Making Strange's LUCK Comes To 59E59 9/22 As Part Of 1st Irish

59E59 Theaters (Elysabeth Kleinhans, Artistic Director; Peter Tear, Executive Producer) welcomes Juicy MoMo Productions with the US premiere of Making Strange's LUCK, devised and written by Megan Riordan, Dodd Loomis and Shawn Sturnick, which is part of 1st Irish at 59E59 Theaters. Performed by Megan Riordan and directed by Dodd Loomis, LUCK begins previews on Tuesday, September 22 for a limited engagement through Sunday, October 11.

Opening Night is Sunday, September 27 at 7:30 PM. The performance schedule is Tuesday at 7:30 PM, Wednesday - Friday at 8:30 PM, Saturday at 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM and Sunday at 3:30 PM and 7:30 PM. The regular ticket price is $25 ($17.50 for 59E59 Members). Tickets are available by calling Ticket Central at 212-279-4200 or online at http://www.ticketcentral.com. For more information visit http://www.59E59.org. 

Rub that rabbit's foot, put a coin in your shoe and wear your lucky underpants! The internationally acclaimed LUCK hits NYC direct from a sold-out engagement at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was a Time Out Critics Pick!

Based on Megan Riordan's own life as the daughter of a professional Las Vegas gambler, LUCK powers its way through questions of destiny, free will and faith against a background of casino games of chance in which the audience is invited to play. LUCK takes the shape of a quiz show cross-bred with a Vegas-style cocktail party, chock full of interrogations, luck rituals, blackjack boot camp, old school Vegas tunes and loads of cheeseballs.

LUCK was called, "A flashing, pinging, breathless whirlwind of a ride!" by The List at the Edinburgh Fringe. Irish Theatre Magazine called the Dublin Fringe production, "Vigorously inventive! A cocktail of assured sass and genuine vulnerability!"

Megan Riordan (playwright/performer) is a graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts (BFA with Honors in Theatre) and of Trinity College Dublin (M.Phil in Irish Theatre and Film). Other training includes the Saratoga Summer Intensive Workshop with Anne Bogart and the Siti Company and the Bangkok Artist Intensive with Theater Mitu.

Work in New York as an actor includes Four Saints in/Mexico (dir. Ruben Polendo), transFigures (dir. Lear de Bessonet), This Jungle of Cities (Off Broadway). Dublin work includes Woyzeck (Dublin Fringe 2005/Rough Magic SEEDS II), The Public (dir. Wayne Jordan, Randolph SD The Company), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Making Strange), This is Not a Life (Bedrock) and The School for Scandal (Abbey Theatre), both directed by Jimmy Fay, Pilgrims of the Night (Dublin Fringe 2007/Rough Magic SEEDS III), La Marea (Dublin Theatre Festival 2007), The Coming World (Making Strange), My Name is Rachel Corrie (reading for Amnesty International, dir. Jim Culleton), In Real Time (Brokentalkers), and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Making Strange). Film and TV work includes the IFTA-nominated Paddywhackery (TG4, dir. Daniel O'Hara), City of Ember and the Dead Cat Bounce pilot for RTE2. Megan's work as a director includes Revisions (Jayne Snow Award, Dublin Fringe 2006), which she conceived, devised and directed; and Car Show for Roscommon County Youth Theatre. Recent work in directing includes assisting Selina Cartmell's Macbeth at The Empty Space and acting as associate director on CHRG's production of Caligula in the 2008 Dublin Theatre Festival.

Dodd Loomis (playwright/director) is a Cum Laude graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts - Playwrights Horizons Theatre School in Directing. Over the last 7 years, Dodd has toured to 38 cities, in 18 countries over 5 continents with a myriad of theatrical productions. Some favorites shows include; Prelude to a Death in Venice (Kilkenny Arts Festival), Mabou Mines Dollhouse (King's Theatre, Edinburgh International Festival), Choephorea (Patra, Greece Culture Capital of Europe 2006 Festival), Red Beads (Skirball Center, NY), Hippolytus (Barnard College, NY), The Gospel at Colonus (Odeon at The Herod Atticus, Acropolis, Athens, Greece), The Best (The Power House, Brisbane, Australia), Coliseum (St. Martin's Youth Theatre, Melbourne, Australia), New York Stories (Urban Stages, NY), and The Shape of Things (The Gate, Dublin, Ireland, with Cillian Murphy).

Dodd has Directed & Assistant Directed for NY avant-garde stronghold Mabou Mines (16 Obie Awards, 3 Tony Nominations), Songwriters' Hall of Fame member Paul Scott Goodman (New York International Fringe Festival 2002 Best Performance Award), and MacArthur Genius Award Winner Lee Breuer (Edinburgh InterNational Theatre Festival, Arch Angel Award). Dodd also works in Film as Director and 2nd Unit Director. His films include the internationally released Mabou Mines Dollhouse (Stop Motion Animation), the Nationally released horror film Autopsy (Starring Robert Patrick), Boston Girls (Release '09, starring Danny Trejo), and the Warner Brother's 10-part Web Series ViralCom. His upcoming projects include Assistant Directing Julie Taymor's new Broadway musical Spider-Man, music by U2's Bono & The Edge.

Shawn Sturnick's (playwright) writing career began when he was accepted into BMI Music's Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop as a lyricist. It was here he developed his musical adaptation of the lovers' story from A Midsummer Night's Dream with composer David
Ganon. 

Lyric writing led to playwriting and Shawn garnered quick recognition with productions and subsequent publications of his very first plays, A Closet Flung Wide Ope' and Solomon, A Life. His first full-length comedy, Better Off Dead, was also quickly realized in production by Boston's Village Theatre Project.

The success of Closet and Solomon in Boston replayed itself when he was honored with the Oscar Wilde Award for Best New Writing by the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival for his productions in the festival's Shorts Program. His next endeavor, Beauty, was selected for the Dublin Fringe Festival's Next Stage Program. Working closely with director and dramaturge Thomas Conway, Shawn developed Beauty for the festival's new rehearsed reading series. With a cast including Gina Moxley, Peter Gaynor and Aaron Monaghan, this reading secured a nomination for the Jayne Snow Award.

Another short play, Marry Me, was produced in Dublin in March at Project Arts Centre by Painted Filly Theatre Company in their short play program 100 Minutes 2008. He concluded a successful run of Connubial Celts in the 2008 Dublin Gay Theatre Festival and his latest collaboration, The Crown Jewels, received a rehearsed reading in the 2008 Dublin Fringe FestivaL. Shawn holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatrical Performance from Seton Hill University, a Certificate in Actor Training from the Moscow Art Theatre and a Master of Fine Arts Degree from New York University. He is now an expat, acting and writing for long-running national soap opera Fair City in Ireland.

 

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