Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: David Mong (801) 363-0526
Email: mong@saltlakeactingcompany.org
Salt Lake Acting Company presents the regional premiere of the provocative SKIN IN FLAMES by Guillem Clua.
This play is not recommended for younger audience members, due to sexual situations and implied violence.
Salt Lake Acting Company (SLAC) is pleased to present the regional premiere of SKIN IN FLAMES (LA PELL EN FLAMES), a provocative political drama by Catalan playwright Guillem Clua, translated by DJ Sanders. SKIN IN FLAMESwill have preview performances January 30th and 31st, with the Press Opening on Friday, February 1st at 8:00 PM at The Salt Lake Acting Company. SKIN IN FLAMES is scheduled to play Wednesdays through Sundays through February 24, 2008.
Roger Benington, former Salt Lake City resident and Artistic Director of Tooth And Nail Theatre Company, will direct. Guest director Benington now resides in New York City. The design team will be SLAC Producing Director and Resident Designer Keven Myhre- Set; Z. - Lights; K. L. Alberts- Costume Design; Cynthia L. Kehr Rees- Sound and Adrianne Moore- Dialect Coach. The cast features SLAC veterans Paul Kiernan, Morgan Lund, Deena Marie Manzanares and new-comer Kenya Rene. Sarah Rae Mohr will be the Production Stage Manager.
SKIN IN FLAMES (LA PELL EN FLAMES) by Guillem Clua was awarded the XXXII City of Alcoi Theatre Prize in 2004 and had its professional premiere in 2005 at the Villarroel Theatre in Barcelona, Spain. SKIN IN FLAMES, translated by DJ Sanders, had its English language U.S. premiere in 2006 at the Theatre at St. John's in St. Louis, Missouri, produced by HotCity Theatre in their Greenhouse Series. It was also produced at InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia. This is its third U.S. production.
SKIN IN FLAMES takes place in an unnamed third world country. All the action of the play takes place in a hotel faded from its former glory, but still preferred by westerners. Oddly, it is also the preferred spot for local suicides, of which there are many, as it is the tallest building in the city and therefore offers the surest end. This rather sad phenomenon is a dark reflection on the nature of the current repressive regime and the degree to which hope has faded from the country's population.
The play is comprised of two parallel stories that intersect in mysterious and dangerous ways. Photojournalist Frederick Salomon (Morgan Lund) has been invited to accept a national award for his iconic photo of a young girl flung in a fiery bomb blast during the country's civil war. The photo has attained a nearly mythical status around the world and has particular purchase in this U.N. and U.S. sponsored dubious "democracy". In some circles it is synonymous with freedom gained and reproduced on T-shirts and coffee mugs. Salomon meets a young woman named Hanna (Kenya Rene) at the hotel for a scheduled interview for the sole national newspaper. As the interview unfolds, and Hanna's questions chip away at the photographer's hard-won remove, it is clear there's more to the young woman than meets the eye. Salomon finds himself facing that life-changing moment when the photo was snapped with nightmarish immediacy. The other storyline presents Ida, a young local woman (Deena Marie Manzanares), meeting in the hotel room with the avuncular Doctor Brown (Morgan Lund), an American working through the U.N. Brown brings more medicine for Ida's young daughter and the discouraging news that there's little change in her condition. She lays comatose in a local hospital. As Brown hands over the pill bottle and payment is due, we suddenly understand the appalling barter system Ida is forced to endure. As these two scenarios unravel, intertwine and explode, dark political theory in the first and third world becomes all too real and personal.
GUILLEM CLUA (playwright) studied journalism at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He started his theatrical training in 1994 at the London Guildhall University. Afterwards, he participated in writers' workshops at the prestigious Sala Beckett in Barcelona studying with numerous Catalan playwrights. He is the author of seven works for the stage including an adaptation of Death in Venice and the original play INVISIBLES (INVISIBLE), which won the City of Alcoi Theatre Prize in 2002. In 2004, his third full-length script, SKIN IN FLAMES, won the City of Alcoi Theatre Prize before premiering at the Villarroel Theatre in Barcelona. SKIN IN FLAMES was also awarded the prestigious Barcelona Critics Award for Best Script in 2005. In the United States, SKIN IN FLAMES has received readings in New York and Dallas (Kitchen Dog Theatre) and productions in St. Louis and Philadelphia (InterAct Theatre). In 2006, his newest full-length play, TASTE OF ASHES, premiered in a staged reading at Repertorio Espa~nol in New York. Since 2003, Guillem Clua has been on the writing team for the popular Catalan television program El Cor de la Ciutat (The Heart of the City) and is currently head writer for the series.
