Details
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.
Leslie Ayvazian was loosely inspired by the characters in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream when writing Out of the City. Though there are few direct parallels between the plays, the underlying spirit of the Bard’s play remains. As MRT Artistic Director Charles Towers notes, “The countryside does strange things to lovers of any age, and this wry comedy never fails to surprise and delight.”
The regional premiere of a new play by an Outer Critics Circle Award-winning playwright.
Contains Adult Content
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Creative Team
MRT: Debut. Broadway: Promises, Promises, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Victor/Victoria, How The Grinch Stole Christmas. Off-Broadway/New York: Little Shop of Horrors, The Gig, The Death of Von Richthofen. National Tours: Legally Blonde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Secret Garden, Sweet Charity, Evita. Regional: Legally Blonde, Singin’ In The Rain, Phantom, Pittsburgh CLO; A Feminine Ending, Portland Center Stage; Pig Farm, Old Globe; Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, and Sex, Matrix Theatre; Romeo and Juliet, Goodspeed. Film/Television: The Good Wife, Boston Legal, Law & Order(s), Six Feet Under, Judging Amy, The District, Crossing Jordan, Star Trek: Voyager, Malcom in the Middle, Strong Medicine.
MRT: Debut. Broadway/National Tours: On Golden Pond (with Michael Learned and Tom Bosley); The Graduate. New York: Stalking the Bogeyman, New World Stages; The Memorandum, The Actors Co.; The Return of the Prodigal, Soldier’s Wife, The Mint; Halfway Home, The New Group. Regional: The Other Place, Hartford Theatreworks/Rep of St. Louis (CT. Critics Circle Award); Snow Falling on Cedars, Hartford Stage; Well, Denver Center; A Sleeping Country, Cincinnati Playhouse; The Goat, Arena Stage; Outrage, Portland Center Stage; On Golden Pond, Cleveland Playhouse; Uncle Vanya, Denver Center; Present Laughter, Pioneer Theatre Company; Heaven, Yale Rep; Dinner With Friends, Alliance; The Real Thing, Alley Theatre. Also: Barrow St. Theater, MTC, Roundabout, The O’Neill Theatre Ctr., Northern Stage, Florida Stage, Syracuse Stage, Indiana Rep, Clarence Brown, Philadelphia Festival for New Plays, BoarsHead. Television: Elementary, Law and Order: SVU, Blue Bloods, Unforgettable, A Gifted Man, Royal Pains, The Good Wife, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Gossip Girl, Onion News Network, Law and Order. Film: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Origins of War. Education: BA, Tufts University; MFA, American Conservatory Theatre.
MRT: Debut. Broadway: Act One; The Columnist; God of Carnage; Inherit the Wind; Losing Louie; Dinner at Eight; A Delicate Balance; Abe Lincoln in Illinois; Picnic; Arsenic and Old Lace. Off-Broadway: By The Water(MTC) Witnessed by the World (59E59) The Last Yankee (MTC); Balm in Gilead (Circle Rep). Regional: Suddenly Last Summer (Westport County Playhouse); The Father and Night of the Iguana (Berkshire Theatre Festival); Book of the Night (Goodman). Film: Two Weeks Notice; Steve Martin's The Pink Panther; Music and Lyrics. Television: Elementary; Person of Interest; Boardwalk Empire; Sondheim Celebration at Carnegie Hall.
