Photo Flash: Island City Stage Opens Sixth Season with HIR

Island City Stage opens it sixth season with Taylor Mac's "audatious and uproarious"(NY Times) comedy Hir.

Chosen by The New York Times as one of the 10 best plays of 2015, Hir (pronounced "here") stars Carbonell Award-winning actress Mia Matthews, and features Island City Stage veterans Daniel Capote and Larry Buzzeo. Making his South Florida debut is transgender actor Jacob Michael DeStefano. The production is being directed by Island City Stage Artistic Director Andy Rogow.

Joining Island City Stage for the first time this season as scenic designer is Carbonell Award-winner Jodi DellaVentura. Returning for this production are lighting designer Travis Neff, costume designer Peter Lovello and sound designer David Hart.

Set somewhere in the suburbs, Hir tells the story of a young soldier who returns home from war only to discover a household in disarray and revolt. The insurgent: his mom! Housework has become off-limits and she has put her stroke-addled husband in clown make up and a dress. With her newly out transgender other child as her ally, she's on a crusade to exact revenge on an abusive marriage.

"This is one of the most challenging plays we have taken on", says Rogow. "It is, as Taylor Mac says, 'a bridge between the insane and the normative'. It's both exciting and terrifying to approach. However, we have never shied away from a challenge!"

Taylor Mac, "a critical darling of the New York scene" (NY Magazine), is a playwright, actor, singer-songwriter, performance artist, director and producer. His work has been performed at New York City's Lincoln Center, The Public Theatre and Playwrights Horizons, London's Hackney Empire, Los Angeles's Royce Hall, Minneapolis's Guthrie Theater, Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre, the Sydney Opera House,, and literally hundreds of other theaters, museums, music halls, opera houses, cabarets, and festivals around the globe. Mac is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama and the recipient of multiple awards including the Kennedy Prize, a NY Drama Critics Circle Award, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Guggenheim, two Obies, and, the one he's most proud to be associated with, an Ethyl Eichelberger Award.

The production begins previews on Nov. 9 and 10, with an official opening on Nov. 11. and running through Dec. 10. Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm. and Sundays at 5:00pm at Island City Stage, 2304 N Dixie Hwy, Wilton Manors. For tickets and information go to islandcitystage.org or call 954-519-2533.

Photo Credit: George Wentzler

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