Photo Flash: First Look at Chance Theater's OC Premiere of Sarah Ruhl's PASSION PLAY, Beg. Tonight

Chance Theater presents the second show of its 16th Anniversary Season - the humorous and inventive glimpse behind-the-scenes of the traditional Passion play produced in three distinctively different locations and times. Written by two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist Sarah Ruhl, with direction by Trevor Biship (director of Chance's Ovation Award-winning Jerry Springer: The Opera). Passion Play opens tonight, May 3 and continues through May 25 at Chance Theater at Bette Aitken Theater Arts Center. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

Passion Play is a light-spirited story about three sets of amateur performers in three different eras grappling with the personal effects of staging the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. At its core, it's a playful and profound perspective on the dysfunctional family of the theater and how that relates to the larger world outside of it. From Queen Elizabeth's England to Hitler's Germany to Reagan's America, two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Sarah Ruhl's play is bold, magical, poetic, sexy, smart, profound and epic. It's truly not to be missed.

Passion Play premiered in 2005 at Washington's Arena Stage. The play went on to be produced by the Goodman Theatre in 2007 and Yale Rep in 2008. Then in 2010, it was reimagined in a New York premiere by Epic Theatre Ensemble at the Irondale Center, a converted Sunday school in the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Sarah Ruhl began writing Passion Play at age 21, while studying under Paula Vogel at Brown University, who convinced Ruhl to pursue playwriting rather than poetry. She did not finish the play until eight years later, after Wendy C. Goldberg and Arena's Molly Smith commissioned the third act.

Passion Play features Scenic Design by Fred Kinney, Lighting Design by Brandon Baruch, Sound Design by Jeff Polunas, Costume Design by Sara Ryung Clement, Props & Puppet Design by resident artist Christopher ScottMurillo, and Dramaturgy by Carla Neuss.

The production will feature a cast that includes Chance co-founder Casey Long, resident artists Alex Bueno, Karen Webster, and Jackson Tobiska, as well as returning actors Camryn Zelinger, Robert Foran, and Karen O'Hanlon, plus Ben Moroski, Katelyn Schiller, Andrew Eiden, and Lee Kociela making their Chance debuts.

Photo Credit: Thamer Bajjali / Petra Calling Photography / PetraCalling.com

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