WE'RE GONNA DIE Starts Performances This Week at Wilbury Theatre Group

Performances start this week for the Rhode Island premiere of We're Gonna Die by Young Jean Lee, presented by Wilbury Theatre Group and directed by Marcel A. Mascaro. The production features Helena Tafuri*, Chazz Bruce, Jose Docen and Teddy Lytle. Featuring live music and immersive storytelling, We're Gonna Die takes the audience on a journey through the ups and downs of existence, ultimately arriving at a place of hope and acceptance. Tickets for all performances are $5-$55 through the Wilbury Theatre Group's innovative Name-Your-Price model, and are available at thewilburygroup.org/were-gonna-die

In this Obie Award-winning piece, provocative playwright Young Jean Lee takes audiences on an unforgettable ride that's part concert, part stand-up, and all fun. It's the acclaimed life-affirming show about the thing everyone has in common: we're gonna die. You may be miserable, but you won't be alone.

"We've always been huge fans of Young Jean Lee's work here at the Wilbury Group, having produced Straight White Men during our 2016/17 season and then Church in 2018/29," says Josh Short, Artistic Director. "Even more than her other work though, We're Gonna Die pushes the boundaries of theatre and music into a blazingly electric and life-affirming show. We're thrilled to have resident artist Marcel A. Mascaro making their directorial debut with us on this show, and I can't wait to see how they work with the incredible cast of musicians and storytellers they've assembled to bring this show about death, to life."

*Appears courtesy Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

About the Playwright

Young Jean Lee has been called "hands down, the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation" by the New York Times and "one of the best experimental playwrights in America" by Time Out New York. She has written and directed nine shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by TCG (Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven and Other Plays, The Shipment and Lear) and by Samuel French (Three Plays by Young Jean Lee). She is currently under commission from Plan B/Paramount Pictures, Lincoln Center Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She is a member of New Dramatists and 13P, and has an MFA from Mac Wellman's playwriting program at Brooklyn College. She has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Creative Capital, NYFA, NEA, NYSCA, the Jerome Foundation, The Fox Samuels Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Rockefeller MAP Foundation. She is also the recipient of two OBIE Awards, the Festival Prize of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel, a 2010 Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship, and a 2012 Doris Duke Artist Award. (Source: New Dramatists)

About the Director

Marcel A. Mascaro (they/them) is a non-binary theatrical artist located in Providence, a graduate from the MFA Brown/Trinity Rep and BFS SUNY Purchase programs. As well as a resident artist at The Wilbury Theatre Group, where their previous credits include Antigonx, The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Heart, The Red Bike, and Miss You Like Hell. Other plays include; Tiny Beautiful Things and Like Sheep to Water, or Fuente Ovejuna at Trinity Rep. As well as Sotto Vocce at ASOLO Rep. Marcel has been involved with R.I.L.A's Teatro En Verano, a collaboration between Rhode Island Latino Arts and Trinity Rep, providing free theatre most summers to Providence locals.

Safety Protocols:

Performances are held indoors at the Wilbury Group's performance space. Pursuant to the Wilbury Group's Health and Safety Precautions, all attendees must also wear masks over their nose and mouth at all times while inside the venue unless actively eating or drinking.

About The Wilbury Theatre Group

Winner of the 2018 National Theater Company Award from the American Theatre Wing, The Wilbury Theatre Group is a professional, nonprofit theatre company that engages our community in thought-provoking conversation through new works, reimagined classics and adventurous playmaking. We are idealistic, ambitious, and stubborn in our resolve to create theatre that entertains, enlightens, and inspires. For more information visit thewilburygroup.org

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