AIRLINE HIGHWAY, GROUNDED, 'FATHER COMES HOME' and More Set for Southern Rep Theatre's 30th Season

Southern Rep Theatre announces its 2016 - 2017 Mainstage Season featuring AIRLINE HIGHWAY by Lisa D'Amour, GROUNDED by George Brant, SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH by Tennessee Williams, and FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (PARTS 1, 2, & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks.

Says Southern Rep Theatre Producing Artistic Director Aimée Hayes: "Our 2016 - 17 season is bursting with rich voices, from the kaleidoscopic swirl of partying New Orleanians living fully and fitfully on the edge in Lisa D'Amour's AIRLINE HIGHWAY; the mythically dynamic Civil War world Suzan-Lori Parks conjures in FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (Parts 1, 2 & 3) to George Brant's fiercely poetic heroine in GROUNDED juxtaposing the maudlin mad musings of Tennessee Williams' Princess in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH. These plays are just the kinds of stories we like to tell at Southern Rep Theatre: complicated, emotional, challenging, and based first and foremost in great writing. We are also thrilled to feature Leslie Castay in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH and Kerry Cahill in GROUNDED, and to be hosting director Valerie Curtis-Newton who helmed SHOTGUN by John Biguenet and Dael Orlandersmith's YELLOWMAN for us. The University of New Orleans and Loyola University continue to be deeply committed creative partners offering us beautiful venues in which to share this season's offerings. Southern Rep is also entering its 30th Season - I can't imagine a better way to celebrate than by sharing these stories!"

Priority Patron memberships, including season subscriptions and associated benefits, are on sale now at 504-522-6545 or www.southernrep.com/tickets/purchase.

"The best way to enjoy our 30th season is as a 2016-17 Priority Patron," says Managing Director Jenny Windstrup. She continues: "Not only do Priority Patrons receive a full Mainstage season subscription at the best price, they enjoy numerous benefits like reserved seats and other in-theater amenities. Priority Patron membership also provides you with personalized customer service at the Box Office, including a priority reservation period so you can select preferred performance dates (including our celebratory opening nights) before tickets go on sale to the general public. If your plans change, we offer no-fee ticket exchanges, and you can bring a guest at a discounted price. Plus, Priority Patrons are protected against future price increases that may apply to the most in-demand performance dates. With this fantastic line-up of plays, we encourage renewing, lapsed, and new subscribers to secure their seats by joining today!"

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AIRLINE HIGHWAY by Lisa D'Amour

Regional Premiere

A Co-Production with the University of New Orleans

Directed by Aimée Hayes

October 5 - 23, 2016

University of New Orleans - Robert E. Nims Theatre

In the parking lot of the dilapidated Hummingbird Hotel on AIRLINE HIGHWAY, an assortment of strippers, hustlers, and poets come together to celebrate the "living funeral" of beloved burlesque performer Miss Ruby. The party rages through the night as old friends reunite to pay their respects-and stir up trouble. Pulitzer Prize finalist Lisa D'Amour (DETROIT) celebrates the night owls of the French Quarter who live along the frayed edges of New Orleans.

About Aimée Hayes, director, AIRLINE HIGHWAY - Since being named Producing Artistic Director in 2007, Hayes has focused on new play development, producing many writers during her tenure, including John Biguenet, Eric Coble, Zayd Dohrn, Catherine Filloux, Jim Fitzmorris, Ross Maxwell, Tarrell McCraney, Peter McElligot, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Joe Sutton, and Steve Yockey. As a member of the National New Play Network, Hayes has served on the Showcase of New Plays panel and directed in their MFA Playwright Showcase at the Kennedy Center. She has also overseen the incorporation of a new slate of new play development programs into Southern Rep's Lagniappe Series including 6×6, a new play slam, 3×3: THE ONE ACTS, New Orleans' only live, ongoing soap opera, DEBAUCHERY!, and THE NEW PLAY BACCHANAL, an annual two-day new play festival that includes honoring a new play by a female playwright of color with The Ruby Prize. Hayes has often appeared on the stage, most recently as She in Southern Rep's STAGE KISS, Hannah Jelkes in THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, and Blanche Dubois in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. In 2014, New Orleans Magazine named Hayes a Top Female Achiever, and in 2012 she was named Gambit Weekly's Theatre Person of the Year, and one of New Orleans Magazine's 2008 People to Watch. Hayes serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee and at-large Board Member for the Theatre Communications Group (TCG).

