Ellen McLaughlin and Teagle F. Bougere Star in ROZ AND RAY, Premiering Tonight in Seattle

Seattle Repertory Theatre presents the world-premiere production, Roz and Ray, a play by local playwright, Seattle Rep Writers Group alumna, and University of Washington Senior Artist in Residence Karen Hartman, with direction from the acclaimed Chay Yew, Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.

Broadway talents Ellen McLaughlin (Angels in America) and Teagle F. Bougere (The Crucible, A Raisin In The Sun, The Tempest) star in Roz and Ray, which will run tonight, October 14, through November 13, 2016 (opening night is October 19, 2016) in the Leo K. Theatre.

Tickets are on sale now through the Seattle Rep Box Office at 206.443.2222 and online at seattlerep.org.

Last seen at Seattle Rep in the 2013 production of Good People, Ellen McLaughlin is well known for having originated the part of the Angel in Tony Kushner's Angels in America, appearing in every domestic production from its earliest workshops through its Broadway run. Teagle F. Bougere plays her opposite in Roz and Ray, having last been seen at the Rep in its 2011 production of Clybourne Park as well as Of Mice and Men in 2010. In addition to his multiple Broadway credits, Bougere also has a number of film roles to his name including features in A Night At The Museum, Two Weeks Notice, A Beautiful Mind, and others.

Roz and Ray follows the close, turbulent relationship between Roz, a brilliant pediatric physician, and Ray, the single father of two hemophiliac boys. Inspired by her own father, a man who practiced medicine from the early 1970s until the early 1990s, playwright Karen Hartman pulled her vision for this story not only from her family's past, but from the information documented during the time that HIV entered the blood supply in United States hospitals. Much like Hartman's father, both Roz and Ray are caught in a devastating chapter of medical and queer history having to ask themselves - can they "do no harm" while saving the children they love?

Ellen McLaughlin (Dr. Roz Kagan) - Broadway: Angels in America (Walter Kerr Theater). Off Broadway: The Heart Is Not Made Of Stone(ERT at BAM); Septimus and Clarissa (Ripe Time); Blue Window (Manhattan Theatre Club); The Bacchae (LaMaMa); A Bright Room Called Day (The Public Theater); String of Pearls (Primary Stages). Regional: Good People (Seattle Repertory Theatre and George St. Playhouse); Homebody/Kabul (Intiman Theatre); Outside Mullingar (George St. Playhouse) Penelope, The Year of Magical Thinking, All My Sons (PlayMakers Repertory Company, N.C.); A Delicate Balance (Yale Repertory Theatre and Arena Stage, D.C.); A Midsummer Night's Dream (McCarter Theatre Center, N.J.); For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday, Hedda Gabler, Ghosts (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Fen, Road, Angels in America (The Eureka Theatre, San Francisco, C.A.); King Lear (Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Portland, O.R.); A Girl's Life, Three Penny Opera (Trinity Repertory Company, R.I.); Cryptogram (Yale Repertory Theatre); Angels in America (Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, C.A.); Top Girls (Williamstown, M.A.). Television: "Law & Order." McLaughlin is also an award-winning playwright whose plays have been performed in numerous Off-Broadway, regional, and international productions.

Teagle F. Bougere (Ray Leon) - Broadway: The Crucible, A Raisin In The Sun, The Tempest. Mr. Bougere originated the role of Invisible man in the world premiere stage adaptation of Ralph Ellison's iconic novel, Invisible Man, at The Court Theatre in Chicago. The production traveled to the Studio Theatre in Washington D.C. and Boston's Huntington Theater. International: Macbeth in Macbeth, Florence, Italy. Selected Off Broadway: Cymbeline, Henry V, The Tempest, Antony & Cleopatra with Vanessa Redgrave (The Public Theater's New York Shakespeare Festival); A Soldier's Play and Wings (Second Stage Theatre); A Fair Country (Lincoln Center Theater). Selected Regional: The one-man An Iliad and Othello (Pittsburgh Public Theater); Henry in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing (Studio Theatre in Washington D.C.). Herald Loomis in Joe Turners Come And Gone and Blue Door, both directed by Delroy Lindo (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); Blue Orange (Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California); Of Mice and Men and Clybourne Park (Seattle Repertory Theatre). Selected Film: A Night At The Museum; The Imposters; Two Weeks Notice; A Beautiful Mind; Hill 'n' Gully; and What The Deaf Man Heard. Selected Television: "The Mist"(Spring 2017); "The Path," "The Big C," "Cosby," "Third Watch,"and seven episodes for the "Law and Order" franchise. Mr. Bougere was a member of Zelda Fichandler's resident Acting Company at Arena Stage in Washington D.C. from 1990 through 1995.

