A new play by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Schenkkan (The Kentucky Cycle, All the Way, Hacksaw Ridge), written in direct response to the immigration policies of the Trump administration, reveals how those policies might lead to a terrifying, seemingly inconceivable, yet inevitable conclusion.Building the Wall opens at the Fountain Theatre onMarch 18, the first in a series of productions set to take place at theaters across the U.S. as part of a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere.
In the very near future, the Trump administration has carried out his campaign promise to round up and detain millions of immigrants. As a writer interviews the former supervisor of a private prison, it becomes clear how federal policy has escalated into something previously unimaginable.
Multiple-award winner Michael Michetti directs Bo Foxworth (All the Way at South Coast Rep and for HBO)and Judith Moreland (Ovation Award for the Fountain's Miss Julie: Freedom Summer) in Schenkkan's riveting, harrowing and illuminating cautionary tale.
"This is an urgent cry of warning from a leading voice in the American theater," says Fountain co-artistic director
Stephen Sachs. "It's an opportunity for the Fountain to make its voice heard through our art. This project is more than a play. It's already ignited a national firestorm with theaters across the country signing up to produce it."
In an interview with BBC Newshour, Schenkkan noted that "
Donald Trump is not unusual or extraordinary... this is the playbook of authoritarianism. The question, of course, is not what
Donald Trump will do. It's what we, as citizens, will do to respond."
"Audiences can expect to be very rattled by this play," notes Michetti. "Robert lays out a clear path of where we could all too easily end up if we don't change course. But the idea is not for people to go home depressed. It's a call to action. We've got to stop this from happening. We need to step up and exercise our rights as citizens to create positive change."
To that end, the Fountain will host post-performance discussions throughout the run, and additional ancillary events are currently in the planning stages.
The creative team for Building the Wall includes set designer Se Hyun Oh, lighting designer
Elizabeth Harper, sound designer John Nobori and costume designer
Naila Aladdin Sanders. The production stage manager is Miranda Stewart; associate producer is James Bennett; and
Simon Levy,
Stephen Sachs and
Deborah Lawlor produce for theFountain Theatre. Executive producers are
Karen Kondazian, Barbara Herman and Susan Stockel.
Other productions of Building the Wall are set to take place at the Curious Theater in Denver, Forum Theater in Silver Spring, Md., Borderlands Theater in Tucson and City Theatre in Miami.
Robert Schenkkan is the author of The Kentucky Cycle, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama - the first play in the history of the Pulitzer to win before its New York premiere. He has written and published fourteen other full-length plays, includingBy the Waters of Babylon, Lewis and Clark Reach the Euphrates, The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune, Handler, Heaven on Earth, Tachinoki and Final Passages. His play All The Way had its world premiere in 2012 at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, then was produced at A.R.T. in Boston starring
Bryan Cranston and moved to Broadway in January, 2013. It broke two box office records and won the Drama League Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Drama Desk Award, the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for History and Theater Award, and Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor. His play The Great Society, (commissioned by the
Seattle Repertory Theatre) is a sequel to All The Way, and had its world premiere at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in July, 2013. Both plays ran in repertory at the
Seattle Repertory Theater in January 2014. His television credits include All the Way, The Pacific, The Andromeda Strain andSpartacus. He co-wrote the feature films The Quiet American and Hacksaw Ridge, which is currently nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Michael Michetti is co-artistic director of The Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena, CA, where his directing credits include
Aaron Posner's Stupid f-ing Bird, Roland Schimmelpfennig's The Golden Dragon,
Eric Coble's My Barking Dog, Carlos Murillo's dark play or stories for boys and world premieres of Deborah Stein's God Save Gertrude,
Eric Whitacre'sParadise Lost: Shadows & Wings and his own adaptation of
Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dor
Ian Gray. He also directed the world premiere of Tom Jacobson's The Twentieth-Century Way, and that production went on to have an acclaimed run at New York's Rattlestick Playwright's Theatre. Other directing credits include:
Aaron Posner's District Merchants at South Coast Rep; the world premieres of Jacobson's Captain of the Bible Quiz Team for Rogue Machine, House of the Rising Son at
Ensemble Studio Theatre L.A., and Ouroboros at the Road Theatre; Figaro, The Grapes of Wrath, Hamlet, Don Juan and As You Like It at A Noise Within; Brecht's Edward II for Circle X; Amy's View starring
Carol Lawrence at Florida Rep; Noises Off at PlayMakers Repertory Theatre; A Life in the Theatre starring
HAl Holbrook at the
Pasadena Playhouse; Kiss Me, Kate, Carousel and Man of La Mancha at Reprise. He has received many awards including two Ovation Awards and five Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for his direction.