DJ SANDERS (translator) is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the American Literary Translators Association. The author of more than twenty stage plays, his work has been presented coast-to-coast in the United States and inAustralia and India. He is currently adapting material from musical artist Terry Taylor into a stage play entitled WHEN EVERYONE WORE HATS, about a septuagenarian couple reminiscing their travels of Route 66. In addition to translating SKIN IN FLAMES, Sanders has translated Clua's TASTE OF ASHES and the 1896 Catalan classic THE LOWLANDS. He is currently working on translating works by the internationally-produced Catalan playwright Jordi Galceran. Sanders holds degrees in Linguistics, Spanish, Teaching English as a Second Language, and Drama and has taught at the University of Barcelona and theUniversity of Illinois. Currently DJ Sanders is working toward a doctorate in Comparative Literature at Washington University inSt. Louis.
ROGER BENINGTON (Director) was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Utah and was awarded The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's Young Artist Fellowship to study directing at The Juilliard School. Benington was a recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Directors (2003-2005). In New York City he recently directed singer-songwriter Todd Almond's KANSAS CITY CHOIR BOY: LAND OF THE MISSING GIRLS at The Zipper Factory. Past directing projects in NYC include Strindberg's THE PELICAN Off-Broadway at Classic Stage Company and created DIVINERS for the Lincoln Center Theatre's Director's Lab. In Salt Lake City, where he founded and served as the Artistic Director of Tooth & Nail Theatre, Benington's directing credits include Ibsen's LITTLE EYOLF,Sedaris' THE SANTALAND DIARIES, his own adaptation of ARABIAN NIGHTS, CRAVE by Sarah Kane, Becky Mode'sFULLY COMMITTED, Ferdinand Bruckner's THE PAINS OF YOUTH, and two seasons of PROJECT FABULOCITY!, an original play by and about Queer youth in Salt Lake City. For Sundance Children's Theatre, he directed productions of THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, THE LITTLE PRINCE, and ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, which he was also commissioned to adapt. As director and playwright, Benington developed his adaptation of Paul Monette's SANCTUARY at the 1998 Sundance Theatre Laboratory. Original plays for children include THE DARK SHADOW, IVONA & THE VOICE WITHIN, THE SECRET IN THE SHOEBOX and TIMOCINA & THE CROCODILES,which was selected by The Drama League for development in their New Directors/New Works project. Regional productions include Sarah Kane's CRAVE and Daniel McIvor's NEVER SWIM ALONE at Washington Ensemble Theatre in Seattle, Doug Wright's Pulitzer Prize winning play I AM MY OWN WIFE at Madison Rep. and Caryl Churchill's SERIOUS MONEY at BardCollege. Benington's next project is Ostrovsky's A FAMILY AFFAIR at The University of Rochester.
(Actors and Designers bios available upon request)
SLAC NOTES:
FEBRUARY 3RD- FIRST SUNDAY MATINEE POST-PLAY DISCUSSION: following the matinee performance, hosted by SLAC Dramaturg Mike Dorrell in the Upstairs theatre.
FEBRUARY 6TH - 2ND WEDNESDAY PRESHOW PRESENTATION: an introduction to the play by SLAC's Literary Department.
FEBRUARY 18TH- NEW PLAY SOUNDING SERIES: at 7:00 PM
New plays, new voices. Theatre unplugged.
Title to be announced.
Free Staged Readings and Talk Backs. Be a part of theatre in the making.
Sponsored by American Express and the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts, and Parks Program
FEBRUARY 23RD- SATURDAY MATINEE POSTPLAY DISCUSSION: following the Matinee performance, hosted by SLAC Dramaturg Mike Dorrell.
Salt Lake Acting Company
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Admin. (801) 363-0526
FACT SHEET
SLAC PRODUCTION SKIN IN FLAMES (LA PELL EN FLAMES)
PLAYWRIGHT Guillem Clua
TRANSLATOR DJ Sanders
DIRECTOR Roger Benington
CAST Paul Kiernan, Morgan Lund, Deena Marie Manzanares, Kenya Rene
SET DESIGN Keven Myhre
LIGHT DESIGN Z.
COSTUME DESIGN K. L. Alberts
SOUND DESIGN Cynthia L. Kehr Rees
DIALECT COACH Adrianne Moore
PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER Sarah Rae Mohr
DATES
Previews: January 30 & 31, 2008
Opening: February 1, 2008
Closing: February 24, 2008
TIMES
Previews: Wed & Thurs- 7:30PM
Regular: Wed & Thurs- 7:30PM
Fri & Sat- 8:00PM
Sun- 2:00PM & 7:00PM
Sat. Matinee: Sat. February 23, 2008 - 2:00PM
TICKETS
$13 - $34, students/30 & under/senior discounts available.
BOX OFFICE
(801) 363-SLAC (7522) (Mon-Fri- 10:00AM to 6:00PM) or
www.saltlakeactingcompany.org to buy online.