieres in America under the title Nobody's Girl. Rick also received the judge's commendation for the 2012 Max Afford Playwrights Award for his new play Oranges & Lemons, as well as being shortlisted for Sydney Theatre Company's Patrick White Playwrights Award, and is currently writing a mini-series about historic transgender true-crime figure Eugenia Falleni co-written with chief crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi. Rick created the satiric semi-drag "Aspiring Inspirational Personality" character of Glace Chase that has played to critical acclaim throughout Australia and internationally. Glace can currently be found running crazy interactive drag walking tours of NYC under the business: Dream Queen Tours. Come play! www.dreamqueentours.com. Rick has also been shortlisted for numerous other awards and holds a B.A. from Monash University and a Graduate Diploma in Screenwriting at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS).

Erica Gould (Director/Fight Choreographer) Erica Gould's work as a director includes the world premieres of Neil LaBute's plays autobahnand Stand Up (with Mos Def) and SpeakEasy by Rajiv Joseph, Theresa Rebeck, others (Joe's Pub/ Public Theater); the US premiere of Me Cago en Dios/Holy Crap by Inigo Ramirez de Haro (La MaMa); and Dirty Paki Lingerie, which she developed with writer/solo performer Aizzah Fatima (Cherry Lane, 59E59, The Flea, John Jay; Toronto, Edinburgh, London, Turkmenistan through the US State Dept., recent UK tour) and which has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, NPR, CBC, BBC. Her work as director/choreographer includes Max and the Truffle Pig (NYMF), City of Angels (Buffalo), and Kander & Ebb's Curtains (SDC Guest Artist Initiative), and as director/fight choreographer: Troilus and Cressida (NY Stage & Film), The Rover (Bank Street Theatre), As You Like It (Shakespeare Theatre ACA), her adaptation of The Beggar's Opera, Battalia a dance-theatre/sword-fighting piece she created with dancers from the NYC Ballet, and, most recently, Emmett, Down In My Heart by Clare Coss, about the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 (Castillo Theatre, NYC). Her work as writer/adaptor/director includes the site-specific music-theatre pieces (with Salon/Sanctuary): More Between Heaven and Earth (w/ Melissa Errico, Kathleen Chalfant, Campbell Scott, Matthew Modine, Jonathan Cake), The Heirs of Tantalus (score by Handel, Monteverdi, Scarlatti; texts from Aeschylus, Euripides, Suetonius) and Exodus: Dreams of the Promised Land w/ Reg E Cathey (interweaving Abolitionist texts, Slave narratives, and the Hagaddah, and which was presented for the third year this spring at the historic Fraunces Tavern in NYC). Other directing credits include At War: American Playwrights Respond to Iraq with David Strathairn, Bebe Neuwirth, Bobby Cannavale (Bleecker Street Theater/The Fire Dept), Naked in a Fishbowl (Cherry Lane), The Tempest (Fordham Lincoln Center), The Comedy of Errors (Hudson Guild, NYC), and Janine Carter's radio-theatre play What Light From Darkness Grows (NPR, w/ Harry Lennix & Phylicia Rashad, Gracie Allen and Golden Reel Awards). Erica recently served as Stunt Coordinator for the film Eggs and Soldiers. Teaching: Yale, NYU, Fordham, Pace, Bard, NYCDA, O'Neill National Theatre Institute.

Gregory Haney (Tyrelle) NJ Rep debut. Last seen: TV Land's "The Jim Gaffigan Show", Comedy Central's "Broad City", NBC's "Blue Bloods", Michael & Clyde (short film) Michael, NYC premiere of Hit the Wall a play by Ike Holter (Mika), originated the role of La Cienega in the Tony nominated Bring It On the Musical, Wicked (Chistery), Memphis (Broadway), Tarzan (Broadway), 25th Anniversary Tour of CATS. Upcoming projects: Demolition (film) starring Jake Gyllenhaal, #2BlackFriends (web series). www.ghaney.com & Twitter: ghaney22.

Judith Hawking (Ronnie) Broadway: Long Acre - Voices in the Dark, Lincoln Center - Ivanov. Off-Broadway: The Mint Theater - A Soldier's Wife (Drama Desk Nominee), Second Stage - Living Out, The Public/Shakespeare in the Park - Julius Caesar, Hudson Guild - West Moon Street (It Award Nominee), MCC - Hunting Morels, Soho Playhouse - The Love of the Nightingale, The Director's Company - Avow, Signature Theater - Marco Polo, Promenade Theater - Dear Vienna, Playwright's Horizon - Police Boys, SPF - Hardball, Theater Row - Two Noble Kinsmen. International: Edinburgh Fringe - As It Is (Best Ensemble Nominee), Canada - The Citadel, The Grand, Center Stage and Vertigo. Regional: McCarter Theater, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Old Globe, American Repertory Theater, Long Wharf Theater, Asolo Theater, F.S.T., Cleveland Playhouse, Barrington Stage, American Stage, Geva, Arena Stage (Helen Hayes Nominee), Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Garden Grove Shakespeare, New Jersey Repertory Company, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Southern Rep. TV: "Law & Order" (Recurring), "Law & Order: Criminal Intent", "Law & Order: S.V.U.", "As The World Turns", "Third Watch". Film: A Very Serious Person (Showtime), On Jackson Avenue (HBO's Latino Film Festival and The Quad Cinema), Mercy Man (L.A. Hollywood Film Festival), Asylum Seekers (Indie Festival Showings in Vegas, Paris, Shanghai, Moscow and New York) and Alec Baldwin's Short Cut To Happiness. www.judithhawking.com.

Layla Khoshnoudi (Currah) N.Y. Theater: Men on Boats (Clubbed Thumb); Wyoming (Lesser America); Engagements (Ensemble Studio Theater); My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer (The Flea, NYT critics pick); I am Gordafarid (NYTW); Women (Beth Dies Inc.),Web: ControlTop TV's My Ex is Trending, Film: The Designer, Making Eyes, Long Nights Short Mornings. MFA: Brooklyn College.

Jacob A. Ware (Anthony) Jacob A. Ware can be seen as Agent Selby on HBO's Boardwalk Empire (2014 SAG Award nominee). On stage, Jacob teams up with Dealbreaker: Wall Street Insider to host a comedy reading series, and earlier this year performed in The Life and Death of Kenyon Phillips, a rock opera extravaganza, at The Box in NYC. He's co-creator of the series Steel Drum In Space ?and Doin' Everythin', which have been featured on HuffPost, JASH, CollegeHumor, VH1, and The Seattle Times. He is a member of |the claque|, a new play development company, and has developed content with CollegeHumor's CH2.