Memory Play ORANGE JULIUS Begins Previews Tonight Off-Broadway

A friendly reminder! Previews begin tonight, January 10, at 8:00pm for Rattlestick Playwrights Theater and Page 73's New York premiere of Basil Kreimendahl's memory play about a transmasculine child and their dying Vietnam vet father. Orange Julius, directed by Dustin Wills, will run at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, and opens Sunday, January 22, at 8:00pm.

"Orange Julius is the most personal play I've ever written," playwright Kreimendahl recently told The New York Times. "I knew I wanted to write about Agent Orange and the stories of children of Vietnam vets, about how Vietnam affects them."

After being poisoned by Agent Orange in the jungles of Vietnam, Julius is dying; his body is racked with cancer and his mind gone. Nut, his adult child, tries to reconnect with Julius by caring for his decaying body, sorting through childhood memories, and diving into war movie fantasies, ultimately finding ways to connect with him in ways Nut never expected.

"I first fell in love with Orange Julius in 2012 during a reading at NYTW," said Daniella Topol, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's new Artistic Director about her first mainstage presentation. "There was something wholly original, deeply honest, and terrifyingly brave that stuck with me over all of these years. Basil's play goes to uncharted territories in such innovative ways. I am deeply moved by how Basil so bravely looks at the complex intimacy between a father and a child and at the cost of war on a family."

"Page 73 and Rattlestick both have long track records of introducing New York audiences to new voices, and we are thrilled to come together to provide Basil the best possible platform for this urgent piece," added Michael Walkup, Page 73's Producing Artistic Director. "Basil focuses on the intimate relationships among a family, but at the same time artfully weaves in subjects we confront daily in this country, such as America's lagging care for our veterans and how our preconceptions of gender roles can inhibit the connections we forge and the care we take with one another."

Jess Barbagallo, an actor and a playwright (My Old Man (And Other Stories)), plays Nut; Stephen Payne, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, is Julius; and two-time Tony nominee Mary Testa is Nut's mother. Rounding out the cast are Irene Sofia Lucio and Ruy Iskandar.

Basil Kreimendahl's play Sidewinders won the Rella Lossy Playwright's Award and had its world premiere at The Cutting Ball Theater in San Francisco. Orange Julius was developed at the 2012 O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, was included in La Jolla Playhouse's DNA new work series, and had its world premiere at Moxie Theatre Company in San Diego. Basil's We're Gonna Be OK will have its world premiere at Actors Theatre of Louisville at the 2017 Humana Festival of New Plays. Basil's plays have also been developed by New York Theatre Workshop, About Face Theatre, Inkwell, Rattlestick, WordBRIDGE, The LARK, Page 73, and The Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Basil has been a Jerome Fellow and is a current McKnight fellow. A recipient of an Arts Meets Activism grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women for theatre work with the trans community in Louisville.

Dustin Wills is a New York-based theatre director originally from Texas. His recent projects include the critically acclaimed O, Earth with The Foundry Theatre and AWFUL EVENT! with support from New York Theatre Workshop and Ars Nova. He has developed and directed work with Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Rep, the Ground Floor residency at Berkeley Rep, Berkshire Theatre Group, Paper Chairs, and Salvage Vanguard Theatre, and has devised new work for The English Theatre of Rome and Teatro L'Arciliuto in Rome, Italy. He is a two-time recipient of the Princess Grace Award and is a Drama League and Boris Sagal directing fellow.

The designers are Kate Noll, sets; Montana Blanco, costumes; Barbara Samuels, lighting; and Palmer Hefferan, sound. Nicole Marconi is production stage manager.

Orange Julius performs Tuesday to Sunday evenings at 8:00pm with matinees Saturdays at 2:00pm at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Place, January 10 through February 12.

Preview prices, January 10 through January 21, are: $35 (General), $25 (Artist), $10 (Student). After the January 22 opening, tickets are $50 (General), $25 (Artist), $15 (Student) through February 12. Tickets can be bought at www.rattlestick.org or via phone at 212-627-2556.

The mission of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater is to develop and produce diverse and challenging plays that otherwise might not be produced and to foster the future voices of American theater. It has produced the first plays and the early works of some of today's leading voices, including Annie Baker (The Aliens), Sheila Callaghan (That Pretty Pretty), Jesse Eisenberg (The Revisionist), Samuel D. Hunter (The Few), Adam Rapp (The Hallway Trilogy), Lucy Thurber (The Hilltown Plays).

PAGE 73 produces and develops the work of early-career playwrights who have yet to receive a professional production in New York City. Through its seasons of premieres and annual slate of new play development programs, Page 73 has launched the careers of some of America's most important contemporary playwrights including Samuel D. Hunter, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Dan LeFranc, and Clare Barron. The first play in Page 73's 2016-17 season was Ultimate Beauty Bible by Caroline V. McGraw.

To post a comment, you must register and login.