The creative team for Roz and Ray includes Tim Mackabee, scenic design; Rose Pederson, costume design; Geoff Korf, lighting design; Christopher Kriz, sound design; Kristin Leahey, Dramaturg.

Playwright Karen Hartman has four productions of three world premieres this season: Roz and Ray at Seattle Rep and at Chicago's Victory Gardens;The Book of Joseph at Chicago Shakespeare Theater; and Project Dawn at People's Light in Malvern, P.A. She held the Playwright Center's McKnight Residency and Commission in 2014/15. Her new dialogue for Mozart's The Magic Flute appeared in Pacific Music Works' production at Seattle's Meany Center in 2015. Hartman's Goldie, Max, and Milk premiered at Florida Stage and the Phoenix Theater, nominated for the Steinberg and Carbonell Awards. Other works: Goliath (Dorothy Silver New Play Prize); Gum; Leah's Train; Going Gone (N.E.A. New Play Grant); Girl Under Grain (Best Drama in NY Fringe); Wild Kate; ALICE: Tales of a Curious Girl (Music by Gina Leishman, AT&T Onstage Award);Troy Women; Donna Wants; Sea Change, score by AnnMarie Milazzo: MotherBone, score by Graham Reynolds (Frederick Loewe Award). New York: Women's Project, National Asian American Theatre Company, P73, the New York Fringe (Best Drama), and Summer Play Festival. Regional: Center Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, the Magic, and elsewhere. Publications: Theater Communications Group, Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Backstage Books, and NoPassport Press. Honors: Sustainable Arts Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, New Dramatists, the N.E.A., the Helen Merrill Foundation, Daryl Roth "Creative Spirit" Award, Hodder Fellowship, Jerome Fellowship, Fulbright Scholarship. A long-time Brooklynite, Hartman and her husband Todd London moved to Seattle in 2014 with their son. Ms. Hartman is a Senior Artist in Residence at the University of Washington; her prose is published in The New York Times and The Washington Post. www.karenhartman.org.

Director Chay Yew's production credits include The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kennedy Center, Mark Taper Forum, Goodman Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, Huntington Theatre, Oregon Shakespeare Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Empty Space, Portland Center Stage, Cornerstone Theatre, Round House Theatre, Curious Theatre, Geva Theater Center, Northlight Theatre, East West Players, National Asian American Theatre Company, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Theatre at Boston Court, Pillsbury Theatre, Gala Hispanic Theatre, and Singapore Repertory Theatre, amongst others. Upcoming productions include the world premieres of Hannah and the Dread Gazeboat Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Lady in Denmark at the Goodman, and A Wonder In My Soul at Victory Gardens. His opera credits include the world premieres of Osvaldo Golijov and David Henry Hwang's Ainadamar (co-production with Tanglewood Music Center, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and Los Angeles Philharmonic) and Rob Zuidam's Rage D'Amors (Tanglewood). He is a recipient of the OBIE Award and a DramaLogue for Direction. An award-winning playwright and an alumnus of New Dramatists, he is currently serving on the Executive Board on the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. He is the Artistic Director of Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago.

Seattle Rep was founded in 1963 and is currently led by Artistic Director Braden Abraham and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann. One of America's premier not-for-profit resident theatres, Seattle Repertory Theatre has achieved international renown for its consistently high production and artistic standards, and was awarded the 1990 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre. With an emphasis on entertaining plays of true dramatic and literary worth, Seattle Rep produces a season of plays along with educational programs, new play workshops, and special presentations.

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