Urban Stage Closes MY OCCASION OF SIN

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director; Peter Napolitano, Producing Director) production of My Occasion of Sin by Monica Bauer, directed by Frances Hill, closes tonight, April 15.

The cast included Rosebud Baker (Sundance Channel's "Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys", Wunderlust, Lab’s Into the Sunset), Janice Hall (NYCO La Traviata (as Violetta) - PBS “Live from Lincoln Center,” Tony Kushner’s Angels in America (opera) with the BBC Symphony in London, Grand Illusions: The Music of Marlene Dietrich, 2011 Bistro Award), Royce Johnson (The Mother F….er with the Hat, Hartford TheaterWorks), Scott Robertson (Broadway’s The Boys from Syracuse, Cabaret, Damn Yankees, Annie 2) and Danielle Thompson (Warriors Don’t Cry by Eisa Davis).

Inspired by true events that led to a race riot in the author’s birthplace of Omaha, Nebraska, My Occasion of Sin is set in a segregated city in 1969. Two men from very different backgrounds: Luigi, an African American jazz drummer and George, a white music store owner who specializes in the accordion, are thrown together by fate, finding common ground in their love of music. At the same time, Mary Margaret and Vivian, two young girls from opposite sides of the segregated city, each drink in the new jazz scene for reasons of their own. Music seems to unite and uplift everyone around … at first. Soon “occasions of sin” – where fear, mistrust and racism fester – are inescapable. Violence erupts, changing everyone’s lives forever.

My Occasion of Sin marked Frances Hill’s return to directing after concentrating on her role as Artistic Director of Urban Stages for the last four years. Says Hill, “Monica’s play was so well-written and unique, encompassing so much - race relations, women’s issues, the effect of music on society - all stemming from real-life events, that I couldn’t resist the impulse to direct it myself, especially after mounting a reading of it last November.”

The script was first developed by Nebraska Repertory Theater with a grant from the Hixson-Lied Foundation. Further development was done at the Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Shelterbelt Theatre in Omaha, the Hamptons Independent Theatre Festival, Penguin Rep and the 2011 Sewanee Writer’s Conference (under the mentorship of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Beth Henley). Along the way, the play was awarded the Omaha Arts and Entertainment Award for Best New Script, the Theater Arts Guild Award for Outstanding New Script of 2010-11 and was a finalist for the 2011 Christopher Brian Wolk Award at Abingdon Theater.

The production design team included Roman Tatarowicz (set design), Deborah Constantine (lighting design), Kevin R. Frech (projection design), Sean Hagerty (sound design), Anna Lacivita (costume design), Debra Stunich (stage manager), Eric Zoback (technical director) and Kire Tosevski (props).

For more information about Urban Stages, please visit www.urbanstages.org

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