Williams Street Rep Announces Casting For NATIVE GARDENS

Williams Street Repertory, Raue Center For The Arts' in-house professional theater company, will bring a hilarious comedy of good intentions and bad manners to the stage this spring! "Native Gardens" opens on March 27, 2020, and runs select dates through May 9, 2020.

"'Native Gardens' is truly one of the funniest shows you will ever see and I am so looking forward to Michele Vazquez's direction of this comedy! She is the perfect director for this play," says Founding Artistic Director, Richard Kuranda.** "'Native Gardens' takes audiences on a whirlwind journey that we can all relate to and laugh at... and we all need a good laugh lately!"

Gardens and cultures clash, turning friendly neighbors into feuding enemies in this hilarious comedy by Karen Zacarias. When a questionable fence line puts a prize-worthy garden in jeopardy, neighborly rivalry escalates into an all-out border dispute, challenging everyone's notions of race, privilege, class and good taste.

Pablo, a high-powered lawyer, and doctoral candidate Tania, his very pregnant wife, are realizing the American dream when they purchase a house next door to community stalwarts Virginia and Frank. But a disagreement over a long-standing fence line soon spirals into an all-out war of taste, class, privilege and entitlement. The hilarious results guarantee no one comes out smelling like a rose.

"No one is the villain in this show and there are definitely no saints. The playwright, Karen Zacarias, has a tremendous amount of compassion for these characters and she has written them with love and patience," says Director, Michele Vazquez. "That said, they are all wonderfully flawed and human and as a result, a lot of hilarity ensues," she continues. "Someone likened it to a contemporary 'Dick Van Dyke Show.' I think that's just marvelous and right on."

WSRep has assembled a cast including Steve McDonagh* (Frank); Shannon Mayhall (Virginia); Alec Coles Perez (Pablo); Juanita Andersen (Tania); and Amy Delgado (Ensemble); Steve A. Munro (Ensemble); Jeanne Scurek (Ensemble) and Mark Tacderas (Ensemble).

"I am really excited about this cast. We have some familiar favorites returning, paired with new exciting talent. It is a fantastic mix," says Vazquez.

In addition to Vazquez, the production team for WSRep's production of "Native Gardens" includes:

• Stage Manager: Jess Urban*
• Scenic Designer: Richard Arnold
• Costume Designer: Rae Melnik
• Lighting Designer: Drake Dole
• Sound Designer: Kyle Schneider
• Props Master: Colleen Keith
• Master Electrician: Matt Claypool

WSRep's production of "Native Gardens" opens on March 27, 2020 and runs select dates through May 9, 2020 at Raue Center. For more information, please visit wsrep.org.

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