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KML Presents Its FIRST Play!: Peter Sinn Nachtrieb's "Hunter Gatherers"

FOR IMMEDIATE

RELEASE

AWARD-WINNING S.F. COMEDY OUTFIT

KILLING MY LOBSTER PRESENTS

ITS FIRST-EVER FULL-LENGTH PLAY!

THE WORLD PREMIERE OF PETER SINN NACHTRIEB’S

DARKLY COMEDIC HUNTER GATHERERS, JUNE 8 THROUGH JULY 9

AT SAN FRANCISCO’S THICK HOUSE THEATER

Directed by Tracy Ward, Production Features

Some of the Best Young Comedic Actors in the Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, May 2, 2006–––San Francisco comedy group Killing My Lobster (KML) proudly presents the world premiere of its first-ever full-length comedic play: Hunter Gatherers, written by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, and presented June 8 through July 9 [Wednesdays through Sundays] at San Francisco’s Thick House Theater. Press night is Thursday, June 15 at 8 pm. Tickets–ranging from $20 to $25 [students get $5 off regular price with valid ID]–are on sale now at www.killingmylobster.com and at the door on the night of the performance. Lower-priced previews ($15 tickets) are scheduled June 8 through 14. All Wednesday evening shows are pay-what-you-can performances. The production is produced by Lisa Busby, Paul Charney, Sally Garbarini, and Marc Vogl. KML’s world premiere production is made possible in part by support from The Fleishhacker Foundation, the Theatre Bay Area/New Works Fund, and The Tournesol Project.

A darkly comedic tale, Hunter Gatherers explores the animal core of human beings. Pam and Richard are hosting their longtime friends, Wendy and Tom, for a special dinner party. But what begins as a celebratory gathering between beloved acquaintances soon erupts into a chain reaction of unearthed secrets, pent-up feelings, secret rivalries, and sudden urges. As the evening progresses, Pam, Richard, Wendy and Tom (who refer to themselves as “the Fab 4”) question the hands that fate––and their respective spouses––have dealt them. As they struggle to come to terms with their true identities and ultimately reconcile with their spots in the food chain, they take part in a series of hilarious and emotional confrontations, in addition to an animal sacrifice, some illicit sex, sudden violence, Greco/Roman wrestling, and some very bad dancing.

“Since KML has been around, we have specialized in developing new and unique comedic work, and though this is our first full-length play, Hunter Gatherers is certainly unique and very funny and has a rightful place in what we do,” says Paul Charney, one of the play’s producers and Artistic Director of KML. “Many great minds have started in the sketch comedy world and have gone on to create remarkable theatrical works—people like David Mamet and Steve Martin not to mention works such as Urinetown and Spamalot that have directly come out of that world—and like them, Peter employs a biting brand of social satire and some grandiose characters to examine deeper and more penetrating social themes. Peter is a remarkable writer and a longtime friend and we know he will achieve great heights. We are very proud to be presenting his great work as our first foray into full-length theatrical play producing.”

KML’s world premiere of Hunter Gatherers will be directed by Tracy Ward, whose recent directing credits include Missives at Theatre Rhinocerous and who directed the off-Broadway world premiere of Nachtrieb’s Colorado at the New York Summer Play Festival in 2004.

“The first thing that you notice with Hunter Gatherers—and this is a thread with all of Peter’s plays—is that it’s hysterically funny,” says Ward. “The characters and what they say to one another are at times so extreme that it is as if someone has turned their volume up to 11. And yet, these situations are so funny because these characters are so deeply rooted, and their observations come from such very real and at times very dark places. Hunter Gatherers introduces characters who essentially question their own nature as they provoke one another to uncover their own deeply held secrets. The play asks such big questions—questions that a lot of us ask ourselves in day-to-day life: How strongly are we driven by our primal desires? How conscious are we of our biological selves, and how does that affect the world around us? Is there such a thing as ‘human’ decency, or are all of our impulses rooted in our own self-interest? I am thrilled to be directing this wild and affecting world premiere—and I think there are a lot of great surprises in store for our audiences.”

