International Cast Stars In GRUESOME PLAYGROUND INJURIES In Vancouver

An international cast is set to star in a new production of Gruesome Playground Injuries next month. The original production premiered at The Alley Theatre in Houston in 2009, then off-Broadway in 2011. The play will be put up during the both romantic and equally commercialized Valentine's day season.

The young, seasoned professionals to make up the cast and crew. The people involved are enthusiastic about the project and are helping us make it a reality.

Childhood friends, Doug and Kayleen are kindred spirits who meet over the course of thirty years. Every time one is drawn back into the other's life, with a new self-inflicted wound, both are met with the decision to stay together or go their separate ways again. This funny, touching play takes a microscope to the societal repercussions of love and family, and explores the psychological and physical toll it can take on the two people in this world who are keeping each other alive.

Éanna O'Dowd plays Doug (and also is a co- producer) and India Shaw-Smith plays Kayleen

Éanna hails from Galway, Ireland and stage credits include: The Human Ear and Reasons to Be Pretty (Untold Wants), National Irish tours of Vernon God Little and The Dead School (Decadent Theatre Company), Spring Awakening (Bedlam Theatre,Edinburgh), White Ted and the Right to Die (RCS, Glasgow), A Terrible Beauty (Oran Mor, Glasgow), Our Country's Good (The Tron Theatre, Glasgow). His television credits include; Limetown, The 100, The Exorcist, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and A Series of Unfortunate Events. His film credits include; Stitches, Black Ice. He is co-founder of Untold Wants Theatre.

India is a British actress who moved to Vancouver in November 2018. In the UK she classically trained at the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), graduating in 2017. Since then she has performed the principal role in a new production with The National Theatre of Scotland (2018) as well as working on TV shows Vanity Fair (ITV UK), Supernatural (CW) and The Magicians (Syfy). India is so excited to be joining Untold Wants in their production of Gruesome Playground Injuries.

Untold Wants Theatre company's founders are Jessica Aquila Cymerman (who also is directing and co-producing) and Éanna O'Dowd. Jessica is from Los Angeles, and Éanna is from Galway in Ireland. They met while studying their masters in theatre at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow. The company has just come off a successful run of c*ckby Mike Bartlett at The Cultch, the North American premiere of The Human Ear by Alexandra Wood at The Pacific Theatre in Vancouver, and the Irish premiere of Reasons to be Pretty by Neil LaBute in Dublin.

Jessica Aquila Cymerman is a director, painter, and co-founder of Untold Wants Theatre in Dublin. Theatre Directing credits include c*ckby Mike Bartlett (Untold Wants), The Human Ear by Alexandra Wood, Reasons to be Pretty by Neil LaBute (Untold Wants), The Gift and Strange Relations (staged readings, IAMA Theatre, LA), White Ted and the Right to Die by Jo Clifford (RCS, Glasgow); Il Cambiale di Matrimonio by Rossini (Raucous Rossini, Glasgow); The Seagull: A Musical Adaptation (co-writer, Original Production, RCS); The Dreams in Which I'm Dying by Nick Pappas (Fraggled Productions, LA); Urinetown, The Musical (Fraggled Productions, LA), Reefer Madness! The Musical (SLC), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee (SLC); Assistant directed La Rondine by Puccini (dir. Ben Davis, RCS), Assistant directed and associate produced Phantom Owls Production's excursion to the Edinburgh Fringe Fest. (2015) with 7 shows, including Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph (dir. Larissa Kokernot), Filthy Talk for Troubled Times be Neil LaBute, Fault Lines by Stephen Belber (dir. Matthew Lillard). She directed Woyczek at the Powerhouse Theatre New York Stage and Film Apprenticeship Program (2008). She has her BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and MA in Directing from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, with training from Shakespeare's Globe, UK. jessicaaquilacymerman.com

Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph
February 5-16
The Cultch
1895 Venables Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V5L 2H6

Evening performances: Feb 6-8, 12-15 Wednesday-Sunday
Matinee performances 2pm, Saturday, Feb 15, and Sundays, Dec 9th, and 16th
½ Price Preview Performance, Feb 5th
(Dark, Mon-Tues Feb 10-11, and dark Sunday evenings, Feb 9th and 16th)

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