MRT: Debut. Broadway: Relatively Speaking (Three plays by Woody Allen, Elaine May & Ethan Coen); Torch Song Trilogy (Harvey Fierstein). Off Broadway/New York: Writers Block (Woody Allen), Atlantic Theater Company; The Starry Messenger (Kenneth Lonergan, The New Group; Four Dogs and a Bone (John Patrick Shanley), Manhattan Theatre Club; After Ashley (Gia Gianfriddo), Vineyard Theatre; The Favor (Leslie Ayvazian), The Ensemble Studio Theatre. Regional: Laughing Wild, (Christopher Durang), Tiffany Theatre, Los Angeles; Out, Philadelphia Theatre Company. Film: The Distinguished Gentlemen. Television: Murphy Brown; series regular on: Oliver Beene, Fox; Madigan Men with Gabriel Byrne; From the Earth to the Moon, HBO; and various guest appearances. Education: member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre (NYC)
Leslie is the author of 8 full-length plays and 7 one act plays, published variously by Samuel French and Dramatist Play Service. Some have been included in annual anthologies of best plays. Nine Armenians won the John Gassner/Outer Critics Circle Award for best new American play, The Roger L. Stevens Award, and second place for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Rosemary and I received an honorable mention from the Susan Smith Blackburn jury. Leslie has received commissions from the Manhattan Theatre Club, Windancer Productions, and South Coast Repertory Theatre. Make Me, directed by Christian Parker, was produced in New York by the Atlantic Theatre Company. High Dive was produced at the Long Wharf Theatre and the Manhattan Class Company, directed by David Warren, and went on to be produced in Poland and Slovakia. Her short film Every Three Minutes starring Olympia Dukakis was produced by Showtime and won a Telly Award. Her play Deaf Day was produced as a short film in Syria by Rana Kaz Kaz, and was included in the 2012 Palm Springs International Short Film Festival. Her latest short film, The Favor, stars Olympia Dukakis, Margaret Colin, and John Pankow. A theatrical version of The Favor ran at City Theatre in 2013 and also had a production in The Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Spring festival of one-act plays. Out of the City has received workshops at the Manhattan Theatre Club and the Southampton Writers’ Conference. Her one-act play Above it All recently toured the Miami, FL school system. Her latest play, 15/15, recently received a workshop at the Atlantic Theatre in NYC. Leslie is an Adjunct Professor of dramaturgy at the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts. Her credits as an actress include a recurring role on Law & Order: SVU and roles on Broadway in Lost in Yonkers and Naked Girl on the Apian Way.
MRT: Proof. Christian recently stepped down as Associate Artistic Director of the Atlantic Theater Company, after nearly thirteen years, in order to pursue more of his own work as a director, dramaturg, and consultant. At Atlantic he collaborated closely with Artistic Director Neil Pepe on programming and producing the season, and oversaw commissioning and new play development. He directed several times for the company, including The Hiding Place by Jeff Whitty, Arrangements by Ken Weitzman, Birth and After Birth by Tina Howe, Make Me by Leslie Ayvazian, and several short plays in the 10x20 and 10x25 festivals. He is Associate Professor and Chair of the graduate Theatre program at Columbia University School of the Arts, where he oversees the concentration in Dramaturgy. He has also worked directing and developing plays at Sundance Theatre Labs, the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, the Lark, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Keen Company, P73, the LAByrinth Theatre Company, and Soho Rep, among others. He began his career as the Literary Manager at Manhattan Theatre Club. He is the newly appointed Director-in-Residence at the Kenyon Playwrights Conference. He holds a BA in Russian/East European Studies and Theatre from Middlebury College, and an MFA from Columbia. He is originally from Andover and is thrilled to be working back in the Merrimack Valley.
MRT: Proof. Broadway: Voices in the Dark, Longacre Theatre. Off-Broadway/New York: Pocatello, Playwrights Horizons; Poor Behaviors, The Model Apartment, Primary Stages; Bug (OBIE Award), Hit the Wall, Barrow Street Theater; 4000 Miles (Lortel Award), Lincoln Center; Bethany, The Womens’ Project; Disgraced, Lincoln Center – LCT3; Bad Jews, Roundabout Theater Company; Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Atlantic Theatre Company; The Amish Project, Rattlestick; The Irish Curse, Underneath the Lintel, Soho Playhouse. Regional: Blue Man Group/Live at Luxor (Eddy Award), Luxor Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas; Blue Man Group in both Chicago and Boston; Always...Patsy Cline, Silverton Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas; How We Got On, Cleveland Playhouse; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Chapter Two, Bucks County Playhouse; Bethany, Old Globe; Imagining Madoff, Electile Dysfunction, Theater J; O Lovely Glowworm, Portland Center Stage; The Real Thing, Syracuse Stage; Wallenberg, White Plains Performing Arts Center; The Amish Project, Pittsburgh Public Theater and tour; A Night in the Old Marketplace, Prince Music Theater; The Italian Girl in Algiers, Anchorage Opera; The May Queen, Chautauqua Theatre Company. Education: MFA from NYU; BA from Brown University. Other: Lauren is currently an adjunct professor at Pace University.
