SoHo Rep Presents ORANGE, HAT & GRACE 9/23

Off-Broadway's eleven-time Obie Award-winning Soho Rep - which the New York Times calls the "downtown powerhouse" - will kick off its 2010-2011 season with the much anticipated world-premiere of ORANGE, HAT & GRACE by Gregory S. Moss (punkplay) and directed by Soho Rep Artistic Director Sarah Benson (BLASTED, THAT FACE) with previews beginning September 15 prior to an official press opening of September 23 at Soho Rep (46 Walker Street).

In a cabin in the woods, aging Orange finds her orderly life upended by a feral suitor and the reappearance of a figure from her past who is coming home for a final visit. Equal parts American gothic and unlikely romance, ORANGE, HAT & GRACE is a funny, fierce and provocative inquiry into our relationship with the natural world. Melding inventive language and startling theatrical imagery, ORANGE, HAT & GRACE begins the new season at Soho Rep with this premiere play.

Directed by Soho Rep Artistic Director Sarah Benson, the cast of ORANGE, HAT & GRACE features Matthew Maher (MOLLY's DREAM at Soho Rep, upcoming film IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY), Stephanie Roth Haberle (CHAIR), and Reyna de Courcy (Playwrights Realm's DREAMS OF THE WASHER KING, MONSTROSITY).

ORANGE, HAT & GRACE design team is Rachel Hauck (set design), Matt Frey (lighting design), Matt Tierney (sound design), David Hyman (costume designer), Jon Carter (hair & makeup design), and J. David Brimmer (fight director).

ORANGE, HAT & GRACE was written in Soho Rep's 2008/09 Writer/Director Lab.

With ORANGE, HAT & GRACE - Soho Rep will continue its literary and humanities program - FEED - now in its second season. Some of the anticipated highlights include: on September 18th at 9:00pm Gregory S. Moss in conversation with Paula Vogel; on September 29th at 9:00pm "Langue and the Wild Child" - New Yorker contributor Russ Rymer (author of "Genie: A Scientific Tragedy) and NYU Linguistic Anthropologist Bambi Schieffelin give background on feral children and language; on October 1st at 9:00pm John Schaefer (WNYC "Sound Check" and "New Sounds" host) will speak with Gregory S. Moss about the play's musical influences and antecedents, on October 2nd at 6:00pm a discussion with the creative team behind ORANGE, HAT & GRACE; and on October 6th at 9:00pm "Man in Nature, Nature in Man" - a discussion between Jason Smedon (Columbia earth scientist) and visual artist Natalie Jeremijenko. All events are free and take place at Soho Rep.

Gregory S. Moss is a writer and performer from Newburyport MA. His plays include SIXSIXSIX; SOME OBVIOUS EXAMPLES OF EVERYDAY LIFE, BILLY WITCH, HOUSE OF GOLD and PUNKPLAY. His work has been developed with or produced by The A.R.T., The Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Empty Space, Playwrights Horizons, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, PlayPenn, Clubbed Thumb, Soho Rep and New York Theatre Workshop. His collaborations with filmmaker Roger Warren Beebe have been screened at film festivals in America and abroad. Gregory is the recipient of a 2006-2007 Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship, a 2008 Millay Colony Residency, a 2009 Eugene O'Neill Center National Playwrights Conference residency and a 2010-2011 Jerome Fellowship. PUNKPLAY was published in Play A Journal of Plays was produced in February 2010 at The Steppenwolf Garage in Chicago. His play HOUSE OF GOLD will be produced this fall by Woolly Mammoth in D.C. also under the direction of Sarah Benson. He holds an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University's Literary Arts Program.

Sarah Benson has been Artistic Director of Soho Rep since 2007. At Soho Rep: NY premiere Sarah Kane's BLASTED, OBIE award, Drama Desk nomination; NY premiere Polly Stenham's THAT FACE (Manhattan Theater Club), She has also worked on new plays at The O'Neill, New York Stage & Film and New Dramatists. Ms. Benson moved to New York from London on a Fulbright for Theater Direction. She co-curated the PRELUDE Festival at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center for two seasons. At Soho Rep she has produced new works by artists including: Young Jean Lee, Dan LeFranc, Nature Theater of Oklahoma and John Jesurun. Upcoming: Gregory Moss' HOUSE OF GOLD (Woolly Mammoth, DC) and Sophocles' AJAX (A.R.T. Boston).

Now in its 34th year, Soho Rep's 2010-11 season is the fourth under the leadership of Artistic Director, Sarah Benson, and the third for Executive Director, Tania Camargo. Soho Rep is dedicated to cultivating and producing visionary, uncompromising, and exuberant new plays. They perform to one of the youngest adult audiences in New York City, with over three-quarters of its audience aged 18-40.

Critics continue to herald Soho Rep as the go-to theatre destination for new and original works. New York Magazine states, "this indispensable theater offers more excitement per chair than any space in town," Time Out New York says, "Soho Rep is the best theater in NYC (official)," Variety exclaims "[Soho Rep] has claimed an increasingly vital spot...the venue has suddenly become one to watch for Manhattan theatergoers starved for new work," and the New York Times declares Soho Rep to be "one of the most daring companies."

Soho Rep's 2009 production of Dan LeFranc's SIXTY MILES TO SILVER LAKE was awarded the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award. Over the last decade, Soho Rep productions have garnered eleven OBIE Awards -- for Sarah Benson (director) and Louisa Thompson (set designer) for the critically acclaimed New York premiere of Sarah Kane's BLASTED; six Drama Desk nominations, two for BLASTED (Outstanding Director of a Play - Sarah Benson and Outstanding Actor in a Play - Reed Birney) and four for their critically acclaimed production of FRANKENSTEIN, the Oppenheimer Award for EVERYTHING WILL BE DIFFERENT, and two Kesselring Awards for Melissa James Gibson and Mark Schultz. In recent years, Soho Rep has presented plays by established and emerging theatre artists such as Richard Maxwell, Mac Wellman, Young Jean Lee, Dan LeFranc and The Flying Machine.

Scheduled September 15 through October 10 performances of ORANGE, HAT & GRACE run Tuesdays - Sundays at 7:30pm at Soho Rep. (46 Walker Street - between Broadway & Church, 2 blocks south of Canal Street). Tickets are 99 cents for all Sunday performances, $30 for general admission and $40 for premium reserved seating and can be reserved by calling TheaterMania at 212-352-3101 or online at www.sohorep.org.

For additional information about Soho Rep., call 212-941-8632 or visit www.sohorep.org