Northern Manhattan's UP Theater Company Premieres THE BEST PUNK BAND IN CONWAY, MISSOURI

Northern Manhattan's UP Theater Company celebrates its 13th Season with their first production featuring live music in the world premiere of "The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri: An Oral History of Presley Cox and The Fallout Five," by Kirby Fields. This semi-musical flashback focuses on members of a regionally infamous 1988 punk band who dive into their past to regain control of their own troubled story. The show runs from May 3-20, 2023 at Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Inwood. Directed by Rachael Murray.

In "The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri," Presley Cox and her former band members replay their hard-knocked, youthful history of forming a punk band to escape their small-town lives. With a cast of eight playing nearly fifty roles, this new play with original songs asks the question, "Can you create your own culture to escape your own roots?"

The company includes Jason Guy*, Lisa Graham Parson, Devin Romero, Samantha Simone*, Henry Temple*, Kirk White*, Jess Wood, and Zuzu.

WHAT: "The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri"
WHEN: 8:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 3

8:00 p.m. Thursday, May 4

8:00 p.m. Friday, May 5

8:00 p.m. Saturday, May 6

8:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 10

8:00 p.m. Thursday, May 11

8:00 p.m. Friday, May 12

8:00 p.m. Saturday, May 13

8:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 17

8:00 p.m. Thursday, May 18

8:00 p.m. Friday, May 19

8:00 p.m. Saturday, May 20

WHERE: Fort Washington Collegiate Church, 729 W 181st St. New York, NY 10033

HOW MUCH: $25. $15 Seniors & students with valid ID.
TICKETS: bestpunkband.eventcombo.com

RUNNING TIME: 2 hours

WHO: Written by Kirby Fields

Directed by Rachael Murray

Scenic & Lighting Design: Duane Pagano

Costume Design: Molly Goldberg

Sound Design: David Margolin Lawson

Original Music: Philip Yanos

Production Stage Manager - Chrystal Campbell*

Art by Ellen Lindner

MORE INFO: www.uptheater.org

*Member of Actors' Equity Association / AEA approved showcase

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council

Creative Engagement Grant - Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, funding provided by The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Medical Center Neighborhood Fund, Office of the Borough President, Manhattan Community Awards Program and NYSCA-A.R.T./New York Creative Opportunity Fund.

UP Theater Company has developed new plays and produced professional theater to its community in Northern Manhattan since 2010; fully producing 13 world premieres, and gaining attention with its diverse theatrical endeavors. In addition to full productions, other programs include: Dead of Winter & Renewal, developmental reading series of new plays; cunning adaptations of classic radio dramas; and summer readings of re-imagined classic plays; Showing UP opportunities where artists share their works in progress; the audacious "Subway Wedding," and the annual Onward & UPward gala benefits.

Kirby Fields (Writer) is the Artistic Director of UP Theater. He has an MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon University. "The Best Punk Band in Conway, Missouri" was a semifinalist for the 2019 O'Neill's National Playwrights Conference and featured in Landing Theater's New American Voices Play Festival (2020). His short plays have appeared in the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival, the Gallery Players Festival, the NY 15-Minute Play Festival, and in print in the Southern Indiana Review. His short film, "Not So Hilarious Anymore," screened at 10 festivals, including those in New York, San Francisco, and Liverpool. His fiction has been honored by Arch Street Press and featured online at The Write Launch. He lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City with his wife and two sons.

Rachael Murray (Director) Rachael is a director, intimacy choreographer, writer, deviser, and producer currently based in Hohenwald, TN. Recent credits include Tennessee Playwrights Studio's Virtual Reading Festival and "RENT" at Nashville Rep (Intimacy Direction). Other selected directing: "Failure: A Love Story" (SRDS-New Jersey); "The Desk Set" (Fordham University); "#MomVlogLyfe" (NTC/The Tank); "The Right and Left Plays" (Elemental Women); "Sioux Falls" (Mead Theatre Lab DC); "

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