Photo Flash: The Amoralists Celebrate THE CHEATERS CLUB Opening Night

The Amoralists are concluding the "Summer of The Amoralists" with The Cheaters Club, written and directed by Amoralists co-founder and resident playwright Derek Ahonen. This world premiere features a cast of 26 actors in a Southern-sized Savannah ghost story that creeps out of The Shadows. The production follows the Company's critically acclaimed staging of Mark Roberts' Rantoul and Die. Scroll down for photos from opening night, last night, August 27!

The Cheaters Club is a Southern-sized Savannah ghost story. In the play, siblings Tommy, Jimmy and Cathy, along with brand-new recruit Vonn, are the Cheaters Club. Once a year, the gang gets out of town to get it on, with no spouses or strings attached, to exorcise their sexual demons. This year's destination is the haunted Chaney Inn in Savannah, run by a mysterious family and their voodoo-ing housemaid. The dark and unresolved history of the inn is still being written, and The Cheaters Club may very well be the final chapter.

As in past productions for The Amoralists, Ahonen has methodically crafted an ambitious play laced with morally ambiguous, complex characters that showcase the raw, heartfelt talent of the 26-member cast. The Cheaters Club demonstrates the perversion, irrationality and insufficiency of marriage using both natural, realistic dialogue set in modern times mixed with a fantastic, melodramatic and supernatural world. It nods to traditional Southern Gothic writers and finds a truthful emotional core at its complex, hilarious heart.

The cast includes ByRon Anthony, Wade Dunham, Edgar Eguia, James Kautz, David Lanson, Sarah Lemp, Judy Merrick, David Nash, Cassandra Paras, Matthew Pilieci, James Rees, Dan Stern, Kelley Swindall, Anna Stromberg, Jordan Tisdale and Vanessa Vaché-all members of The Amoralists' 50- member ensemble-alongside Charlie Chase, Eloise Edwards, Janette Johnston, Mackenzie Knapp, Zen Mansley, SeRena Miller, Kat Murphy, Penny O'Brien, Ben Reno and Haley Sullivan.

The creative team includes Alfred Schatz (Sets), Brad Peterson (Lighting and Projection Design), Niiamar Felder (Costumes), Phil Carluzzo (Sound), Katy Correa (Choreographer) and Jane Davis (Production Stage Manager).

Derek Ahonen is the Co-Founder, Resident Playwright and Associate Artistic Director of The Amoralists. Ahonen is the author of the following full-length plays: The Cheaters Club (2013), The Bad and the Better (2012), Pink Knees on Pale Skin (2011), Happy in the Poorhouse (2010), The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side (2009), Amerissiah (2008), Pokin' the Bears in a Zoo (2008), Bring Us the Head of Your Daughter (2008), and While Chasing the Fantastic (2007). Ahonen is also a guest director at his alma mater, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in NYC, where he has directed the post-graduate company's productions of Happy in the Poorhouse (2012), No Exit (2011) and Escape From Happiness (2010). His work is often included on various New York theater best lists and he has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The New Yorker, Daily News, Backstage and Time Out New York, amongst others. He was named a 2012 NYtheatre.com Person of the Year. His plays have been performed internationally and translated into Spanish, Swedish and Bulgarian. Ahonen plays are published by Indie Theatre Now and Playscripts, Inc.

The Amoralists are a theater company that produces work of no moral judgment. Dedicated to an honest expression of the American condition, the company explores complex characters of moral ambiguity. Leaving no stone unturned, The Amoralists plumb the depths of the social, political, spiritual and sexual characteristics of human nature. Since its founding in 2007, the Company has produced 16 productions of ten plays, nine of which were world premieres.

Performances of The Cheaters Club will take place through September 12 (see schedule above) at the Abrons Arts Center. The running time is 150 minutes with one intermission. Abrons Arts Center is located at 466 Grand Street at Pitt Street. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased by visiting theamoralists.com or calling 866.811.4111.

Photo Credit: Russ Rowland

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