| SubUrbia | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Eric Bogosian |
| Date premiered | April 27, 1994 |
| Place premiered | Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater |
SubUrbia is a play by Eric Bogosian chronicling the nighttime activities of a group of aimless 20-somethings still living in their suburbian New Jersey hometown and their reunion with a former high school classmate, Pony, who has become a successful musician. Pony's return strips away illusions and excuses to reveal the meaningless dead-end existences of everyone.
The play was first workshopped at the American Repertory Theatre Institute with Steve Zahn in the role of Buff. It was directed by Eric Bogosian.
The play was originally produced at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater of the Lincoln Center Theater from April 27 through August 28, 1994, featuring Martha Plimpton (Sooze), Josh Hamilton (Jeff), Firdous Bamji (Norman), Tim Guinee (Tim), Wendy Hoopes (Bee-Bee), Zak Orth (Pony), Babette Renee Props (Erica), Samia Shoaib (Pakeesa), and Steve Zahn (Buff). [1] Director Robert Falls won a 1994–1995 OBIE Award for the production. [2]
The Boston premiere was held at the Speakeasy Stage Co. in March and April 1997, with DavidLee Wilson (Jeff), Willy O'Donnell (Buff), Valerie Stanford (Sooze), Michael McLaughlin (Tim), Rik Sansone (Pony), Sims McCormick (Erica), Amir Darvish (Norman), Shonali Banerjee (Pakeeza), and Kate Luhr (Bee Bee). Directed by Steven Maler, the production won two Eliot Norton Theater Awards and appeared on the "Best Of 1997" lists in The Boston Globe , Boston Herald , and Phoenix .
The play was presented in 2006 at New York City's Second Stage Theatre with Kieran Culkin (Buff), Gaby Hoffmann (Sooze), Jessica Capshaw (Erica), Daniel Eric Gold (Jeff), Michael Esper (Pony), Halley Feiffer (Bee-Bee), Manu Narayan (Nazeer), and Diksha Basu (Pakeeza), and was directed by Jo Bonney. [3]
Steve Zahn and Samia Shoaib reprised their original roles in the 1996 film version, which also included Parker Posey and Giovanni Ribisi.
 | This article on a play from the 1990s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
Eric Michael Bogosian is an American actor, playwright, monologuist, novelist, and historian. Descended from Armenian-American immigrants, he grew up in Watertown and Woburn, Massachusetts, and attended the University of Chicago and Oberlin College. His play Talk Radio, was a finalist for the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Bogosian also wrote and starred in the 1988 film adaptation, for which he won a Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Steven James Zahn, is an American actor. The accolades he has received include an Independent Spirit Award, alongside nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Nicky Katt is an American character actor. He is best known for his role as Harry Senate on the television show Boston Public and for his roles as unsympathetic villains, including as a murderous cop on the take in Monk, an irascible motorhead in Dazed and Confused, an ill-fated white supremacist child rapist in A Time to Kill, and an embittered business rival in Boiler Room. He has also appeared in films including Insomnia, The Limey, SubUrbia, and Sin City, and is an semi-regular collaborator of Richard Linklater, Steven Soderbergh, and Christopher Nolan.
SubUrbia is a 1996 American comedy drama film directed by Richard Linklater from a screenplay by Eric Bogosian, based on his play of the same name. It follows the relationships between a few young adults as they spend their time standing on "the corner" outside a local convenience store. The film stars Jayce Bartok, Amie Carey, Nicky Katt, Ajay Naidu, Parker Posey, Giovanni Ribisi, Samia Shoaib, Dina Spybey, and Steve Zahn.
Karyn Dwyer was a Canadian actress, whose best known role was as Maggie in the 1999 film Better Than Chocolate.
Wendy Hoopes is an American actress best known for her roles on MTV's animated series Daria, where she provided the voices for three different main characters.
Jonathan Marc Sherman is an American playwright, poet, and actor. He submitted plays for several years to Young Playwrights Inc.'s National Playwrights Competition before they did a staged reading of his one-act, Serendipity and Serenity in 1987, followed by a full production of his next play, Women and Wallace (1988).
Firdous Bamji is an Indian-born actor and writer.
Suburbia refers to the suburbs of a metropolitan area.
Nicu's Spoon is an inclusion-oriented off-off-Broadway theater company in New York City. The company works with actors regardless of age, ability, gender, color or ethnicity and seeks to challenge stereotypes and expectations. Nicu's Spoon was the first fully inclusive company in New York City. Nicu's Spoon are also co-founders of the Disability in Cinema Coalition (DCC).
The Substance of Fire is a play by Jon Robin Baitz.
Talk Radio is a 1987 Pulitzer Prize-nominated play written by Eric Bogosian, based on a concept by Bogosian and Tad Savinar.
Manu Narayan is an American actor, film producer, singer, songwriter, composer and saxophonist. He served as a Trustee of Carnegie Mellon University, his alma mater, from 2013-2016.
The American Place Theatre was founded in 1963 by Wynn Handman, Sidney Lanier, and Michael Tolan at St. Clement's Church, 423 West 46th Street in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, and was incorporated as a not-for-profit theatre in that year. Tennessee Williams and Myrna Loy were two of the original board members.
Robert Falls is an American theater director and the former artistic director of the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.
Daniel Eric Gold is an American actor. He attended Lee Strasberg's Theater Institute as a teenager, and went on to graduate from Penn State in 1996, with a degree in Theater Arts.
Mark Brokaw is an American theatre director. He won the Drama Desk Award, Obie Award and Lucille Lortel Award as Outstanding Director of a Play for How I Learned to Drive.
Rob Urbinati is a freelance playwright, screenwriter, book author and theater director based in New York City. He is the Director of New Play Development at Queens Theatre.
Twenty-Something Theatre is an independent theatre company in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, led by Artistic Director Sabrina Evertt.
Dad's Garage Theatre Company, located at 569 Ezzard St. in the Old Fourth Ward in Atlanta, Georgia, was founded in 1995 by Chris Blair, Marc Cram, Sean Daniels, George Faughnan, John Gregorio, David Keeton, Joseph Limbaugh, Matt Stanton, and Matt Young. A second wave of people in the founding summer soon followed, and the theatre company spent the next five years establishing itself in the Atlanta improv and theatre communities. The small theater company has since achieved international recognition for original stage productions and Improvisational comedy. Former Second City company member, Tim Stoltenberg is the current Artistic Director. Stacey Sharer is the current managing director.