Down Payment Productions (Jessica Fisch, Artistic Director; BrIan Smith, Executive Producer) will present the New York City premiere of THE REALM, a play by Sarah Myers (Rude Mechanicals), directed by Jessica Fisch. The production will begin previews on Friday, April 2 with an Opening Night set for Saturday, April 3 at 8pm. The limited showcase will run through Sunday, April 18 at The Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street between Avenues A & B).
In the underground world of THE REALM, resources are scarce and everything is rationed - not merely food or water, but the very words we use to ask for it. To preserve their powers of self-expression and escape from this oppressive place, two rebellious teens must band together and struggle toward the surface in search of a world they can't be sure exists.
The cast will feature Amy Bodnar (Oklahoma, Ragtime on Broadway), Emma Galvin (Rose Colored Glass at Manhattan Theatre Club), Aaron Simon Gross (2009 Outer Critics Circle Nomination, "Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical" for 13, A New Musical on Broadway), Timur Kocak (LA Streets at MCC), Jessica Pohly (The Great Recession at The Flea), and Amy Temple.
The creative team will include Scenic Design by Amanda Stephens, Costume Design by Nicole V. Moody, Lighting Design by Paul Toben, and Sound Design by Daniel Kluger & Charles Coes. Dax Valdes will serve as Movement Consultant for the production and Casting was by Megan Larche, CSA.
The production, presented by Down Payment Productions will play at The Wild Project (195 East 3rd Street between Avenues A & B) April 2-18, Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm and Saturday & Sunday at 3pm with an additional performance on Tuesday, April 13 at 8pm. Tickets ($18) are available online at www.therealmplay.com. Tickets will also be available for purchase at the door, one hour before curtain time.
SARAH MYERS (Playwright) is a winner of the 2005 National Waldo M. and Grace C. Bonderman Playwriting Award for The Realm, which was featured at Indiana Repertory Theatre and produced at the Cohen New Works Festival in 2005 and Imagination Stage in 2009. Her play God of the Gaps was nominated for a 2009 Pushcart Prize, and her ten-minute script Lemonade was a finalist for the 2008 Heideman Award. As a playwright and performer, Myers's other work has been featured at the Blue Theater, the Off Center, Hyde Park Theatre, and the University of Texas at Austin, as well as the Mid-America Theatre Conference and the Women & Theatre Annual Conference in Chicago. Ms. Myers is a company member with Rude Mechanicals in Austin, Texas, and she currently teaches in the Theatre Arts Department at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
JESSICA FISCH (Director) is a founding member and Artistic Director of Down Payment Productions. She directed The Redheaded Man (by Halley Bondy, Down Payment Productions), which played an extended three-week run as part of the 2008 Fringe Encores series. Other work includes the 2009 Playwrights Horizons Stories on 5 Stories Benefit; Dressed In Your Dreams (by Pia Wilson, Public Theater/ Emerging Writers Group); Exploits (by Jason Gray Platt, Theatre of the Expendable); Within the Boundary (by James Carmichael, Working Man's Clothes/Ohio Theater); strive/seek/find (by Jason Gray Platt, Columbia University) and three plays at the Williamstown Theatre Festival Workshop, including Suzan-Lori Parks' 365 Days/ 365 Plays and Stephen Adly Guirgis' Dominica: The Fat Ugly Ho. Recently as an assistant, Our House (Playwrights Horizons, dir. Michael Mayer), Savannah Disputation (Playwrights Horizons, dir. Walter Bobbie), Kindness (Playwrights Horizons, dir/playwright Adam Rapp), Bingo With the Indians (Flea Theater, dir/playwright Adam Rapp), Crimes of the Heart (Williamstown Theatre Festival, dir. Kathleen Turner). Jessica was the 2008-2009 Playwrights Horizons Directing Resident, is a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and a Tufts University Alumna.
