Taylor Mac's HIR Comes to Unicorn Theatre

Chaos reigns supreme in this hilarious reinvention of the classic American family drama. When Isaac returns home from Afghanistan to help take care of his ailing father, he discovers a household in revolt. His mother, Paige, has been liberated from an oppressive marriage, and with the help of her newly "out" transgender teen is passionately dismantling the patriarchy. But in Taylor Mac's shocking and subversive comedy, even the most radical changes can't always free you from the past.

Hir is on Unicorn Theatre's Jerome Stage located at 3828 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111. The show runs May 30th to June 24th, 2018. Previews are May 30th and 31st and June 1st, 2018. Opening Night is June 2nd, 2018. Performances run Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8:00 p.m., and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. For those who are unable to afford a full price ticket, they may "Pay What U Can" at performances on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; because we believe art is for everyone.

Tickets are now on sale. Call 816-531-PLAY (7529) EXT. 10, go online at www.UnicornTheatre.org or buy in person during box office hours located at 3828 Main St., Kansas City, MO 64111. Special discounts are available for groups of 10+, seniors (65+) and students.

Special Events:

Drink-Backs are scheduled for June 8th and June 15th, 2018 after the production. The bar will stay open after select Friday night shows, so grab a drink and chat with some of the actors & staff members for Reverse Happy Hour. We will be hanging out around the bar for informal discussions on the many issues explored.

About the Director, Cast, and Creative Team:

Cynthia Levin (PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR) is in her 39th season with the Unicorn. Over the years she has served as a director, actor, designer or producer for over 300 productions. At the Unicorn, she recently directed Vietgone, Chesapeake, Priscilla Queen Of The Desert (co-directed with Missy Koonce), Eclipsed, Hand to God, Heathers: The Musical (again, with Missy), The Oldest Boy, Women Playing Hamlet (world premiere), Bad Jews, Grounded, Venus in Fur, My Name is Asher Lev, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, The Soul Collector (world premiere), Hungry (world premiere), Red, Two Jews Walk Into A War..., Distracted, Green Whales (world premiere), Miss Witherspoon, My First Time, The Clean House, Mauritius, 9 Parts of Desire, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Bat Boy: The Musical and additionally the world premieres of rightnextto me (both at the Unicorn and Geva Theatre Center, Rochester, NY), How His Bride Came to Abraham, Light:Damage, Mercy Killing, Innocent Thoughts and Jack and Jill. At Coterie Theatre, she has directed Number the Stars, And Then They Came for Me, Frankenstein, Gatherings in Graveyards (I and II), Valley Song and To Kill A Mockingbird. At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., she directed readings of Occupants, In The Belly Of The Whale, The Friendship Of Her Thighs, The Last Pair Of Earlies, Tigers Be Still and White Devil and Loving Mother for the MFA Playwright's Workshop. Cynthia is a graduate of Park University which also awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2002. She is a founding board member of the National New Play Network, an organization dedicated to the development and production of new works. She has been honored with the Pinnacle Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Human Rights Campaign Equality Award and most recently the Kathryn V. Lamkey Award from the Actor's Equity Association for her ongoing commitment to inclusion and diversity. She shares her home with Zia (the beagle), Dodger (the cat) and the spirit of the big red dog, Sylvia.

Ian R. Crawford (DIRECTOR) is proud to be Unicorn Theatre's Associate Artistic Director. At the Unicorn, Ian has directed Application Pending, The Ghosts of Lote Bravo (World Premiere) & Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Other favorite directing credits include The Importance of Being Earnest (for which he also designed the set, props, and costumes), Dada is Dead/Long Live DADA! (which he conceived and co-created for the KC Fringe Festival), The Baltimore Waltz, Life of Galileo, Far Away, and Quartett. At the Unicorn, Ian has designed costumes for Chesapeake, I'm Gonna Pray For You So Hard, Application Pending, The Way We Get By, Buyer & Cellar, The Oldest Boy, Bad Jews, and Water By The Spoonful, and the set for Chesapeake and Women Playing Hamlet. Ian directed staged readings of The House on the Hill, How to Steal a Picasso, Women Playing Hamlet, and Barbecue Apocalypse for the Unicorn's In-Progress New Play Reading Series. Unicorn Theatre's production of The Ghosts of Lote Bravo, which Ian directed, was featured on the cover of American Theatre Magazine this past February. Ian is an alum of the La Mama Umbria Directors' Symposium and a graduate of Fordham College at Lincoln Center. Thank you to my family and to my husband Vince for your constant love and support.

