Urban Stages Announces Cast for World Premiere of ‘Honky’

Urban Stages (Frances Hill, Founding Artistic Director; Peter Napolitano, Producing Associate) is excited to announce the cast for the World Premiere of Greg Kalleres’ comedy HONKY, directed by Luke Harlan. HONKY will begin performances on Friday, March 8; Opening on Thursday, March 14, 2013 at Urban Stages (259 West 30 Street). Tickets will be $40 ($25 during previews) and are currently available at www.Smarttix.com or by calling 212.868.4444.

When violence breaks out in an African American community over a pair of “Sky Max” shoes, sales triple among white teens. Meanwhile, a new pill guarantees to cure racism, advertising that “if you think you don’t need it – you’re probably a racist.” HONKY is a black comedy, in which five people, white and black, navigate the murky waters of race, rhetoric and basketball shoes.

Cast includes: Scott Barrow (Embraceable Me , Broadway’s 33 Variations), Philip Callen (Regional: Bill W and Dr Bob, 1776, Bush Is Bad), Dave Droxler (Film: Limitless, Writer’s Block), Danielle Faitelson (TV “Pzazz101,” National Tour : If You Give A Pig A Pancake), Anthony Gaskins (Film Inside, A.R.T’s Paradise Lost), Chris Myers (Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Macbeth, Atlantic Stage’s As Himself / 10×25), Reynaldo Piniella (TV: “Law & Order: SVU,” “NYC 22”. Film: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Broken City), Arie Bianca Thompson (Public’s Henry V, Orpheus. Film: Wake Up Gone). Creative team includes: Roman Tatarowicz (Sets), Miriam Nilofa Crowe (Lights), Brian Walcott (Sound), Caite Hevner (Projection Design)

Who’s Who:
GREG KALLERES (Playwright) received his BFA from Tisch’s Dramatic Writing Program at NYU. His plays have been produced in numerous cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Chicago and Beirut, Lebanon. Greg received the Certificate of Excellence from the Kennedy Center, is a two-time finalist for the Lila Acheson American Playwrights Program at Juilliard and a two-time finalist for Aurora Theatre Company’s Global Age Project. His one-act plays have won at the Samuel French Festival, Fusion Theatre Festival and twice at the Turnip Festival. Greg’s plays have been published in United Stages’ “Best of EATFest” Vols. 3 and 4. His latest play, WRECKED, commissioned by the Three Jennys Theater Company, recently secured $50,000 from the Speranza Foundation Lincoln City Fellowship.In addition to playwriting, Greg has written, produced and won numerous awards for his commercials for ESPN, Nike, Brand Jordan, Budweiser, as well as, Twitter’s first ever ad campaign. Greg was the lead writer on the award winning “This is SportsCenter” campaign and created ESPN’s Monday Night Football campaign: “Is it Monday Yet?” Greg’s screenplay, LAST DAY MAN, was optioned by Evamere Entertainment.

LUKE HARLAN (Director) is a New York-based director, originally from Arkansas. His primary focus is working with writers to develop bold & theatrical new plays. Luke is the Artistic Director of Engine Company No. 11, a Co-Founder of the Working Theater Directors Salon, and recipient of the SDC National Directing Award. Selected, New York: 1ROVE by Engine Co. No. 11 (Bushwick Starr), IBEW Plays by Joe Roland (Working Theatre), Dogs of Oklahoma by Eric John Meyer (The Brick), Frontier by Jason Gray Platt (Columbia University), Memoirist by Nick Jones (Flea Theatre), Coke by Matthew Paul Olmos (terraNOVA Collective); Regional/International: Shift by Joe Tracz (Old Vic Theatre, UK), Insatiable Hunger, a new musical (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, MA), Sousepaw: A Baseball Story by Jonathan Goldberg (Shelby Company – Nat’l Tour), Fighting a Fish (Kennedy Center, DC); Acting/Writing: home/sick (The Assembly, NY Times Critics Pick). Upcoming: Honky by Greg Kalleres (Urban Stages), Westward Mutations by Kristen Palmer (Hunter College). www.lukeharlan.net.

URBAN STAGES (Producer) is an award-winning, not-for-profit Off-Broadway Theatre Company founded in 1984 by current Artistic Director Frances Hill. Over the past 29 years, Urban Stages has produced over 80 productions (mostly world premieres) including the world premiere of the award winning musical Langston in Harlem by Kent Gash, Walter Marks with Langston Hughes poetry, this production received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Actress, a John Callaway Award for Best Choreography and four Audelco Awards including Best Musical. The New York Premiere of ReEntry by KJ Sanchez and Emily Ackerman produced in 2010 is currently touring military bases and regional theatres across the country. The world premiere of the Joe Iconis musical ReWrite, Urban Stages’ 2011 Musical Legends and Winter Rhythms 2011 and 2012 music series have garnered several nominations and awards from the prestigious Bistro and MAC Awards. Urban Stages also presented the American Premiere of Oxford Roof Climbers’ Rebellion by Stephen Massicotte which transferred to Albany’s Capital Repertory Theatre. Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Eisa Davis’ Bulrusher (2007), two Drama Desk nominations, an Outer Critic’s Circle Award, an Obie nomination, and eight Audelco nominations. Our productions of Men On The Verge Of A Hispanic Breakdown, by Guillermo Reyes, and Minor Demons, by Bruce Graham subsequently moved to commercial theatres. Chili Queen, a play by newscaster Jim Lehrer, transferred to the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (1989). The majority of works developed at Urban Stages have had further productions commercially, regionally, and abroad. Numerous projects developed at Urban Stages have been adapted into film and television projects, including Scar, by Murray Mednick, Conversations with the Goddesses, by Agapi Stassinopoulos, and Cotton Mary, by Alexandra Viets. Urban Stages has a consistent history of discovering new writers to the theatre community and introducing their plays into the theatrical repertory.