The Exchange - Little Black Dress

LEARN

LITTLE BLACK DRESS

By Ronan Noone

Directed by Ari Edelson

A look at the sacrifices we make when we leave behind all that is familiar...

LITTLE BLACK DRESS is the funny, dark and poignant tale of a bored housewife in rural Blue River, her boorish husband, their slacker, pot-smoking son, and his buddy, an entrepreneuring gigolo.

 

Starring Nina Hellman, Tobias Segal, Brian J. Smith and Dan Oreskes.

 

sets and costumes by Dane Laffrey || lights by Christopher Studley || sound by Bart Fasbender

stage manager  Michael Alifanz || assistant stage manager Hannah Woodward

producer Kelcie Beene ||  production manager Jared DeBacker  || associate producer David Paarlberg

casting by Vince Liebhart  || press by Sam Rudy Media Relations 

 

With hints of A DOLL'S HOUSE and Sam Shepard, LITTLE BLACK DRESS -- a funny, dark and poignant look at the sacrifices one makes when one leaves behind all that is familiar -- LITTLE BLACK DRESS is set in a household in rural Blue River where Amy Beaudreaux lives with her boorish husband, their slacker pot-smoking son and his buddy, a gigolo.

MEET

Ronan Noone (playwright)

Ronan Noone's play, THE ATHEIST, starring Campbell Scott and produced by the Culture Project, had an acclaimed run Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre, where it arrived from previously sold-out runs at the Huntington Theatre and Williamstown Theatre Festival.  Ronan’s first play, THE LEPERS OF BAILE BAISTE was produced at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (BPT) with Noble Laureate Derek Walcott. It won the American Critics Association’s Steinberg New Play Award, the Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award for Best New Play, and a Michael Kanin National Playwriting Award.  It was a critics’ pick with The LA Times, nominated for a Jeff Award in Chicago, and played the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Phil Bosakowski Theatre in New York. THE BLOWIN OF BAILE GALL was produced at BPT and the Irish Arts Center in New York (Gabriel Byrne, producer).  For it, Noone won the Elliot Norton Award and IRNE Award for Outstanding New Script and it was a critics’ pick with the LA Times.  Noone was commissioned as a playwrighting fellow by the Huntington Theatre Company, under the Stanford Calderwood Fund for New American Plays, where his play, BRENDAN (IRNE Award, Best New Play) had its world premiere. Ronan has attended and presented work at Sundance Theatre Lab in Utah, Theatre Masters in Aspen, New York Stage & Film at Vassar College, and The Lark in New York City and Vermont.  His numerous one act plays include “Amerika”, “Sheeet”, “The Mutton Bandit Molloy”, "Enough", "hear the lonesome robin weep", and "Commonwealth 820". 

Ari Edelson (director)

has worked both in the US and internationally, with recent credits including: The Scariest (The Exchange, 45 Bleecker), Vengeance (Cherry Lane), Expats (The New Group (naked), NY), Jump! and Realism (The Exchange, NY), The Attic (Play Company, NY), The Atheist (Theatre 503, London), Blood Wedding, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Sexual Perversity in Chicago (Theatre Project Tokyo), True West and Tape (Tokyo Globe), Rape of Lucretia (English National Opera, London and Luxembourg). He has also worked with companies such as La Jolla Playhouse, Long Wharf, the Old Vic, Circle in the Square, New York Stage and Film, the Royal National Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket, The Vineyard, Williamstown Theatre Festival, The New Group and The Westport Country Playhouse.

In 2007, he took on the role of Producing Artistic Director of The Exchange (formerly Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre), one of New York's oldest Off-Broadway companies. Other upcoming plans include the musical Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company with producers Margo Lion (Hairspray) and Amanda Lipitz (Legally Blonde), Journey from the Land of No, an adaptation of Roya Hakakian's award winning memoir, and The Game, the bestselling book by Neil Strauss.

Edelson has extensive experience developing new work. In 2005 he founded the Orchard Project, an international incubator and theatre development center located in upstate New York. In just three seasons, the Orchard Project has fast become one of the premiere incubators of innovative work in the US, twice being cited as such by The New York Times. He also founded and is currently Artistic Director of The Old Vic Theatre's Old Vic/New Voices US/UK Program, developing new plays in London and New York. The Program has created an official network of theatres in the US and UK, including the Atlantic Theatre Company, The New Group and Primary Stages in NY. Some participants of the program include Stephen Belber, Richard Bean, Henry Adam, Roberto Aguirre Sacasa, Rolin Jones, Julia Jordan, Lynn Nottage, Keith Bunin, Joe Hortua and David Grimm.

INTERACT

After the performance, come back here for an online Q&A Session and other exciting follow ups!

PLAN YOUR NIGHT

The Exchange is canvassing the area to find their favorite places to eat, hang out, grab a drink, or take a date before the show. Come back soon to find out what they recommend for you!