Point Park University's REP Professional Theatre to Present WIG OUT!

The REP Professional Theatre Company will be opening the 2016-2017 season with the Pittsburgh premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney's Wig Out!. An intensely personal story of Eric, a gay man who falls in love with Wilson, or Ms. Nina, a cross-dressing man, who introduces him to her family, The House of Light, just as they're being challenged at an upcoming, glam-filled drag ball.

Directed by Tomé Cousin, Wig Out! runs September 9 - 25, 2016 in the Rauh Theatre at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, 222 Craft Ave. Performances will be at 8 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Adult tickets are $29, seniors are $15, and students are $10 and can be purchased by calling the Pittsburgh Playhouse box office at 412-392-8000 or visiting www.pittsburghplayhouse.com. There will be an ASL performance on Saturday, September 24 at 2 p.m.

Please note that this performance contains extreme adult language and sexual content. Recommended for 18+.

In an early time of HIV in the homosexual/drag scene, this show explores the drag culture and the stereotypes that come along with gender identity. These lively characters take us into their world where they define what constitutes a home, love, family, sexual identity and what it means to find the home you never had and the family you never knew you wanted.

"Wig Out! is a high voltage exploration into New York City's underground Harlem Voguing Ball culture that is loaded with explosive characters, costumes, music and dance," Said Cousin. "Seen through a lens of touching emotional drama, Wig Out! is like nothing you've ever seen before. Come to the Cinderella Ball and strike a pose!"

Join us on opening night, September 9 at 6:15 p.m. in Rauh Theatre with a "Talk Before" with Miss Thea Trixx to have the opportunity to get to know her, dive into the drag culture and for a photo opportunity. Thea has been performing across the country for 22 years. She has 15 pageantry titles, and creates all of her own hair, makeup and costumes. She recently opened for Nick Jonas at Pittsburgh Pride and is the monthly show hostess at OUTrageous Bingo in Pittsburgh.

Wig Out! features scenic design by Britton Mauk, costume design by Robert C.T. Steele, light design by Andrew Ostrowski and sound design by StEve Shapiro.

Following the Thursday, September 22 performance will be a Talk Back with the cast and director to answer questions and dig deeper into the themes and topics of the show with audiences.

Point Park University graduate Tomé Cousin is an internationally recognized director, choreographer, educator, performer and creator of musical theater works, ballets, films, new opera, song cycles and art installations, as well as a published author. Cousin has appeared on Broadway in Contact, A Free Man of Color, and Dreamgirls, national tours of Dreamgirls, My One and Only, and A Chorus Line. Internationally in Bob Fosse's Sweet Charity (Switzerland), The Who's Tommy, La Cage aux Folles, Starlight Express, and Tabaluga und Lilli (Germany). He serves as the directing supervisor for original director/choreographer Susan Stroman's Tony Award-winning musical Contact, having staged 15 companies worldwide including premieres in Hungary, Korea and Poland. Also for Stroman Productions: The Producers, and Thou Shalt Not. In 2015, he directed The Luigi Tribute at Symphony Space NYC, The American Dance Machine 21 at The Joyce and the Chinese premiere of the musical, Grand Hotel. He directed By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, Souvenir, and Choir Boy for The REP.

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