Bo Foxworth was most recently seen in Mr. Schenkkan's All The Way and in Amadeus at South Coast Rep. He is a member of the prestigious Antaeus Theatre Company, where he appeared in Cloud 9 (current Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle award nominee for Best Featured Actor), Henry IV, The Liar, The Crucible (Ovation nomination for Best Lead Actor), Macbeth (in the title role), The Seagull and The Malcontent. Bo has also worked at Shakespeare Orange County, Skylight Theatre, Ensemble Theater Company, La Mirada,
Laguna Playhouse,
Geffen Playhouse, Disney Hall, LA Theatre Works, Theater @ Boston Court, the Hollywood Bowl and A Noise Within, where he received two Ovation nominations. New York and regional theater credits include the off-Broadway hit As Bees in Honey Drown at the Lucile Lortel, as well as productions at the
Century Theater, HERE, Pearl Theater; Shakespeare Theater in Washington D.C., English Theater in Vienna, Austria, the Long Wharf, Baltimore Center Stage, Playmakers Rep,
The Old Globe, Yale Rep and many others. He has numerous film and television credits including the upcoming season of VEEP and the role of
Robert McNamara in the HBO movie All The Way starring
Bryan Cranston. He is a graduate of UCLA and received his Masters at Yale School of Drama.
Judith Moreland teaches acting at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. She is a seasoned actress who has performed both on and off-Broadway and has worked with many theater companies including the New York Shakespeare Festival,
Playwrights Horizons, Ensemble Studio Theater/LA and Shakespeare Festival/LA. Additionally, she was a company member of San Francisco's
American Conservatory Theater for many years. Ms. Moreland won an Ovation Award for her performance in the Fountain Theater's production of Miss Julie: Freedom Summer and a Bay Area Theater Critics Award for her performance in
American Conservatory Theater's production of Miss Evers' Boys. Her film and television credits include Dark Skies, Eagle Eye, Blackish, Parenthood, Grey's Anatomy, Parks and Recreation, General Hospital, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist and Castle. She has taught at Stanford University,
American Conservatory Theater, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Oxford University for the British American Drama Academy.
The Fountain Theatre is one of the most successful intimate theaters in Los Angeles, providing a creative home for multi-ethnic theater and dance artists. The Fountain has won over 225 awards, and Fountain projects have been seen across the U.S. and internationally. Recent highlights include being honored for its acclaimed 25th Anniversary Season in 2015 by Mayor
Eric Garcetti and the Los Angeles City Council; the 2014 Ovation Award for Best Season and the 2014 BEST Award for overall excellence from the Biller Foundation; the inclusion of the Fountain's Citizen: An American Lyric in
Center Theatre Group's upcoming Block Party at the
Kirk Douglas Theatre; and the naming of seven Fountain productions in a row as "Critic's Choice" in the Los Angeles Times.
National New Play Network (NNPN) is the country's alliance of non-profit professional theaters dedicated to the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since its founding in 1998, NNPN has supported more than 200 productions nationwide through its innovative National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere program, which provides playwright and production support for new works at its Member theaters. Additional programs - its annual National Conference, National Showcase of New Plays, and MFA Playwrights Workshop; the NNPN Annual and Smith Prize commissions; its residencies for playwrights, producers and directors; and the organization's member accessed Collaboration, Festival, and Travel banks and online information sessions - have helped cement the Network's position as a vital force in the new play landscape. NNPN also strives to pioneer, implement, and disseminate ideas and programs that revolutionize the way theaters collaborate to support new plays and playwrights. Its most recent project, the New Play Exchange, is changing the way playwrights share their work and others discover it by providing immediate access to information on more than 9,500 new plays by living writers. NNPN's 30 Core and more than 75 Associate Members - along with the more than 150 affiliated artists who are its alumni, the thousands of artists and artisans employed annually by its member theaters, and the hundreds of thousands of audience members who see its supported works each year - are creating the new American theater.
Building the Wall runs March 18 through May 21, with performances on Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m.; andMondays at 8 p.m. (dark Monday, March 20). Three preview performances take place on Wednesday, March 15; Thursday, March 16; and Friday, March 17, all at 8 p.m. Tickets range from $15-$35; every Monday is Pay-What-You-Can. The Fountain Theatre is located at 5060 Fountain Avenue (at Normandie) in Los Angeles. Secure, on-site parking is available for $5. The Fountain Theatre is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible. For reservations and information, call (323) 663-1525 or go to
www.FountainTheatre.com. Like us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/TheFountainTheatre. Follow us on Twitter: @fountaintheatre.
Photo Credit: Ed Krieger
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