Road Theatre Company Presents World Premiere Of DEATH HOUSE By Jason Karasev

THE ROAD THEATRE COMPANY and Taylor Gilbert, Founder/Artistic Director together with Sam Anderson, Artistic Director, present the second show of its 2018-2019 season, the world premiere of DEATH HOUSE, written by Jason Karasev and directed by Michael Peretzian. DEATH HOUSE will preview on Tuesday, January 15 at 8pm; Wednesday, January 16 at 8pm & Thursday, January 17 at 8pm and will open on Friday, January 18 at 8pm and run through Sunday, March 10 at the Road Theatre on Lankershim, 5108 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood.

On the night a death-house chaplain must hand over the reigns to the confident young pastor set to replace him, the men encounter an enigmatic inmate who challenges their convictions and changes their lives forever. DEATH HOUSE is a startling new piece of theatre that explores justice, redemption, and the possibility that we're all more connected than we may want to admit.

Jason Karasev (Playwright) His work has been seen in many capacities. As a writer, his play Death House was the winner of the 2018 Playwrights First Competition, whose original prize went to the Pulitzer Prize Winning play Wit, in 1993. Through this, his play received a presentation in conjunction with Lincoln Center in New York. Death House was also a 2016 Sundance Lab semi-finalist, an 85thAnnual Writers Digest Competition Winner, a selection for The Road Theatre's Summer Playwrights Festival, a selection for The Blank Theatre Living Room Series, and a semi-finalist for both the Detroit New Works Festival and The Baltic Writing residency. Jason's other work includes White Nights or The Unbearable Heaviness of Being (Russian), which was a 2018 O'Neill Semi-Finalist; the one-act play Buttercup Park,which was a Little Fish Theatre semi-finalist and seen at Chicago Dramatists; and the television pilots "In The Red"and "Improvise." As a performer, his stage work includes the title role in the LA Premiere of My Name Is Asher Lev (Fountain Theatre, Ovation Nomination, Best Actor StageSceneLA), Mercury Fur (Ovation Nomination),Tarell Alvin McCraney's Wig Out (Sundance Theatre Lab),Tape (Best of Hollywood Fringe), Robert O'Hara'sSex/Adept (Victory Gardens), Broadway Bound (The Drury Lane), Tesla's Letters (TimeLine Theatre), and many more. Recently, Jason has appeared as a regular or guest-star on CBS, Disney,ABC Freeform, MTV, Nickelodeon, and The CW. He is a National Scholar in the Arts (NFAA) and a proud graduate of The Theatre Schoolat DePaul, where he was a recipient of The Theatre School Performance Scholarship. Currently, Jason is a Masters of Psychology Candidate at Antioch University.

MICHAEL PERETZIAN (Director) attended UCLA earning his BA in Motion Picture Production, a Masters degree in Theatre History as well as an MFA in Directing for the Theatre. Following a two-year stint as an Assistant Professor at The Pasadena Playhouse, he began a motion picture career in the mailroom of the venerable William Morris Agency. In his four decades as a literary agent in Hollywood, first at William Morris, then later at the Creative Artists Agency, he has represented many distinguish international screenwriters and directors. Included in that long list are Christopher Hampton ("Atonement," and "Les Liasons Dangereuse"), John Madden (Director Of "Shakespeare In Love"), and Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient," "TheTalented Mr. Ripley," "Cold Mountain," and "Number One Ladies' Detective Agency").
He has also co-represented the film and television careers of many Broadway playwrights and directors including Terrence McNally, Beth Henley, Mark Medoff, Jon Robin Baitz, Sir Richard Eyre, David Leveaux, Scott Ellis, Howard Ashman, Steven Sater and Joe Mantello. While establishing his entertainment industry career, he moonlighted as a director of many Los Angeles theatre productions, including the Mark Taper West Coast premiere of Jane Martin's Talking With and the staged reading of Truman Capote's One Christma sand A Christmas Memory, productions broadcast for many years on KCRW and now annually re-staged at Pacific Resident Theatre. Theatre 40 productions include Michael Cristofer's The Shadow Box,James Prideaux's The Orphans, Garry Williams' one act Rain, David Storey's Home,as well as productions of Hugh Leonard's Summerand A Life, the latter of which earned a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Director.

In addition to directing the 2008 world premiere of Alex Dinelaris' Red Dog Howls starring Kathleen Chalfant, his production of Harold Pinter's No Man's Land at the Odyssey Ensemble was nominated as one of the best productions of 2009 by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. Other productions he has directed include a revival of Christopher Hampton's Tales From Hollywood, also at the Odyssey. At The Rogue Machine Los Angeles premier of Pulitzer Prize finalist Christopher Shinn's Dying City received five Ovation Award nominations including direction and eventually won the award for Best Play in an Intimate Theater. Most recent production include last year's Still Life by Alex Dinelaris at The Rogue Machine and staging two Anthony Minghella radio plays, Hang Up and Cigarettes And Chocolate at Pacific Resident Theatre.

The cast of DEATH HOUSE will feature (in alphabetical order): Sam Anderson, Verity Branco and Chase Cargill.

The Design Team for DEATH HOUSE is as follows: Set Design by David Mauer; Lighting Design by Derrick McDaniel; Sound Design by David B. Marling; Costume Design by Mary Jane Miller; Properties Design by Christine Joëlle. The Fight Director is Bjørn Johnson. The Production Stage Manager is Maurie Gonzalez. DEATH HOUSE is produced by Carlyle King, Tracey Silver, Brian M. Cole and Carissa Pinckney.

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