The critically-acclaimed Furious Theatre Company are artists in residence at the Pasadena Playhouse committed to edgy, innovative and original works. The company debuted in April 2002 and rapidly produced five plays in 12 months at the city-owned Armory Northwest in Pasadena. These productions earned 6 NAACP Theatre Award nominations, two LA Weekly Award nominations, and numerous critics’ picks from the Los Angeles media. The company also received the Pasadena Arts Council’s Gold Crown Award and The Debut Award from Back Stage West. In September 2003, the City of Pasadena reclaimed the Armory Northwest and Furious needed to move.
After a 13-month search, the Pasadena Playhouse granted Furious a 4-year residency at its Balcony Theatre (recently renamed the Carrie Hamilton Theatre), the Playhouse's 99-seat second stage. In two seasons at the Playhouse, Furious Theatre Company has produced seven premieres, including the Los Angeles Premieres of Neil Labute’s The Shape of Things, Yussef El Guindi’s Back of the Throat, Craig Wright's Grace (winner of three Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards: Production, Direction and Playwriting) and the company's first world premiere, An Impending Rupture of the Belly by Matt Pelfrey.
Furious Theatre Company is led by co-founders and Artistic Council members: Sara Hennessy, Shawn Lee, Vonessa Martin, Eric Pargac, Brad Price and Dámaso Rodriguez.
For more info visit www.furioustheatre.org .
For tickets call 1-800-595-4TIX.
COMING October 25
U.S. Drag
Written by Gina Gionfriddo
Directed by Darin Anthony
The first show in the Furious season is the West Coast premiere of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize winning play, which recently finished an Off-Broadway run. This hilarious and witty, jet-black comedy follows Angela and Allison, two young women in Manhattan seeking love and happiness, but they'll settle for rent money. Along the way, they volunteer for a community advocacy group called SAFE (Stay Away From Ed) named for an elusive serial attacker terrorizing the city. (There's a hefty reward for his capture...) Their new circle of “friends†includes their ruthless, socially stunted roommate; the celebrated author of a fictional memoir; a lonely man who feels kinship with crime victims; and a mousy "Ed survivor†reveling in her fifteen minutes of dubious fame. Everybody is looking for salvation in the arms of another in a group where no one has very much to give. And who is this "Ed" anyway? No one's ever seen his face, and everyone on stage is beginning to act eerily "Ed-like"... Join Furious behind the velvet rope for Gionfriddo’s sharp, sassy and biting satire on the modern quest for fame and fortune.
PAST PRODUCTION PHOTOS
Photos by Anthony Masters.