MRT: Debut. Broadway: The Performers. Off-Broadway/New York: A Kid Like Jake, All-American (LCT3); Outside People (Vineyard/Naked Angels); Suicide, Inc., The Dream of the Burning Boy (Roundabout Underground); Oliver Parker!, The Gingerbread House (StageFARM); OohRah! (Atlantic); Next Fall, Armed & Naked in America, The Mistakes Madeline Made (Naked Angels); Germ Project (New Georges); H.M.S. Pinafore (Vortex); 7 seasons as Resident Designer (Vampire Cowboys). Regional: Agnes Under the Big Top, Bad Dates, Shipwrecked!, Underneath the Lintel (Long Wharf); The Last Smoker in America (CATCO); Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) (Weston Playhouse). Awards: Recipient of NY Innovative Theatre Award for Costume Design.
MRT: 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti, Year Zero, Stella and Lou, Glengarry Glen Ross, Memory House, Beat Generation, The Exceptionals, Persian Quarter, A Picasso, Black Pearl Sings!, Tranced, A View of the Harbor, The Four of Us, Aunt Dan & Lemon, Squeeze Box, Sanders Family Christmas. Off-Broadway: Cherry Lane, La Mama ETC. Regional: Over 200 productions at: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Huntington Theatre Company, Cleveland Playhouse, Arden Theatre, South Coast Rep, Arizona Theatre Co, Pasadena Playhouse, GEVA Theatre Center, Milwaukee Rep, Capital Rep, Trinity Rep, Playmakers Rep, Pig Iron Theatre. Up-coming world premiere productions at: GEVA Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse. Mr. Lilienthal has spent the last 8 summers as the resident Lighting Designer for The National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center. Opera: Long Beach Opera, Bard Summerscape, Portland Opera Repertory Theatre. Education: MFA California Institute of the Arts, BFA Emerson College. Other: Currently Teaching Lighting Design at Tufts University.
MRT: Oceanside; The Best Brothers; Year Zero (original music and sound); Two Jews Walk into a War...; The Blonde, the Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead. Recent: Stop All the Clocks (original music and sound), Brandeis Theater Company; Twelfth Night, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company; North of the Boulevard, One Night..., Contemporary American Theater Festival; Gidion’s Knot, Bridge Rep of Boston; The Whale, Speakeasy Stage Company (Elliot Norton Award nomination); Ryan Landry’s “M”, Huntington Theatre Company (IRNE Award); Invisible Man, Huntington Theatre Company and The Studio Theatre (Helen Hayes Award nomination). Regional: American Repertory Theatre (50 productions); Portland Stage; Theatre for a New Audience; La Jolla Playhouse; Berkeley Rep; CENTERSTAGE Baltimore; Cincinnati Playhouse. International: Festivals in Bogotá, Paris, Hong Kong and Edinburgh. Awards: IRNE, Connecticut Critics Circle, Elliot Norton. remediossound.com.
Photos
Out of the City
Out of the City by Leslie Ayvazian. Directed by Christian Parker. Running at Merrimack Repertory Theatre March 19 - April 12, 2015.
Click on any photo below for larger image.
Video
Q&A with playwright Leslie Ayvazian
Video Trailer
Meet Carol and Dan
Meet Jill and Dan
About "Out of the City"
Reviews
Lowell Sun: A kiss seals sweet comedy in 'Out of the City'
Andover Townsman: Interview with director (and Andover native) Christian Parker
The Nashua Telegraph: "It was also a lovely surprise to see Grant Shaud (from TV's Murphy Brown) on a local stage; his Matt was frantic and hilarious."
Talkin' Broadway: "The director paces the action with the right touch to capture Ayvazian's laughs, big and small."
Out of the City Offers a Bit of Off-Kilter Romance at MRT - Lowell Sun