Company Cypher to Stage NYC Premiere of GUTTING

COMPANY CYPHER in association with AMY RAFA and SARAH STITES announce casting for the NYC Premiere of the award winning GUTTING, written by Jeremy J. Kamps and directed by Zoey Martinson. The play follows fourteen-year-old Kali returning home to post-Katrina Lower 9th Ward. We are commemorating the 10th anniversary of the hurricane with this production of GUTTING accompanied by community programming addressing the related issues of displacement, gentrification and racism. It plays September 24 - October 3 at Dr. Barbara Ann Teer's National Black Theatre (NBT: 2031 Fifth Avenue between 125th and 126th Streets).

Casting for GUTTING includes Felipe Bonilla, Evander Duck, Jr., Lynnette R. Freeman, Jonathan David Martin, Lori E. Parquet, Joshua David Robinson, and Kara Young. GUTTING is also announcing designers Amanda Clegg Lyon (Lighting), Charles Coes (Sound), Keira McGee (Costume), and Frankie Oliver (Set).

When fourteen-year-old Kali returns home to New Orleans after spending two years as a Katrina refugee in Baton Rouge, she finds the neighborhood where she grew up to be changed almost beyond recognition. As the play unfolds, the details of what happened to Kali's family during the storm emerge. When Kali runs away after a blowout fight with her mother, events are set in motion that will change Kali's life almost as much as the storm. With GUTTING we hope to restore the human face to the tragic-and still unfurling-disaster of 2005.

COMPANY CYPHER's non-profit work, dedicated to transforming the conversation about skin tone prejudice and race, goes beyond producing theatre. Just as important as the show, our aim is to engage communities in conversation and direct action inspired by the production. To that end, COMPANY CYPHER'S GUTTING and The Center for the Living City's 'Jane Jacobs Walk' have launched an initiative that will engage community stakeholders in a conversation around urban development, displacement and the growing changes of local communities through a series of free neighborhood walking tours that help to put people in touch with their environment.

LISTINGS INFORMATION: GUTTING will play a limited engagement September 24-26 & October 1-3, at NBT: 2031 Fifth Avenue between 125th and 126th Streets. Thursday-Saturday at 7pm with additional afternoon matinees on Saturdays at 2pm. Selected performances are followed by talkbacks with creative team and invited community leaders. Please check out the website for the full schedule. Tickets are $18 and available at the door as well as online at gutting2015.org. Presales are highly recommended. For more information please email guttinginfo@gmail.com.