Cast, Creatives Complete for KILL LOCAL World Premiere at La Jolla Playhouse

La Jolla Playhouse announces the cast and creative team for its world-premiere production of Kill Local, by UC San Diego MFA playwriting graduate Mat Smart, directed by Jackson Gay (Kingdom City), running August 1 - 27 (press opening: Sunday, August 6) in the Sheila and Hughes Potiker Theatre.

The cast will feature Matthew Amendt (Playhouse's Hollywood) as "Todd," Carolyn Braver (Broadway's Airline Highway) as "Ami," CAndy Buckley (Broadway's After the Fall) as "Gloria," Amanda Quaid (Broadway's Equus) as "Sheila" and Xochitl Romero (Off-Broadway's Chimichangas and Zoloft) as "Abi."

The creative team includes Wilson Chin (Hollywood), Scenic Designer; Jessica Ford, Costume Designer; Paul Whitaker (Kingdom City), Lighting Designer; Daniel Baker, Sound Designer; Steve Rankin (Guards at the Taj, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots), Fight Director; Shirley Fishman, Dramaturg; and Rob Chikar, Stage Manager.

"Both savage and savagely funny, Kill Local electrified the crowd during its DNA New Work Series reading this past December. With this full production in our subscription season, it's extremely gratifying to introduce a larger audience to UC San Diego playwriting alum Mat Smart's bloody workplace comedy, featuring a Broadway-seasoned cast and creative team," said Playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley.

Sheila and her sister Abi work for their mother's small family business. Sheila's job used to be a source of joy and exhilaration; now she's questioning everything. But when you're an assassin, being uninspired means getting sloppy, and getting sloppy means getting killed. Kill Local is a pitch-black comedy about blood ties, revenge and trying to get unstuck - especially when your life is dedicated to ending others'.

Kill Local was featured as part of the Playhouse's acclaimed DNA New Work Series, which offers playwrights the opportunity to develop a script and receive valuable audience feedback. Several Playhouse mainstage productions have been developed through the DNA New Work Series, including Miss You Like Hell, The Last Tiger in Haiti, Blueprints to Freedom, The Who & The What and Chasing the Song.

A graduate of the UC San Diego MFA playwriting program, Mat Smart won the 2015 Equity Jeff Award for Best New Work in Chicago for The Royal Society of Antarctica (Gift Theatre, Stage West). Other plays include: Naperville (Slant Theatre Project, Theater Wit), Tinker to Evers to Chance (Geva, Merrimack Rep), Samuel J. and K. (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Steppenwolf), The Hopper Collection (Magic Theatre, Huntington) and The 13th of Paris (City Theatre, Seattle Public Theatre). Awards & Fellowships: 2014 Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the William Inge Center for the Arts, Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, two Jerome Fellowships and a McKnight Advancement Grant. Commissions: South Coast Rep, Huntington, Denver Center, and currently, La Jolla Playhouse, The Second City, and Geva Theatre Center.

Jackson Gay directed La Jolla Playhouse's world-premiere production of Kingdom City. Her recent works include the new musical CHIX 6 by Lourds Lane (La MaMa); Chekhov's Three Sisters (Studio Theatre/New Neighborhood); Lisa Lampanelli's Stuffed (Women's Project); Transfers by Lucy Thurber (New York Stage & Film); Much Ado About Nothing, adapted with Kenneth Lin (Cal Shakes); Suzanne Vega's Lover, Beloved: An Evening with Carson McCullers with music by Duncan Sheik (Rattlestick West LA); These Paper Bullets!, adapted from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, by Rolin Jones with music by Billie Joe Armstrong (Atlantic Theater Company, Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep; Critics Pick Time Out NY, Best Production and Adaptation LA Stage Awards, Best of 2015 Time Out Los Angeles, Connecticut Critics Circle Award Best Production and Best Director). She teaches directing at Yale College and is from Sugar Land, Texas.

The Tony Award-winning La Jolla Playhouse is internationally-renowned for creating some of the most exciting and adventurous work in American theatre, through its new play development initiatives, its innovative Without Walls series, artist commissions and residencies. Currently led by Artistic Director and 2017 Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg, the Playhouse was founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, and reborn in 1983 under the artistic leadership of Des McAnuff. La Jolla Playhouse has had 28 productions transfer to Broadway, garnering 38 Tony Awards, among them the currently-running, Tony Award-nominated hits Come From Away and Indecent, along with Jersey Boys, Memphis, The Who's Tommy, Big River, as well as Billy Crystal's 700 Sundays and the Pulitzer Prize-winning I Am My Own Wife, both fostered as part of the Playhouse's Page To Stage Program. Visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org.

To post a comment, you must register and login.