Sam Cordes (ISAAC CONNOR) was "born in a trunk" and grew up just down the street from here. Previous Unicorn appearances include Mineola Twins, Farragut North and Red. Cordes received his B.F.A. in Theatre from Stephens College for Women in Columbia, MO and his M.F.A. in Theatre from The University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Cordes is also a proud member of Agile Rascal Bicycle Touring Theatre - samcordes.org

Carla Noack (PAIGE CONNOR) returns to the Unicorn, having most recently appeared in Men on Boats, Grounded, How to Use a Knife, Lasso of Truth and Time Stands Still. Prior to moving to Kansas City from Minnesota, she was a co-artistic director of the Commonweal Theatre Company and a company member of the Great River Shakespeare Festival. Other credits include Ten Thousand Things Theatre, Theatre Latte Da, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and Kansas City Actors Theatre (core artistic member 2010-2013). Carla currently serves as the Chair of the UMKC Theatre Department.

Ahafia Jurkiewicz-Miles (MAX CONNOR) is thrilled to perform at the Unicorn! A senior at the University of Central Missouri, they study piano performance and are heavily involved in the theater department. They played synthesizer and violin for the Unicorn's production of Priscilla Queen of the Desert last summer, and will music direct UCM's productions of Gypsy and Godspell next year. Their past roles include Jerry in The Zoo Story; Biondello in The Taming of the Shrew; Ben in Dead Boy. They competed in the final round of the 2017 KCACTF Region 5 Irene Ryans competition, and recieved the award for Best Classical Acting.

Phil Fiorini (ARNOLD CONNOR) Was last seen at the Unicorn as Charlie in The Whale. Last fall he appeared as Finian in The Spinning Tree's production of Finian's Rainbow. Recently, he was seen at KCAT in The Realistic Joneses with Carla Noack and The New Theatre in The Fabulous Lipitones with George Wendt. The past few years Phil has shared his time between KC and Cincinnati where he appeared at the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in Hands On a Hardbody as J.D. and the Preacher in Violet. Audiences in KC might have seen him at the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival in Twelfth Night as Festes, The Fool in King Lear, and Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. At the New Theatre, he played Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Amos Hart in last summer's Chicago. Phil spent three years on the Broadway tour of The Lion King as Pumbaa the warthog. Later this summer Phil will be in La Cage Aux Folles and The Legend of Georgia McBride for Kansas Repertory Theatre in Lawrence.

Tanya Brown (STAGE MANAGER) has been working with the Unicorn for the past eleven seasons. Some of her all-time favorites have been Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, My Name Is Asher Lev, Women Playing Hamlet, Cock, and Priscilla Queen of the Desert: The Musical.

Gary Mosby (SCENIC DESIGNER) is currently Program Coordinator for the Theatre Department at Kansas City Kansas Community College. Gary's teaching responsibilities include Stage Management, Scene Painting, 2 levels of Stagecraft and 2 levels of Stage Lighting. Gary also serves as the scenic and lighting designer and technical director for all college productions Gary has been working professionally designing scenery and serving as technical director for many theatres throughout the Kansas City area and is happy to return and collaborate with the artists at the Unicorn. As well as Gary's extensive work with the Unicorn Theatre he has had a long association with KC Rep and Kansas City Actor's Theatre. Some of Gary's favorite designs would be Bat Boy, the musical, How to Use a Knife, My Name is Asher Lev, Duck Hunter Shoots Angel, and Take Me Out. You can see more of Gary's work at gmosby.com.

David Kiehl (SOUND DESIGNER) is excited to be back at the Unicorn where he has worked as sound designer for over 50 productions. Previous Unicorn productions date back to 1997 and include Sylvia, The Laramie Project, Proof and Closer; more recently, they include Informed Consent, Project Dawn and Chesapeake. You may have heard his work around town at KCAT (A Streetcar Named Desire), the Living Room (recently: Milking Christmas, Bastard, and The Ballad of Lefty and Crabbe) and over 100 productions at the Coterie (recently: Jack and the Bean Magìco, Tuck Everlasting and A Charlie Brown Christmas).

Alex Perry (LIGHTING DESIGNER) holds 9/10ths of a Masters of Fine Arts from UMKC and is thrilled to design for the Unicorn having also worked in the areas of scenery and props. Lighting designs at Unicorn include: Hand to God, Heathers: The Musical, The Ghosts of Lote Bravo, The Whale, The Brothers Size, The Oldest Boy, Tribes, Cock, Hands on a Hardbody, Water by the Spoonful, Grounded, Venus in Fur, The Mountaintop, My Name is Asher Lev, Everyday Rapture, and Red. Alex has also worked as lighting and scenic designer with many other theatres in the KC area, and spends his days with A to Z Theatrical Supply and Service Inc.

Sarah M. Oliver (COSTUME DESIGNER) teaches costume technology for the M.F.A. Costume Design and Technology program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has designed and built costumes overseas and in the United States for theatres coast to coast-from the Los Angeles Opera to the New York City Opera. She has built costumes for drama, film, dance, opera, and musical theatre productions for designers in South Africa, England, Spain, Hong Kong, Canada, China, and the Bahamas. Recent Kansas City costume design credits include How to Use a Knife and How to Steal a Picasso (Unicorn Theatre), Sex with Strangers (KC Rep), Sea Marks, And Then There Were None, and My Old Lady (KCAT), Sister Act, Barefoot in the Park, and Driving Miss Daisy (New Theatre Restaurant).

