Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph
As two kids grow up, they try to discover whether their friendship is enough to heal the wounds they inflict on themselves.
The Studio@620 is pleased to host a production of "Gruesome Playground Injuries" by Rajiv Joseph. The show premieres Thursday August 2 and continues on Friday August 3 and Sunday August 5 at 7:30PM plus a Sunday matinee at 3:30 PM.
What's it about?
Doug and Kayleen are eight when they meet in the school clinic. She has an upset stomach; he just rode his bike off the school’s roof while playing Evil Knievel. They’re thirty-eight when she finds him again. He’s in a wheelchair, missing an eye and a tooth; she’s got a scar like a rollercoaster across her stomach. In the years between they face a series of accidents and injuries that give them their scars--and bind them together.
Admission is $15, $10 for students and seniors.
Red member tickets will be accepted.
About the Cast and Crew
Nathaniel French (Doug) is a graduate (BFA, theater) of Southern Methodist University and a native of St. Petersburg. This past year he spent a season as an acting intern at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre where he understudied and/or appeared in The Rep’s mainstage productions of Ten Chimneys, Lombardi, A Christmas Carol, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Othello as well as the intern production Rep Lab. His other professional credits include Room Service, Click, Clack, Moo, Charlotte’s Web, and Little Women (Hope Summer Repertory Theatre) as well as Knives In Hens at the Studio. His play Meltdown recently appeared as part of SMU’s New Visions, New Voices festival and was a finalist in the Ronald Duncan Playwriting Competition.
Aneesha Kudtarkar (Director) is a recent graduate of Southern Methodist University’s theater program (BFA, theater studies emphasis) and a Dallas native. Previous directing credits include Living Out, Animals Out of Paper, Ninety, The Vagina Monologues, Leading Ladies, and A Devil Inside. This past May, Aneesha won the Garland Wright Award for Directing and performed her original solo performance Sari I'm Not Sari. Aneesha has most recently worked at Big Thought, an arts education non-profit, where she made theater with at-risk youth ages 14-18. Aneesha has also worked extensively making theater with middle school students and special needs adults.
Bekka Walker (Kayleen) is a recent graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School (performance theater). Next fall she will begin pursuing a BFA in theater at Southern Methodist University's Meadows School of the Arts. Previous credits at the Studio@620 include Knives in Hens, Vesuvius, and Ham: A Love Story (in which she served as a collaborator and actor). At PCCA she was recently seen in Barefoot in the Park (Cory) and Macbeth (Lady Macbeth). She recently returned from Cape Cod where she worked as a production assistant and actor for the new feature film Lies I Told My Little Sister. She would like to thank her friends, her family, and God.
Mina Asayesh-Brown (Stage Manager) is a graduate of the St. Petersburg High School IB program and an incoming freshman in the Indiana University School of Journalism. At the Studio, she has previously been a part of the 2011 Inkies Summer Repertory, Knives in Hens, and the revival of Every Christmas Story Ever Told. She would like to thank her friends, her family, and the cast and creative team.
Jacob Stewart (Assistant Director) is a BFA theater student at Southern Methodist University where he has been seen as 2nd Gentleman in Othello, Black Dog in The Skriker, and Jasper in The Aliens. Jacob is a graduate of the Pinellas County Center for the Arts where he was consistently seen in leading roles. Jacob was a Walker’s Rising Stars finalist in 2009 and 2010 in Voice (2nd Place) and Acting (1st Place). At the Studio, Jacob has played Jamie in A Long Day's Journey Into Night and Pony William in Knives In Hens. Last summer, he was awarded the Maguire and Irby Family Foundation Grant from the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility to produce a summer repertory season in collaboration with the Studio@620 in which he directed a production of This Is Our Youth. He is very excited to be back at the Studio again for this production of Gruesome Playground Injuries.