Full Casting Announced For Gender-Blind Production Of ASSASSINS

"Everybody's Got the Right" to their dream role in this gender-blind production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. Performing this August at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, full casting has now been announced.

This multiple Tony Award-winning classic examines America's culture of celebrity and the violent means some have resorted to in order to obtain it. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, writers Sondheim and Weidman bend the rules of space and time to explore a limbo where America's famous presidential assassins meet and connect. The show allows the characters to divulge their crimes committed in the name of the American Dream, and asks audiences to examine the ways in which the country has or has not changed in its number of years since its patriotic birth.

The gender-blind casting features Francesca Barletta (Proprietor), Sarah Kline (Booth), Jade Taylor (Balladeer), Parker Apple (Czolgosz), Renee Cohen (Charles Guiteau), Hallie Mayer (Zangara), Josh Hillinger (Byck), Tamara Burgess (Fromme), Frankie Zabilka (Hinckley), Courtney Reed (Moore), Clint Blakely (Oswald), and Keeley Bell, Jane Leu, and Rory Smith as Citizens.

Assassins will feature direction and musical staging by Joanna Syiek (Indy Award Winner - Direction "American Idiot", Broadway World Nomination - Best Direction, "The Pokémusical") with musical direction by Jennifer Lin (Ovation Nomination - Best Music Direction "Priscilla Queen of the Desert"), and assistant direction from Mitchell Webb.

"We wanted to explore what it means to take a hard look at history from a lens that is less concerned with gender, and more concerned with the motivation behind what inspires an individual to demand their part of the American Dream. Each and every flawed historical human in this show had their own version of what the country should look like, and a violent idea about how to move the needle." says director Joanna Syiek of the show. "We recognize that the country still has growing pains to sort out, and hope this show serves as a reminder of the paths we no longer need to trod."

The show runs August 16-25, 2019 at the Hillcrest Center for the Arts, located at 403 W Hillcrest Dr, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. The show is produced by Young Artists Forever with Kelsey Schulte as lead producer. Tickets are $20 and available now. For tickets and additional information, please visit the Hillcrest Arts website: http://hillcrestarts.com/show_info.php?show_id=148 or YAF's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YoungArtistsForever/.