Xavier University Theatre Presents BLACK FLY SPRING Dec. 4-7

XAVIER UNIVERSITY THEATRE PRESENTS BLACK FLY SPRING DEC. 4-7

Mac Blais, Tatum Hunter, Annelise Moloney & Alex Roberts.

(CINCINNATI, Nov. 17, 2014) — Xavier University Theatre continues its 2014-15 mainstage season with BLACK FLY SPRING, the first university production of a daring new play that explores how we move forward in times of grief. Performances will take place Dec. 4 to 7, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. in Xavier’s Gallagher Student Center Theater.

A year after her sister is killed while working as a war photographer, a young woman is set to present those photographs at a memorial. When she and her fiancé retreat to a lakeside mountain town to reflect and prepare, they find themselves at odds over their secrets, desires and their place in the world. BLACK FLY SPRING was a semi-finalist for the Premiere Stages Play Festival and was selected for a reading by The Claque at The Tank in New York City and was featured in Capital Stages’ Playwrights’ Revolution Series in Sacramento. The show contains adult language and situations.

In a special collaboration with the university, BLACK FLY SPRING playwright Nick Gandiello will visit Xavier’s campus Dec. 3 to 6. He’ll conduct playwriting and theatre business workshops for Xavier students and will participate in audience talkbacks following the Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening performances of the show. Mr. Gandiello is a playwright, screenwriter and teaching artist based in New York City.

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome Nick to campus,” said Stephen Skiles, director of Xavier University Theatre. “Giving students the chance to work on new plays is a focus of our program, and I know this timely material will challenge them in rewarding and exciting ways.”

Twice a finalist for the Page 73 Playwriting Fellowship, Mr. Gandiello is a member of the 2014 I-73 Writers Group. He was a member of the 2012-13 Play Group at Ars Nova. His other full-length plays include Oceanside (Merrimack Repertory Theatre), Sunrise Highway (Ojai Playwrights Conference) and Off the Realness (The New School for Drama’s New Voices Festival). Other New York credits include At the Finish (Published in Smith and Kraus’ Best Ten Minute Plays of 2014), Teeming Shore (Smith and Kraus’ Best Ten Minute Plays of 2015) and Screen (Samuel French OOB Play Festival). Mr. Gandiello is the literary manager of Young Playwrights Inc., through which he has led playwriting workshops in New York City, Virginia and Miami. He holds an MFA in playwriting from The New School for Drama.

The cast for BLACK FLY SPRING includes Tatum Hunter (Lana), a junior theatre major from Lebanon, Ohio; Mac Blais (George), a sophomore theatre major from Lancaster, Ohio; Annelise Moloney (Kip), a freshman public relations major from St. Louis, Missouri; and Alex Roberts, a sophomore theatre education major from West Chester, Ohio.

Regina Pugh, a Cincinnati actress and director for more than 25 years, will make her Xavier University Theatre directing debut with BLACK FLY SPRING. She performed on the Xavier stage last year as Rebecca Nurse in the university’s co-production of The Crucible with Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Her other directing credits include Earhart, Melancholy Play, Vigil, Why We Have a Body and The Skriker (all for Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati); In Flame (Women’s Theatre Initiative); Gilgamesh (Performance Gallery); and Elegy (Cincinnati Playwrights Initiative). She also has worked locally in educational theatre with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and The School for Creative and Performing Arts. Ms. Pugh is a founding member of the local theatre collaborative Performance Gallery, which has presented a new work during each of the 11 years of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.

Other members of the creative team for BLACK FLY SPRING include Dave Zlatic (set and lighting design); Kathleen Rossmann (costume design); Kathleen Licht (props design); Griff Bludworth (dramaturg) and Brian Griffin (sound design). The stage manager is Nicole Santiago.

Tickets for BLACK FLY SPRING are available now through the Xavier University Theatre Box Office. Tickets are $17 for adults and $12 for students, as well as Xavier faculty and staff. To purchase tickets, visit www.xavier.edu/theatre or call 513-745-3939.