SHOTGUN
— LOVE AMONG THE RUINS

Southern Rep presents the National New Play Network “rolling” world premiere of local playwright and novelist John Biguenet’s drama SHOTGUN, which runs May 6-31, 2009. Previews begin Wednesday, May 6th, followed by Opening Night, Saturday, May 9th. Performances continue through May 31st, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets are on sale now from $18 – $35 and may be purchased at (504) 522-6545 or www.southernrep.com.
In SHOTGUN, the second play of his acclaimed Rising Water Trilogy, John Biguenet explores what happens when the storm water recedes. Mattie, an upwardly mobile African American landlord, rents the other half of her shotgun double to the white carpenter Beau and his teenage son who lost their home to the flood waters. Dexter, Mattie’s unemployed machinist father, has moved in with her and is none too happy that she’s renting to Beau. In this pressure-cooker of a house divided, these wounded people must choose between living in the dark past or looking to a brighter future.
Southern Rep will kick off SHOTGUN’s National New Play Network “rolling” world premiere in May; then Florida Studio Theatre and Orlando Shakespeare Theater will present their own productions in 2010. The play has already been presented as staged readings at three theaters in the U.S. and has been awarded a 2009 Access to Artistic Excellence grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Southern Rep commissioned and premiered Biguenet’s RISING WATER to great acclaim; it became the best selling play in the theater’s 22-year history and has gone on to seven productions across the country so far. The Times-Picayune wrote that RISING WATER “grabbed the audience in its first tense moments and never let go.” Elsewhere, critics praised it as “a great American play – perhaps one of the first great plays of the 21st Century” (Orange Country Register) and an “indelible experience” (Backstage, Los Angeles).
Valerie Curtis-Newton directs, with a cast of Lance Nichols (THE BREACH; RELATIVITY), Donna Duplantier (DOUBT, RELATIVITY), Rus Blackwell, Kenneth Brown (THE BREACH) and Alex Lemonier (THE HISTORY BOYS, Big Easy Award for Best Performance by a Child). Nichols, Duplantier, Blackwell and Brown were all featured in the film …BENJAMIN BUTTON. The design team includes scenic designer Geoffrey Hall (DYING CITY, THE CLEAN HOUSE), lighting designer Patti West, costume designer Kelly James-Penot (SICK; SCANDALOUS!; THE SEAFARER), and sound designer Eric Shim (SICK; THE CLEAN HOUSE; THE BREACH).

Southern Rep will host talk-backs for the audience after each Sunday matinee.
SHOTGUN tickets are now on sale. Regular ticket prices range from $18 – $35: $18 for Previews Wednesday - Friday, May 6-8; $35 for Opening Night, Saturday, May 9 (includes a sponsored reception catered by Whole Foods Market); Individual Tickets are $20-$27. Group rates and student and senior tickets are available. For all shows but Opening Night, $10 Student Rush tickets are offered 15 minutes before curtain on a cash-only basis, with student ID. For information and to order tickets, call (504) 522-6545 or visit www.southernrep.com.
Founded in 1986, Southern Rep's mission is to develop and produce new plays, to provide our audience with professional theatre of the highest artistic quality and achievement, and to establish a creative working environment that nurtures theatre professionals. We strive to use the artistry of theatre to enlighten, educate, and entertain audiences in the metropolitan New Orleans area and South Gulf Coast region, and aim to extend that service through educational and outreach programs.


In SHOTGUN, set four months after the collapse of defective levees in New Orleans, a white man and his teenaged son, having lost their house to the flood, rent half of a shotgun double from an African-American woman, whose father has lost his home in the Lower Ninth Ward and moved in with her. Even living under one roof, though, they find a wall still runs between them. But like the city's levees, can it, too, be breached?