Straight
White Men

by Young Jean Lee
directed by Matt Pfeiffer

May 27 – June 19

Tuesday - Wednesday @ 7pm
Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm
Sunday @ 2pm

Cast

Dan Kern ED
Kevin Meehan DREW
Steven Rishard MATT
Tim Dugan, Jr. JAKE

Production Team

Young Jean Lee Playwright
Matt Pfeiffer Director
Kittson O'Neill Dramaturg
Samina Vieth Set Designer
Larry Fowler Sound Designer
Shannon Zura Lighting Designer
Alison Roberts Costume Designer
Amanda Hatch Properties Designer
Britt Plunkett Production Manager/Technical Director
Tom Helmer Stage Manager/InterAct
Cat Ramirez Assistant Stage Manager/InterAct
Erin Washburn Assistant Dramaturg
 

Every Christmas, Ed and his three sons get together, eat Chinese takeout, and unleash well-worn inside jokes while reminiscing about their unusual childhood. But this holiday season they are forced to consider a pivotal cultural reality underneath their constructed lives. Part deeply comedic social artifact, part emotional time-bomb, all framed in the context of a typical "living room" drama, Lee’s funny and moving play ultimately poses this tantalizing question: What does it mean to do the “right thing” as a straight white man?

“[Lee is] hands down, the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation”
— New York Times
Featured
Akeem Davis
Akeem Davis

Akeem Davis, playing Marcus, is from Miami, Fl,  and is a graduate of Florida State University.  In Philadelphia this season, Akeem has acted with Theatre Exile, Theatre Horizon, and the Folger Shakespeare Library.  Akeem is a proud man of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and is the 2015 F. Otto Haas Emerging Theatre Artist Award winner.  

Regional: Folger Shakespeare Library:  District Merchants; People’s Light and Theatre Company: All My Sons; Theatre Horizon: Lobby Hero, In the Blood (Barrymore Award nomination, Outstanding Supporting Actor); InterAct Theatre: The Dangerous House of Pretty M’bane; Philadelphia Shakespeare Company: Henry V, Romeo and Juliet; Simpatico Theatre Project: The Brothers Size (Barrymore Award nomination, Outstanding Lead Actor).

Susan Riley Stevens
Susan Riley Stevens

Susan Riley Stevens is so excited to be playing Emma Goldman in her InterAct debut! She was most recently seen in A New Brain at Theatre Horizon. Other recent credits include The Ladies Man and God of Carnage; Peterborough Players, White Guy On The Bus; Passage Theatre, Harvey; Walnut Street Theatre, and According To Goldman; Act 2 Playhouse. Regional: Bad Dates at Act 2 Playhouse, for which she won a Barrymore Award; Nora (Barrymore nominated);The Exonerated at Delaware Theatre Company;A Streetcar Named Desire, Fallen Angels, God of Carnage; Walnut Street Theatre, It's My Party: The Women And Comedy Project, This Is The Week That Is; 1812 Productions, and the world premiere of Jon Jory's adaptation of Tom Jones at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She has performed in 6 seasons with the PA Shakespeare Festival, as well as productions at Arden Theatre Company, People's Light, Bristol Riverside, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Dallas Theatre Center, Portland Stage Company, and Asolo Repertory Theatre. Susan holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

AUDIENCE DISCUSSIONS:
 We are scheduling brief optional (20-30 minute) audience discussion sessions in the theatre after every performance during the run (in addition to our usual coffee conversations and Speaker Sunday events). These discussions will be facilitated by local theatre artists and are included as an opportunity for our InterAct audiences to talk about what they experienced during the performance and connect about the themes this play reflects. 

The play is ~80 minutes without intermission -- think of the discussion as a short optional interactive second act.   

PERFORMANCE DATES & TIMES:

Friday, May 27, 2016            8:00 pm
Saturday, May 28, 2016      4:00 pm & 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 29, 2016         7:00 pm                  
Tuesday, May 31, 2016        7:00 pm  
Wednesday, June 1, 2016    7:00 PM                               Opening Night  
Thursday, June 2, 2016        8:00 PM                          First Thursday/Young Friends   
Friday, June 3, 2016             8:00 PM                            Audience Discussion    
Saturday, June 4, 2016        8:00 PM                            Audience Discussion    
Sunday, June 5, 2016            2:00 PM                               Speaker Sunday with playwright and stand-up dramedian R. ERIC THOMAS
Tuesday, June 7, 2016           7:00 PM                               Coffee Conversation
Wednesday, June 8, 2016    7:00 PM                               Coffee Conversation
Thursday, June 9, 2016        8:00 PM                             Audience Discussion   
Friday, June 10, 2016           8:00 PM                             Audience Discussion
Saturday, June 11, 2016       8:00 PM                             Audience Discussion   
Sunday, June 12, 2016          2:00 PM                                 Speaker Sunday w/ Walter Sullivan, a facilitator of Philadelphia’s White Privilege Conference AND Mirangela Buggs, a presentation leader for the White Privilege Conference
Tuesday, June 14, 2016         7:00 PM                               Coffee Conversation
Wednesday, June 15, 2016   7:00 PM                              Coffee Conversation
Thursday, June 16, 2016       8:00 PM                           Audience Discussion    
Friday, June 17, 2016             8:00 PM                           Audience Discussion     
Saturday, June 18, 2016       8:00 PM                            Audience Discussion   
Sunday, June 19, 2016          2:00 PM                               Speaker Sunday w/ Professor of Theatre & Gender Studies,  Rosemary Malague