L.I.P. Service Sets 2015 Season: 'JUDAS,' STREAMERS & THE WHALE!
By: Tyler Peterson Feb. 07, 2015
L.I.P. Service has announced their 2015 theatrical season featuring contemporary and groundbreaking productions. This will mark the fourth year of bringing award winning live theater to DFW for L.I.P Service. The new season will include an area premiere, a riveting revival and a gritty retelling of an age-old tale. Race, religion and redemption are challenged in each of these outstanding plays.
L.I.P. Service (LEYVA'S INDEPENDENT PRODUCTION), headed by Jason Leyva,
was created as an avenue for creative artistic expression outside the norm and has continuously offered alternatives from the main stream. In the past 3 years L.I.P. Service has grown to become a highly acclaimed theatrical performance group as well as being a multi-faceted production company creating sets, teaching classes, and working to push the boundaries of the theatrical experience both on and off the stage.
L.I.P. Service is proud to produce another season of shows in the DFW Metroplex as well as partnering with other companies to bring inventive theater to the community.
L.I.P. Service opens the year with The Last Days of Judas Iscariot. Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Judas Iscariot is a searing look at history's most infamous double-cross. Set in an area of downtown Purgatory where "it don't smell good," Judas is tried by a Civil War deserter, and those called to the stand against him including Mother Teresa, Freud, a host of saints and sinners and the Prince of Darkness himself. As the trial goes on, we are forced to re-examine old truths and consider what it means to forgive. Director Branson White (Theatre of North Texas) takes the reins, upping the ante to create a lean, complex and gritty revival opening March 12, 2015.
Originally conceived for and produced by the critically acclaimed LAByrinth Theater Company, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot continues L.I.P. Services string of critically acclaimed works tackling difficult themes. It premiered at New York's Public Theater in March, 2005 in a production directed by Phillip Seymour Hoffman that starred Sam Rockwell, Eric Bogosian, Stephen McKinley Henderson and Jeffrey DeMunn. The development and rehearsal process of the original run was chronicled in the book "A Jesuit Off-Broadway" by the production's religious consultant, Father James Martin.
Scathingly provocative with edgy, streetwise dialogue, colorful characters and courtroom shenanigans of the highest order, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot promises to be a delightful launch to the L.I.P. Service 2015 season.
"The Last Days of Judas Iscariot" by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by Branson White
March 12 - 28 / Thur - Sat @8pm (Contains adult language and mature themes.)
L.I.P. Service's second show of the new season is a regional revival of David Rabe's award winning drama Streamers, an unflinching exploration of the turmoil and confusion facing young men threatened by forces beyond their control.
In this powerful American masterpiece directed by Seth Johnston (Drag Strip Courage), four young soldiers fresh from boot camp wait anxiously in 1965 Virginia, watching the Vietnam conflict escalate. As they struggle to make sense of their new life in the army, tensions rise over race, sexuality, and class, culminating in an explosive act that changes them forever.
Streamers premiered Off-Broadway in April 1976 and won numerous awards including the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best American Play, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play and was nominated in 1977 for a Tony Award for Best Play.
Streamers by David Rabe
Directed by Seth Johnston August 13-29 / Thurs - Sat @8pm
(Contains adult language and mature themes.)
L.I.P. Service concludes its fourth season with the Dallas/Ft. Worth area premiere of Samuel D. Hunter's The Whale. This unique story has gone on to become one of the most critically acclaimed new plays in America since its premiere in 2012.
Big-hearted and fiercely funny, The Whale tells the story of a man's last chance at redemption, and of finding beauty in the most unexpected places
L.I.P. Service's production, directed by Danny Macchietto, features the return of actor Jason Leyva in one of the most unique and demanding roles in contemporary theater: Charlie, an intelligent and sensitive 600-pound shut-in on the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho. A recluse hiding away in his apartment eating himself to death, Charlie is desperate to reconnect with his long-estranged daughter. He reaches out to her, only to find a viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teen.
The Whale is the winner of the 2013 Lucile Lortel Award-Best Play, the 2013 Drama Desk Special Award for Significant Contribution to Theatre, and the 2013 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theatre. It also received nominations for the 2013 Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Play, the 2013 Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, and the 2013 John Gassner Award for Outstanding New American Play.
The WHALE by Samuel D. Hunter
Directed by Danny Macchietto Oct 8 - 24 / Thurs- Sat @8pm
(Contains adult language and mature themes.)
In addition to these great offerings, L.I.P. Service Owner/Producer Jason Leyva will also be directing Into The Woods and Brighton Beach Memoirs for The Firehouse Theatre in Farmers Branch as well as Co-Producing Theatre of North Texas breakout production of One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest.
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