Cast Announced for WaterTower Theatre's HONKY, Part of 'Out of the Loop' Festival

WaterTower Theatre Producing Artistic Director and Loop Executive Producer Terry Martin today announced casting for Honky, WaterTower Theatre's entry for the 2014 Out of the Loop Fringe Festival, March 6-16, 2014 at the Addison Theatre and Conference Centre.

Directed by Kelsey Leigh Ervi, the cast will feature Calvin Roberts as Thomas Hodge, Alan Pollard as Davis Tallison, Ian Ferguson as Peter Trammel, Rebecca McDonald as Emilia Hodge, Whitney Holotik as Andie Chastain, Jeff Burleson as Dr. Driscoll/Others, Adam A. Anderson as Kid 1/Frederick Douglass and Lord Alfred Brown as Kid 2.

Honky, written by Greg Kalleres, is a dark comedy about a commercial that glorifies black gang violence in an effort to sell basketball shoes to white teens. But when a black teenager is shot for his "Sky Max" shoes, sales triple among white teens and the black shoe designer promises revenge. Are ghetto-glorifying commercials to blame or the CEO that only sees dollar signs? Either way, a new cure for racism promises to solve everything and advertises, "If you don't think you need it, you're probably a racist!"

Kalleres received his BFA from Tisch's Dramatic Writing Program at NYU. His plays have been produced in numerous cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Berkeley CA, Bloomington, IN and Beirut, Lebanon. He received the Certificate of Excellence from the Kennedy Center and the Emerging Playwright Award for Honky. His one-act plays have won top honors at the Samuel French Festival, Turnip Festival and Fusion Theatre one act play festival. His work has been published in the New York Times, TDF Stages Magazine, Cracked.com and United Stages' "Best of EATFest" Volumes 3 and 4.

A 10?day celebration of theatre, dance, music, and art, the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival features performances by arts organizations and artists from across the nation. Performances are held at the Addison Theatre Centre, in four performance venues: the Main Stage, the Studio Theatre, the Stone Cottage, and the Main Lobby. The Festival is made possible, in part, through the generous support of The Town of Addison and the Texas Commission on the Arts and media sponsor, TheaterJones.com and the Dallas Observer.

Eighteen artists and performing arts organizations will participate in this year's Festival of which 12 are making their *Festival debut. They are: *Actors Conservatory Theatre, *Alex Tha Great, Audacity Theatre Lab, *Aztec Economy, *Brandon Simmons, Contemporary Ballet Dallas, *Cynthia Scott, *Dallas Neo-Classical Ballet, Diana Sheehan, Express Productions/David Parr, *Jenn Dodd, *Miniature Curiosa, *Jendi Tarde, Muscle Memory Dance Theatre, *Risk Theater Initiative, *SiHK Brothers, *Sossy Mechanics, Sundown Collaborative Theatre and WaterTower Theatre. (*Festival debut.)

The Best of Loop will return this year. On the final day of the Festival, WaterTower Theatre will invite back for a special performance the Best of the Main Stage, Studio Theatre and Stone Cottage performers as chosen by our Loop passholders. Passholders will have an opportunity to cast ballots for their "Best Of" choice on the final Saturday of the Festival.

Single tickets to all events go on sale Feb. 18. Festival Passes, now on sale, include one admission to each Festival event and are $65. WaterTower Theatre subscribers receive $10 off each Festival pass. Individual ticket prices for each event are $10 or $15. Loop pass holders may make reservations starting February 11, 2014.

WaterTower Theatre's Honky

Written by Greg Kalleres

Directed by Kelsey Leigh Ervi

Assistant Director, DR Hanson

Stage Manager, Kristin Van Sickle

Lighting Designer, Ryan Flores

Sound/Projections Designer, Kellen Voss

When: Studio Theatre 3/6 - 8:00 pm; 3/8 - 5:00pm; 3/9 - 2:00 pm; 3/12 - 7:30 pm; 3/14 - 9:00 pm; 3/15 - 5:00 pm

Tickets: Festival Pass: $65 / $55 for WaterTower Theatre Subscribers (Pass includes one admission to each event.) Festival passes on sale now. Individual Event Tickets: $10 to $15 each. Tickets for all Loop shows will go on sale Feb. 18 at noon. Visit www.watertowertheatre.org/outofloop.aspx for more information.

Some productions may contain adult language, sexual situations, and/or violence. Please consult the Box Office for content information regarding a particular production.

About WaterTower Theatre: WaterTower Theatre is celebrating its 18th anniversary with its 2013-2014 season. The Company is one of the leading regional theatres in North Dallas and Texas. It is consistently recognized for its artistic excellence by the Dallas Theatre League, Dallas-Fort Worth Theatre Critics Forum, The Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Observer, D Magazine, and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, among others. WaterTower Theatre has a subscription base of more than 2,000 subscribers and serves an audience of over 32,000 patrons annually.

About Terry Martin, Producing Artistic Director and "Loop" Producer: Terry Martin is WaterTower Theatre's Producing Artistic Director, a position he has held for 14 years. Terry has directed 50 productions for WaterTower Theatre. Some of his directing credits at WaterTower Theatre include The Grapes of Wrath, Putting it Together, Spring Awakening, Rockin' Christmas Party, The Diary of Anne Frank, Little Shop of Horrors, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Man of La Mancha, Humble Boy, The Crucible, Take Me Out, A Country Life (which he adapted from Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and which won the 2005 Rabin Award - Best New Play), Cabaret, It Ain't Nothin' But The Blues, Company, An Inspector Calls, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Laramie Project, You Can't Take It With You, Book of Days, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2002 Rabin Award - Director of a Play), Sweeney Todd, Desire Under the Elms, Ravenscroft, Rockin' Christmas Party (2000, 2001), Enter the Guardsman, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill and Little Shop of Horrors, among others.

About Kelsey Leigh Ervi (Associate "Loop" Producer and Honky director): Kelsey Leigh Ervi has been working extensively as a director, actor and playwright since moving to Dallas two years ago. Kelsey recently served as Assistant Director on WaterTower's production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer while also directing The Tom Sawyer Project, an education program of WaterTower that provides local high school students an opportunity to mount their own production of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Other Dallas credits include: The Santaland Diaries, The Grapes of Wrath, The Ugly One, August: Osage County (WaterTower Theatre), The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told (Uptown Players), Ask Questions Later (Rite of Passage Theatre Company), The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night (Shakespeare Dallas), Dani Girl, Waking Up (Greyman Theatre Company), The Lucky Chance (Echo Theatre), and Into the Woods (PFamily Arts). Kelsey holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Baylor University and currently serves as Assistant to the Producing Artistic Director of WaterTower Theatre.

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