Temple Theaters to Premiere Kristoffer Diaz's Basketball Drama REGGIE HOOPS

The culmination of a year-long Playwright Residency Program, the first of its kind at Temple University, Kristoffer Diaz's Reggie Hoops receives its world premiere performances January 31-February 12 in Randall Theater.

Directed by Edward Sobel, and commissioned for and cast with the acting program's six Master of Fine Arts students plus one undergraduate, the powerful production examines two events in the life of a family searching for the strength to face trauma and to make life's toughest decisions.

In the present day, former NBA assistant general manager Reggie (Savannah Jackson) receives a surprising offer from Rafa (Federico Andrade), a man from her past, that has her choosing between the game she loves and living life close to her mother Iz (K.O.DelMarcelle), brother Muncie (Guillermo Alonso), wife Bells (Hannah Gold) and two young children she cherishes. In the late 70s, Reggie's parents, Iz and Ben (Juspin Jones) deal with the aftermath of the violent 1977 New York City Blackout that interrupts their wedding day. What will Reggie choose? How will it alter the course of her life and those around her?

Playwright Kristoffer Diaz is an artist, speaker and educator. His play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety (2011) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama and has gone on to more than twenty-five productions nationwide. Other full-length titles include Welcome to Arroyo's, #therevolution, The Upstairs Concierge and The Unfortunates. His work has been produced, commissioned and developed at The Public Theater, ACT, Center Theater Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theater of Louisville, American Theater Company and South Coast Repertory, among many others. Awards include the Guggenheim, Jerome, Van Lier, NYFA and Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowships, among others.

Director Edward Sobel, who developed the Playwright Residency Program, is the former Director of New Play Development at Steppenwolf Theater Company, where he oversaw the development of over forty new plays, including Pulitzer and Tony Award Winner August: Osage County, Pulitzer finalists Red Light Winter and Man from Nebraska, and Joseph Jefferson Award winner The Pain and the Itch. Broadway credits as dramaturg include August: Osage County and Superior Donuts. His Philadelphia-area work includes directing the world premieres of Moon Man Walk (Orbiter 3) and The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Flashpoint Theater), and Superior Donuts, Clybourne Park and Endgame (all at the Arden Theater). Sobel is head of directing and playwriting at Temple University.

Associate Producer David Steele's generous support of the Playwright Residency Program was instrumental in bringing this project to fruition. He is Founder and CEO of One Wealth Advisors and Managing Partner of Ne Timeas Restaurant Group in San Francisco. He is also a playwright and supporter of new theater work through his work on the board of Playground, a not-for-profit playwright incubator. Steele is an alumnus of Temple University where he received his Bachelor of Business Administration before earning a Master of Arts in English Literature from San Francisco State University.

Scenic Designer Kate St. John is a first year MFA candidate who was twice awarded the Ruth and Wes Egan Award for excellence in design at UNC-Chapel Hill. Lighting Designer Nick Ligon is a third-year MFA candidate, whose Temple Theaters' credits include Hairspray, A Free Man of Color, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Godspell.

Costume Designer Marie Anne Chiment has designed sets and costumes for hundreds of theater, opera and dance productions across the nation and around the world. Design credits include national tours of Grease!, Carousel and the Broadway musical Metro as well as numerous designs for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Arena Stage, Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Actors Theatre of Louisville. Internationally, she has costumed operas and ballets in Spain, Germany, England, France and Japan. She is the recipient of the Kevin Kline Award for her costume designs for the musical Ace. Her set and costume designs for I Am My Own Wife won the Kevin Kline Award for Outstanding Production and the designs were nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Design. In 2010 she was honored by Temple University as recipient of the Faculty Creative Achievement Award. Chiment is head of costume design for the theater department at Temple University.

Sound Designer Robert Kaplowitz received the 2010 Tony for Best Sound Design of a Musical for Fela! and was awarded the OBIE for Sustained Excellence in Sound Design in 2007. He has done sound design for hundreds of plays including Bill T. Jones' Fela! (Broadway, the National in London, EKO Center in Lagos, Carr in Amsterdam), John Beluso's The Poor Itch and others (Joseph Papp Public Theater in NY), David Adjmi's Stunning (Lincoln Center 3), Kia Corthron's Light, Raise the Roof (New York Theater Workshop) and many others. In Philadelphia, he has worked at the Arden, People's Light, Interact, Act 2, Elastic Theater and the PIFA Festival.

Upcoming Temple Theaters productions this spring include Thorton Wilder's classic American masterpiece Our Town, a concert production of the musical She Loves Me at the Temple Performing Arts Center, and twin interpretations of Caryl Churchill's Love and Information by Master's students in directing, presented in rotating repertory.

Located on the northern edge of the Avenue of the Arts, Temple Theaters, the production program of the Department of Theater, has established itself as one of the finest theater training programs in the nation. Temple University's Department of Theater offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in acting, design, directing, musical theater, playwriting and theater education. As part of the Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts, the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts offers hallmark programs in theater, film and media arts that engage students with nationally and internationally recognized faculty and fuse high-quality training with rigorous scholarship and artistry.

IF YOU GO:

Reggie Hoops

By Kristoffer Diaz

Production Team:

Director Edward Sobel

Associate Producer David Steele

Scenic Designer Kate St. John

Costume Designer Marie Chiment

Lighting Designer Nick Ligon

Sound Designer Robert Kaplowitz

Stage Manager Courtney Banks

Cast:

Reggie Savannah Jackson

Bells Hannah Gold

Muncie Guillermo Alonso

Rafa Federico Andrade

Iz K.O. DelMarcelle *

Ben Juspin Jones

Lawyer Steven Harding

* appears courtesy of Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers.

Runtime: 2 hours and 15 minutes including 1 intermission

All performances are in Randall Theater, 2020 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122:

Tuesday, January 31, 7:30pm (preview)

Friday, February 3, 7:30pm

Saturday, February 4, 2:00pm

Saturday, February 4, 7:30pm

Sunday, February 5, 2:00pm

Tuesday, February 7, 7:30pm

Wednesday, February 8, 7:30pm

Thursday, February 9, 7:30pm

Friday, February 10, 7:30pm

Saturday, February 11, 2:00pm

Saturday, February 11, 7:30pm

Sunday, February 12, 2:00pm

Tickets: $25 General Admission; $20 Students/Senior Citizens/Temple University Employees; $10 Temple Students (w/ID) *All purchases subject to processing fees. Date and times are subject to change.

Temple Theaters Box Office is located at 1301 W. Norris Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122. Call (215) 204-1122 or visit tfma.temple.edu/events for more information.

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