Eric Palmquist (PROPERTIES DESIGNER) is a graduate of the University of Kansas Theatre program. Recent designs include Vietgone, Informed Consent, Project Dawn (Unicorn Theatre), Once on This Island, Casa Valentina, Finian's Rainbow (Spinning Tree). and Superior Donuts (OCTA). As an actor he was last seen as Nhan in Vietgone and has performed with Unicorn, Coterie, Living Room, Kansas Repertory Theatre, KC Fringe, MET, and Buffalo Room.

Ethan Zogg (DRAMATURG) is excited to work on his first production at The Unicorn. Ethan has worked with KC Rep on their world premiere production of The Roof of the World (2016) and Evita (2016), as well as with The Fishtank Performance Studio on Heaven+Hell (2015). He graduated with a M.A. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he studied under Dr. Felicia Londré. Ethan would like to thank his partner Sage for her love and support, and the Unicorn for this opportunity.

Erdin Schultz-Bever (PRODUCTION ASSISTANT) is happy to return to the Unicorn after working as a PA on Disgraced and as a Literary Intern. She graduated from University of Evansville with her degree in Theatre Performance, and has performed in projects including Belfast Girls and Dry Land with the Fishtank Theatre. She has trained with Siti Company in New York and Cornerstone Theatre Company in LA, and she is a teaching artist in KC and Lawrence.

Courtney Dozier (SOUND BOARD OPERATOR) was born and raised in Miami, FL. She moved to Kansas City and graduated from Kansas CityArt Institute with a B.F.A with a focus in sculpture and architecture. When she isn't at work she is in her studio making art, drinking tea, and watching Futurama. Any day could be the best day of your life; how exciting!

 

About the Playwright: Taylor Mac (who uses "judy", lowercase sic, not as a name but as a gender pronoun) is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer. "A critical darling of the New York scene" (NY Magazine), TimeOut NY has called Mac "One of the most exciting theater artists of our time" (naming judy a future theater legend). Judy's work has been performed at New York City's Lincoln Center, The Public Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, Los Angeles'sRoyce Hall, Minneapolis's Guthrie Theater, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, Boston's American Repertory Theatre, Stockholm's SodraTheatern, the Spoleto Festival, San Francisco's Curran Theater, MOMA, and literally hundreds of other theaters, museums, music halls, opera houses, cabarets, and festivals around the globe. Judy is the author of sxteen full-length plays and performance pieces including Hir (placed on the top ten theater of 2015 lists of The New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out NY; published by North Western University Press and in American Theater Magazine), The Lily's Revenge (Obie Award), The Walk Across America for Mother Earth (named One of the Best Plays of 2011 by The New York Times), The Young Ladies Of (Chicago's Jeff Award nomination for best solo), Red Tide Blooming (Ethyl Eichelberger Award), The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac (Edinburgh Festival's Herald Angel Award) and in collaboration with Mandy Patinkin, Susan Stroman and Paul Ford, Mac created The Last Two People on Earth: An Apocaplyptic Vaudeville. Mac is a MacArthur Fellow, a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama and the recipient of multiple awards including the Kennedy Prize, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim Award, the Herb Alpert Award in Theater, the Peter Zeisler Memorial Award, the Helen Merrill Playwriting Award 2 Bessies, 2 Obies, and an Ethyl Eichelberger Award. An alumnus of New Dramatists, judy is currently a New York Theater Workshop Usual Suspect and the Resident playwright at the HERE Arts Center.

 

About Unicorn Theatre

Founded in 1974, Unicorn Theatre enhances the Kansas City community by developing and producing high-quality, thought-provoking plays that have never been seen in the region. We illuminate social issues by shining a light on diversity and inclusive stories which include race, religion and gender identity. Unicorn creates opportunities for the advancement of emerging and established actors, directors, playwrights, designers, technicians and administrative staff. Unicorn Theatre is under the artistic and executive leadership of Producing Artistic Director Cynthia Levin, who joined the company in 1979. From a newly expanded home in the Midtown neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri, the Unicorn houses two stages-The Levin Stage (formerly The Main Stage) and The Jerome Stage (added in 2008). After a year-long capital campaign Unicorn Theatre was able to purchase the building outright in 2014. A fully professional not-for-profit theatre, the theatre operates under agreement with Actor's Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. The Unicorn is a founding member of the National New Play Network, an alliance of not-for-profit professional theatres that champions the development, production and continued life of new plays for the American theatre; and is a constituent member of Theatre Communications Group, Inc., the national service organization for the not-for-profit professional theatre. Financial assistance for this theatre has been provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency; corporate and foundation gifts; and the generous individuals throughout the community we serve.

 

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