Photo Flash: StageWest Presents Touching Tale THE ALIENS

"Looking at the sun helps you sneeze." Just a typical piece of life-advice from KJ, one of a pair of disaffected yet engaging slackers we meet in Annie Baker's gentle, touching, and funny Obie Award winner The Aliens, beginning a 5-week run on Thursday, May 4 at Stage West.

KJ and Jasper have been hanging out in the employee break area behind a Vermont coffee shop for ages-it's where they discuss music, failed relationships, Bukowski, and, well...life. Then their territory is invaded one day by Evan, an awkward seventeen-year-old new employee of the coffee shop, who has been sent to take out the trash and run off the unwelcome habitués. He's too unsure of himself to muster the authority to send them away, so they remain, and he retreats. But gradually, as he continues to pass through their refuge, a relationship begins to develop, and KJ and Jasper start to include him in their boys' club, passing along nuggets of wisdom. It's an unlikely friendship, but it works, as these three misfits find meaning in each other and in art. And in the end, the lives of all three are changed. Audiences are sure to be charmed by this humorous and touching play about what it takes to grow up.

Annie Baker grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her full-length plays include Body Awareness (Atlantic Theater Company, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play/Emerging Playwright), Circle Mirror Transformation (Playwrights Horizons, OBIE Award for Best New American Play, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Aliens (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, OBIE Award for Best New American Play), and Nocturama. Her work has also been developed and produced at New York Theatre Workshop, MCC, Soho Rep, the Orchard Project, the Ontological-Hysteric, Ars Nova, the Huntington, South Coast Rep, the Magic Theater, the Cape Cod Theatre Project, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, and The Sundance Institute Theatre Lab in Utah and Ucross, Wyoming. Annie is a member of New Dramatists, MCC's Playwrights Coalition, and EST, and an alumna of Youngblood, Ars Nova's Play Group, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Recent honors include a New York Drama Critics Circle Special Citation, a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize nomination, a Time Warner Storytelling Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship, and commissions from Center Theatre Group and Playwrights Horizons. MFA, Mac Wellman's playwriting program at Brooklyn College. (from Dramatists Play Service Inc.)

The Aliens will be directed by Dana Schultes, who most recently directed our production of Ann. KJ will be played by Jake Buchanan*, last seen at Stage West as Mike in Wait Until Dark. Making their Stage West debuts will be Joey Folsom*, who appeared as Jesus in Theatre 3's production of Cotton Patch Gospel, as Jasper, and Parker Gray, seen as Hugo Schmidt in Kitchen Dog's Feathers and Teeth, as Evan.

*SPECIAL NOTE:

Beginning on the second weekend of the run, actors Jake Buchanan and Joey Folsom will trade off roles. Thursdays and Saturdays will feature "A" casting with Buchanan as KJ and Folsom as Jasper. Fridays and Sundays will feature the "B" casting with Buchanan as Jasper and Folsom as KJ. Parker Gray is playing Evan throughout. This arrangement lends itself to very different performances, including different takes on music performed in the show. Both casting options will remain relevant and polished. Patrons opting to see both performances will find two very different shows with the same fantastic script.

Set Design will by Stage West Technical Director N. Ryan McBride, with lighting design by Texas Wesleyan theatre chair BRyan Stevenson, and sound design by John Flores. Costumes will be designed by Garret Storms, with props/set décor by Lynn Lovett.

The Aliens will preview Thursday, May 4 at 7:30 and Friday, May 5 at 8:00, and will run through Sunday, June 4. Performance times will be Thursday evenings at 7:30, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00, with Sunday matinees at 3:00. The opening night reception will be Saturday, May 6. Ticket prices range from $31 to $35, with discounts for the preview performance, and for students, seniors, and military. Food service is available 90 minutes prior to performances (reservations are necessary). Reservations and information are available through the Box Office (817-784-9378), or on the website, www.stagewest.org.

NOTE: This show contains strong language. Watch a promo below and check out photos by scrolling down!

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Photo Credit: Evan Michael Woods

Joey Folsom, Jake Buchanan, Parker Gray

Joey Folsom, Jake Buchanan (lower), Parker Gray
Jake Buchanan, Parker Gray, Joey Folsom
Joey Folsom, Jake Buchanan, Parker Gray

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