Hunter Gatherers features some of the best young comedic actors in the Bay Area. Most recently seen in Eric Coble’s Bright Ideas at Shotgun Players, Melanie Case portrays Pam, the kindest and most central character in Hunter Gatherers and the least combative of the “Fab 4.” Best remembered for her performances in Denis Johnson’s Hellhound on My Trail with Campo Santo and Adam Bock’s Five Flights with Encore Theatre Company, Alexis Lezin portrays Pam’s best friend Wendy, an earthy sensualist with not-so-secret desires to become a mother. A longtime KML member and executive director of BATS Improv soon to be seen in the Will Smith film The Pursuit of Happyness, John Kovacevich plays Tom, Wendy’s repressed doctor husband who seems to receive an endless amount of abuse from his friends. And longtime Killing My Lobster member Jon Wolanske (most recently seen in Word for Word’s production of Daniel Handler’s 4 Adverbs) portrays Pam’s husband Richard, a virile and instinctual sort who is only as philosophical as his limited intelligence will allow him to be.

The production team for Hunter Gatherers includes Erik Flatmo (sets), Sally Thomas (costumes), Chris Studley (lights), and David Sophia Siegel (sound). Carla Pantoja is the fight director.

Tracy Ward is a San Francisco based director, whose work has also been seen in Los Angeles and New York. Specializing in new plays, she has collaborated on the premiere of more than 20 plays/musicals/opera productions. Selected work includes: Missives (Theatre Rhinoceros), Ariadne (City Summer Opera), Horse Latitudes (Jon Sims Center for the Arts), Alien Ambition, (Playwright’s Arena/ LA), Summerland (Z Space Festival of New Work), Reading in Bed (HERE Theater), and Multiplex (Thick House), also by Peter Nachtrieb. She has an M.F.A. from UCLA, and is adjunct faculty at Diablo Valley College.

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb is a Bay Area native whose play Colorado premiered off-Broadway at the NY Summer Play Festival (producer Arielle Tepper) in 2004. The award wining Meaningless received its world premiere at Bailiwick Repertory Theatre (Chicago) and was published online (Lodestar Quarterly). His One act Multiplex was produced at Killing My Lobster’s Bruno’s Island New Plays Festival [one-act plays] and was part of SFSU’s mainstage season. His short play Self Help won an Emerging Playwright Award from Playground ( San Francisco). As a writer/performer, he has created solo shows at venues around the Bay Area and worked extensively with Killing My Lobster as a writer, director, and performer in KML’s early days. A Brown University graduate, he has just earned an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State. He is currently a Tournesol Emerging Playwright Resident at the Z-Space Studio.

Paul Walsh, former A.C.T. Dramaturg and Director of Humanities, raved about Mr. Nacthrieb’s work in the November 2004 Theater Bay Area Magazine: “A new writer on the scene, Peter is already making a splash on the national front. It’s not surprising. Peter writes with scandalous panache about the American family in crisis and the results are surprising, unnerving and hilarious making him a writer to watch.”

Killing My Lobster is a Bay Area non-profit theater and film production company. Hailed by the SF Chronicle as “the closest thing we have to Second City” and heralded as “an orgy of comic genius” by Comedy Central, KML has created original work for HBO, is a two-time winner of the Best of the Fringe Award at the SF Fringe Festival and was voted "Best Comedy Group" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The group also produces the annual Hi/Lo Film Festival and has created numerous award-winning short films taking home the Golden Spire Prize at the SF International Film Festival. Killing My Lobster receives support from Grants for the Arts and the Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.

KML plans to launch a website exclusively devoted to the production—www.huntergatherers.com—in early May. More information about the show, the artists, and KML may be found at www.killingmylobster.com.

FOR PHOTOS, interview requests, press tickets, or other inquiries, please write to press@killingmylobster.com or call 415.845.1041.

CALENDAR EDITORS
PLEASE NOTE:

Killing My Lobster presents

The world premiere of