Pure Theatre Presents KICKING A DEAD HORSE 8/5-20

PURE Theatre is proud to present the regional premiere of Kicking a Dead Horse by Sam Shepard. Directed by PURE's Co-Founder and Artistic Director Sharon Graci, and will feature Randy Neale. The show opens Friday, August 5th and will run through August 20th.

Hobart Struther's voyage is interrupted by the death of his horse in a desert. Out of frustration, he kicks it. He stands trying to figure out what to do. Struther made millions by buying cheap paintings and reselling them. In a midlife crisis, he has abandoned his wife and rich life for a trip to understand himself. The former art dealer laments his condition. He must bury the horse. This proves to be very difficult. Next he debates different facets of his personality and life, looking as he mentions several times for authenticity, until every angle seems doomed to failure.

Kicking a Dead Horse premiered at The Abbey Theatre of Dublin in 2007, starring the Irish actor Stephen Rea, and then with the same actor at New York's The Public Theater and The Almeida Theatre in London in 2008.

"Shepard writes plays that feel like legends, that reach deeper than day-to-day dramas." - NY Magazine, Jeremy McCarter

"Hobart Struther is a man on a quest to reclaim his own authenticity. After making millions reselling valuable pieces of art that he purchased for pennies, Hobart feels like impostor in his own life, a shade of his former self. Like Shepard himself, Hobart hopes to find his own identity in the west, so he embarks on a "grand-sojourn," to work through the mechanics of his own crisis. Kicking A Dead Horse is the story of one man's quest, but it's also the story of America. Sam Shepard, in true Shepard fashion is looking not only at personal identity, but the identity of a nation." - Sharon Graci, Director
PURE Theatre has garnered a reputation for artistic excellence, risk taking, and thinking outside of the box. The company's intrepid approach to the art and craft of theatre has garnered them numerous critics and audience awards, as well as a loyal following of patrons. PURE has been the recipient of Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Play, Best One-Person Play, Most Diverse Theatre Company critic and audience awards, and Winners of the 2010 South Carolina Arts Commission's Fellowships in the Playwrighting & Acting.
Student Rush tickets are available for $15 with a valid student ID, for tickets remaining at curtain.

Race Creatives

Sam Shepard (Playwright) is considered one of America's most influential and celebrated playwrights of the 20th century, Sam Shepard is also an accomplished actor, director, screenwriter and musician. Few American Playwrights have exerted as much influence on the Contemporary Stage as Sam Shepard. His plays are performed on and off Broadway and in all the major regional American theatres. Sam's plays are not easy to catezorize. They combine wild humor, grotesque satire, myth and a sparse, haunting language to present a subversive view of American life. Before he was thirty, Shepard had over thirty plays produced in New York. Sam began his career as a playwright in New York in 1964 with the Theatre Genesis production of two one-act plays, COWBOYS and THE ROCK GARDEN at St. Mark's Church-in-the Bowery. Michael Smith of THE VILLAGE VOICE hails them as "distinctly American" and "genuinely original," and declares their author full of promise. By 1980, he was the most produced playwright in America after Tennessee Williams. Over the past forty years, Sam has written over 45 plays, eleven of which have won Obie Awards. In 1979 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for BURIED CHILD. In 1986 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1992 he received the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy. He was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1994.

Sharon Graci (Director) is the artistic director and co-founder of PURE Theatre. Directing credits include Yankee Tavern, Up, Speech & Debate, Sheep's Clothing, The Last Five Years, The Seafarer, Underneath the Lintel, and Eurydice. She is an alumnus of the 2007 Lincoln Center Director's Lab. Recent acting credits include Stage: Mara Stockman Kelly in Hogs, Elizabeth in Faith, Hope & Charity, Becca in Rabbit Hole, Celestina in Cloud Tectonics at PURE. Television: Army Wives (Lifetime), One Tree Hill (WB), Surface (NBC). She studied acting at Point Park University and the Pittsburgh Conservatory of Theatre and received a BA in theatre from Augusta State University. She has performed with numerous regional theatre companies throughout the Southeast and was voted Best Local Actress by Charleston City Paper readers in 2007, 2008, and 2009. She also received a Best Actor award for her work in Montague, winner Best Film, Stopwatch Cinema, and winner of the 2010 South Carolina Arts Commission's Fellowships in the Acting.

Randy Neale (Playwright/Actor) has appeared in previous PURE Theatre productions of Superior Donuts, Circle Mirror Transformation, Yankee Tavern, The Seafarer, Killing Chickens, and The Man from Nebraska. Recently he performed and wrote Fool's Lear a sequel to Shakespeare's King Lear. He has been a member of Actor's Equity since 1974. Throughout his career he has appeared in regional theatres in Providence, Baltimore, Rochester and Boston, and enjoyed a 20 year career in New York City. He is the Director of Fine Arts at the Charleston Collegiate School.

Kicking a Dead Horse

by Sam Shepard

WHO: Written by Sam Shepard

Directed by Sharon Graci

Featuring Randy Neale
WHAT: Kicking a Dead Horse
WHERE: PURE Theatre at the Ansonborough Square Shopping Center, 334 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC 29401

WHEN:

Pay What You Can Night Thursday, August 4th

Opening Night on Friday, August 5th

with additional performances on 6, 12, 13, 19, 20

7:30 Performances

HOW MUCH:

$20 all seats

GROUP SALES For groups of 12 or more, call 843.723.4444

Student Rush $15.00 tickets. Available all performances for any remaining tickets at curtain. Valid with a student ID.

TICKETS:
Phone: PURE Box Office: 866.811.4111
On Line: www.puretheatre.org
In Person: PURE Theatre Box Office - 30 Minutes before Showtime
Ansonborough Square Shopping Center
334 East Bay Street, Charleston, SC 29401