DOUBLE BARREL WEEKEND At Barrow Group To Include THE GUN SHOW and THE GULL

For one weekend only, TheatreMidwest will present both of their Season 5 productions in New York--a "Double Barrel Weekend." With their partners, The Barrow Group, they will offer tickets at no cost for these exciting and timely shows-and to bring some "rural life" stories into the heart of The City.

The Gull...: Riffing on Anton Chekhov's classic "show about nothing," The Seagull, we encounter a dilapidated country estate populated by tortured artists, writers, and blow-hards, where dreams die, hopes are dashed, and everyone loves the wrong person! What could go wrong? This brand new, hilarious, and touching piece tears away any musty old remnants of "1896" by having one actor perform all 10 characters making for a robust 90-minute journey and a tour de force for the actor. This fresh and witty treatment of one of the most popular and important comedies in modern drama will cause patrons to laugh, to shed a tear, to ask (as people have been doing for 130 years) "what is wrong with these people?!" This is part of a World Premiere nationwide tour of Zachary Cohn's new play. The Gun Show: Award-winning playwright E.M. Lewis tells the story of America's relationship with guns through the prism of her own personal experiences. She starts during her youth in a rural farming community where she learns about guns from her dad, has her first date with a special person at a shooting range, and then, as life's journey takes her to 'big cities' like Los Angeles and New York, finds herself in more complicated, less upbeat, and sometimes dangerous, gun situations. Using a light, often hilarious touch, Lewis takes us across the wide social and political terrain of America's most dangerous pastime with brutal honesty and keen understanding. Leaning neither right nor left, The Gun Show jumps into the middle of the gun control debate and asks, "Can we just have a conversation about this?"

TheatreMidwest presents this Double Barrel Weekend project at The Barrow Group Center in New York, as part of touring plans across the country. This will be The Gun Show opening night and tour-beginner, while it is the latest stop for The Gull after previous venues in Oklahoma, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, with more to come. The project provides accessible theatre-going opportunities by bringing the work to many wide-ranging communities, and by maintaining the company's commitment to Radical Hospitality-the removal of barriers that can prevent people from going to the theatre.