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Son of Semele Ensemble to Present Jason Grote's CIVILIZATION, Begin. 10/11

By: Sep. 18, 2013
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Award-winning theatre company, Son of Semele Ensemble (SOSE), will present the West Coast premiere of Civilization (all you can eat), by playwright Jason Grote. Directed by SOSE ensemble member Don Boughton and choreographed by Ken Roht, Civilization opens October 11th at the Son of Semele Theater.

Civilization takes us on a satirical romp of corruption, consumption, and success in the changing America of 2008. In a series of vivid character portraits, Civilization follows a bipolar waitress (Laura Carson) and her would-be celebrity daughter (Jessica Pohly); a couple of aspiring self-help gurus (Dan Via and Sarah Rosenberg); a commercial director with an interest in astronomy (Inger Tudor); a comedian hiding a suicide attempt (Peter James Smith); and a factory farm hog planning his escape (Alexander Wells). Who sinks and who swims in this dissection of the ever-weirder American Dream? Civilization takes us back to that moment of hope, when America could have been anything.

Civilization will be directed by SOSE member Don Boughton, with choreography by Ken Roht, set design by Birgitte Moos, lighting by Brandon Baruch, costumes by Jamie Westfall, sound by Dennis Yen, stage management by Ashley Reagan and dramaturgy by Flor San Roman.

Jason Grote's plays include 1001, Civilization (all you can eat), Maria/Stuart, Hamilton Township, Box Americana, and This Storm Is What We Call Progress. His work has been commissioned, produced, and developed by Soho Rep, PS122, Clubbed Thumb, Sundance, The O'Neill, HERE, The Denver Center, Theater @ Boston Court, Circle X, Salvage Vanguard, Redeye, The Contemporary American Theater Festival, ACT, Portland Center Stage, Woolly Mammoth, Mass MoCA, The Lark, The Civilians, The Flea, The Glej Theater, The Bielefeld Festival, The Luminato Festival, The Watermill Center, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Playwrights' Foundation, Collaboraction, Sideshow, The Working Theater, Baltimore Centerstage, TheatreWorks, The York Theatre, The Prospect Theatre, The Orchard Project, and elsewhere. He wrote the text for David Levine's OBIE-winning HABIT, is a member of CTG's 2013-14 Writers' Group, and is currently adapting the text for Basetrack, a performance piece based on Teru Kuwayama's open-source journalism project about the First Battalion, Eighth Marines deployed in Southern Afghanistan, which will be performed in 2014-15 at UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance, The Gammage Stage at Arizona State University, and BAM's Next Wave Festival. For television, he has written for "Mad Men," "Hannibal," and "Smash." He is an alumnus of New Dramatists and his plays are published by Playscripts and Samuel French.

Director Don Boughton has been part of the LA Theatre community for over 20 years. He started his acting career with the Improvisational Theater Project at the Mark Taper Forum and has appeared outside of LA with El Teatro Campesino, The Sante Fe Rep, and The San Diego Rep among others and toured Texas in Preston Jones? The Oldest Living Graduate. He has been member of Son of Semele Ensemble for seven years where his directing projects include Wallowa: The Vanishing of Maude LeRay by Oliver Mayer and Tragedy: A Tragedy by Will Eno.

Son of Semele Ensemble was profiled in 2004 as one of the ?hippest, hottest, most innovative theatre troupes in the U.S.? by American Theatre, and featured on the magazine?s cover. Over the past thirteen years the company?s work has received 17 regional awards and award nominations including the Ovation Award, the L.A. Weekly Theatre Award and the NAACP Theatre Award. For the past four years, SOSE has been developing its own company-devised plays, one of which was created in collaboration with Center Theatre Group. SOSE has become a resource for and a presenter of progressive theater makers in Los Angeles through Company Creation Festival and SOSE?s year-round guest-production program SOSEhost.

Performances of Civilization begin October 11, playing Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Two ?theatre community? performances will be offered on Monday, October 21st & 28th at 7:00 p.m. There will be a discussion with Jason Grote after the performance on October 28. Admission ranges from $16-20. Discounted group tickets are available for groups of 5 or more. Unsold seats at the time of curtain will be sold to local residents of zip codes 90004 and 90026 for $10.00 (I.D. required). Tickets are available through the SOSE website at www.sonofsemele.org. The box office opens one half hour prior to curtain. Son of Semele Theater is located located in Silver Lake at 3301 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004 (one mile west of Alvarado). For more information visitwww.sonofsemele.org.



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