City Lights to Present I AND YOU

Meet Caroline, a cynical high school senior in need of a new liver. Meet Anthony, an idealistic high school basketball star in need of a partner for his project on Walt Whitman. In the poignant and insightful play I and You, two teens who could not be more different form an unlikely friendship.

As the clock ticks away while they work on the assignment, Caroline and Anthony also discover how much they have in common-leading to a startling revelation.

At 34, San Francisco playwright Lauren Gunderson is one of the most-produced playwrights in America. The New York Times recently called I and You her "breakthrough play," and City Lights is proud to present the South Bay premiere. The play runs May 19-June 19 at City Lights, 529 S. Second St., San Jose. For details and tickets, go to cltc.org or call 408-295-4200.

Also a screenwriter and short-story author, Gunderson is a prolific playwright whose scripts include Silent Sky, Bauer, By and By, The Taming and Exit, Pursued by a Bear (presented by City Lights last year). I and You made its New York debut at 59E59 Theaters in January, and was just nominated for the 2016 John Gassner Award by the Outer Critics Circle, the organization of writers and commentators covering the New York theater scene for out-of-town media.

Noe?lle GM Gibbs (Director) is making her directing debut at City Lights. Gibbs, 31, is producing artistic director at the Portola Valley Theatre Conservatory, where she has also been Children's Conservatory Director and Associate Artistic Director. A recipient of Theatre Bay Area's ATLAS Award in Directing, she has worked in the artistic and educational departments at TheatreWorks, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Magic Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Conn. She has B.A.'s in theater and dance from U.C. San Diego.

Cast: Caroline: Ivette Deltoro Anthony: Davied Morales

Designers: Ron Gasparinetti (Scenic), Jane Lambert (Costumes), Nick Kumamoto (Lighting), George Psarras (Sound Design), Miranda Whipple (Props).

Sponsors and Supporters: These include The Shubert Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates, Applied Materials Foundation, the City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, the David and Lucile Packard

Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and many other individuals, corporations, and foundations.

For this production, City Lights will donate a portion of the ticket proceeds to the performing-arts programs at Notre Dame High School San Jose.

City Lights' season concludes this summer with the rock musical Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT in July. The 2016-17 lineup-the company's 34th-begins in September with Jon Robin Baitz's dysfunctional- family tale Other Desert Cities, followed by the touching comedy Calendar Girls by Tim Firth and the darkly comic thriller Ideation by Aaron Loeb. Kit Wilder's world-premiere adaptation Frankenstein opens next spring, with Gina Gionfriddo's witty Rapture, Blister, Burn following. The Goth-rock musical Lizzie rounds out the season in the summer of 2017.

Photo by Susan Mah Photography

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