GROUNDED by George Brant

Regional Premiere

Director TBA

Featuring Kerry Cahill

November 2 - 20, 2016

Loyola University - Lower Depths Theatre

Kerry Cahill stars as an Air Force pilot whose career is ended due to her unplanned pregnancy. A position in the "Chair Force" piloting a drone puts the war just a one-hour commute from her husband and daughter in the Nevada suburbs. From George Brant, whose work the Sun Chronicle calls "stunning and haunting," GROUNDED is a one-woman journey into the heart of darkness where the vast deserts of Iraq and the USA are only separated by a 1.2 second delay.

About Kerry Cahill, starring in GROUNDED - Kerry Cahill is an alumna of Loyola University in New Orleans, the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, and Queen's University in Belfast. Graduating in 2005, she made her home in New Orleans working with Young Audiences, Voices for Children, and the Contemporary Arts Center after Hurricane Katrina then moving to Chicago to study with Second City, the Profiles Theater and Rick Snyder at Columbia College. In New Orleans she has been awarded two Big Easy Theater Awards for LYSISTRATA and ZOMBIETOWN. Cahill has been seen on stage in THE TEMPEST, MOLD, WOLVES, and plays Tafetta, international super model, in DEBAUCHERY! She can be seen on television in "NCIS New Orleans" and "ZOO". She has appeared in The Runner, Terminator Genisys, Daddy's Home, and will be seen in the upcoming film Free State of Jones. Kerry Cahill has written for the 3x3 and 6x6 series of Southern Rep and is currently working on her first full length play, LANDING.

SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH by Tennessee Williams

Presented in partnership with the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival

Director TBA

Featuring Leslie Castay

March 21 - April 15, 2017

Loyola University - Marquette Theatre

Southern Rep continues its commitment to the Tennessee Williams canon with SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH, in which the only thing more dangerous that obsessing over the past is striving to repeat it. Leslie Castay stars as Alexandra del Lago, a silver screen legend on the run following a humiliating comeback. She wakes up, disoriented and hungover in a grand hotel hidden away along the Gulf Coast with Chance--local boy turned actor turned gigolo who is plotting a comeback of his own.

About Leslie Castay, starring in SWEET BIRD OF YOUTH - Leslie Castay's previous work with Southern Rep includes her award-winning performances in Southern Rep's productions of NEXT TO NORMAL and GREY GARDENS, as well as in Aimée Hayes' Southern Rep directorial debut, THE CLEAN HOUSE. She is a seasoned veteran of Broadway, National Tours, Carnegie Hall, Off-Broadway and regional theatre during her nearly 20 years as a New York-based actor. Local audiences have seen her featured in productions with The NOLA Project, Tulane Summer Lyric, and Le Petit Theatre, most recently in last season's production of MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG. Her acclaimed one-woman cabaret show played to sold out crowds at Le Chat Noir and Mid City theatre. Her film and TV credits include this year's Oscar nominated The Big Short, Beautiful Creatures, recurring and guest starring roles in "Common Law," "American Horror Story," "NCIS: New Orleans," and in the upcoming film Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks opening September 9.

FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (PARTS 1, 2, & 3) by Suzan-Lori Parks

Regional Premiere

Directed by Valerie Curtis-Newton

May 31 - June 18, 2017

Loyola University - Marquette Theatre

West Texas, 1863. Hero is promised his freedom from slavery in exchange for his service in the Civil War-on the Confederate side. Hero leaves behind his community, his father, and the woman he loves for what is likely an empty promise. What he finds on the front lines might make it impossible for him to return home the same man. New York Magazine declares Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks' FATHER COMES HOME FROM THE WARS (PARTS 1, 2, & 3) a "masterpiece."

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Now entering its 30th Season, Southern Rep Theatre produces award-winning productions that are engaging, educational, and accessible for audiences of every socioeconomic background. Under the leadership of Producing Artistic Director Aimée Hayes and Managing Director Jenny Windstrup, Southern Rep Theatre's Mainstage Season work includes bold World and Regional Premieres as well as the best of Broadway, off-Broadway, and classic plays. Southern Rep Theatre's Lagniappe Series and "School to Stage Pipeline" of Arts Education Programs reflect the company's ongoing commitment to new play development by providing resources for students and burgeoning theatre professionals and supporting a more diverse theatre community. A mainstay of New Orleans' arts community, Southern Rep Theatre continues to build on its unique position as a sector leader, creative force, and important resource for contemporary American theatre.

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