(BOSTON) – From September 13 through October 12, 2013, SpeakEasy Stage Company will proudly present the New England premiere of TRIBES, the hit London and Off-Broadway drama by Nina Raine.
A 2011 Olivier nominee for Best Play and winner of the 2012 Drama Desk and Off-Broadway Alliance Awards for Best Play, TRIBES is a penetrating new work about belonging, family, and the limitations of communication. Born deaf into a fiercely intellectual and opinionated British family, Billy was pushed to assimilate into the hearing world as best he could by reading lips and staying out of the way. But when a young woman introduces him to the Deaf community, Billy decides it is time his family learns to communicate with him on his terms.
TRIBES was written by British playwright and director Nina Raine, daughter of poet Craig Raine, and grand niece of Russian novelist Boris Pasternak. Ms. Raine’s debut play, Rabbit, earned her the 2006 Charles Wintour Evening Standard Award as well as the 2006 (London) Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright. She is also the author of Tiger Country, the premiere of which she also directed for London’s Hampstead Theatre in 2011.
Veteran Boston director M. Bevin O’Gara will helm the area premiere of TRIBES, which will be her third directing project featuring deaf characters, the other two being Clybourne Park for SpeakEasy Stage and Love Person for Company One.
James “Joey” Caverly, a graduate of Gallaudet University and a veteran actor with the National Theatre of the Deaf, will play Billy. Also in the cast are Boston-area actors Adrianne Krstansky, Kathryn Myles, Nael Nacer, Patrick Shea, and Erica Spyres.
The design team for the SpeakEasy production of TRIBES includes Cristina Todesco (scenic); Mary Lauve (costumes); Annie Wiegand (lighting); Garrett Herzig (projections); and Arshan Gailus (sound). Adele Nadine Traub is the Production Stage Manager.
TRIBES will run for five weeks, from September 13 through October 12, in the Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End. The show will be performed in the round.
There will be two ASL-interpreted performances: Sunday, October 6 at 7PM and Friday, October 11 at 8PM.
Ticket prices range from $25-$60 with discounts for students, seniors, and persons age 25 and under. For tickets or more information, the public is invited to call 617.933.8600 or visit www.SpeakEasyStage.com.
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Production History
TRIBES had its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2010 where it was nominated for an Oliver Award for Best Play. The show then premiered Off-Broadway in 2012 at New York’s Barrow Street Theatre in a production directed by David Cromer, who also directed the New York and Boston productions of Our Town. TRIBES’ New York production enjoyed an acclaimed 10-month run that earned it numerous awards, including the 2012 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Play, and the 2012 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play.
Artist Information
NINA RAINE (Playwright) began her career as a trainee director at the Royal Court Theatre after graduating from Oxford. She both directed and served as dramaturg for Unprotected at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre (TMA Best Director Award, Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award). Her debut play, Rabbit, premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2006 and transferred to the West End before going to New York. Rabbit won the Charles Wintour Evening Standard and Critics Circle Award for most Promising Playwright. Ms. Raine also directed her second play, Tiger Country, at Hampstead Theatre. She directed Jumpy at the Royal Court Theatre, later transferring to the West End, and Shades (Critics Circle and Evening Standard Awards for Most Promising Newcomer). TRIBES, her commission for the Royal Court Theatre, won an Offie award, and was also nominated for both Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for best new play. Ms. Raine recently directed Longing at Hampstead Theatre.
M. BEVIN O’GARA (Director) returns to SpeakEasy Stage after directing Clybourne Park last season. Other local directing credits include You for Me For You, Love Person, and The Pain and the Itch (Company One); Matt and Ben (Central Square Theater); Two Wives in India and Gary (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); 2.5 Minute Ride (Downstage @ New Rep); Othello and The Crucible (New Rep On Tour); Melancholy Play (Holland Productions); Bat Boy: The Musical (Metro Stage); Tattoo Girl, Painting You, and Artifacts (Williamstown Theatre Festival Workshop); and ANTI-KISS (3 Monkeys Theatrical Productions). She has also worked with New Repertory Theatre, the Gaiety Theatre of Dublin, and the Actors Centre of Australia. Ms. O’Gara is an Associate Producer at the Huntington Theatre Company. She has a BFA from Boston University in Theatre Studies.
JAMES CAVERLY (Billy) SpeakEasy: debut. James has been involved with the National Theatre of the Deaf for two years appearing in Journey of Identity, Stories In My Pocket Too, The W-5s: Stories Behind, and A Child’s Christmas in Wales. In Washington DC, he appeared in Faction of Fools’ Tales of Courage and Poultry as well as Tales of Honor and Anchovies. At Gallaudet University, James performed in L’Abbe de L’Eppe, UnContented Love, Spoon River Anthology, Urinetown, and Agamemnon. His proudest accomplishment thus far, however, was directing Noises Off, a production which was recognized by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival at Region II in 2011.
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ADRIANNE KRSTANSKY* (Beth) returns to SpeakEasy after having appeared in Body Awareness and Snakebit. New York and regional credits include appearances with The Public Theater, Atlantic Theater Company, Steppenwolf Theatre, and LaJolla Playhouse. Locally, she has performed with the American Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare, New Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage Company, Boston Playwrights Theatre, and Gloucester Stage Company among others. Film credits include Carol in The Company Men.
KATHRYN MYLES* (Ruth) SpeakEasy: debut. Recent Boston-area credits include: Our Town (Huntington Theatre Company – 2013 Elliot Norton & IRNE Awards, Outstanding Production); These Shining Lives (Stoneham Theatre); Pericles (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Trout Stanley (Exquisite Corps); A Feeble Mind (Brown Box Theatre Project); Enron (Zeitgeist Stage); Melancholy Play (Holland Productions); and Macbeth, King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing (Hampshire Shakespeare Company). Upcoming: Henry VIII (Actors’ Shakespeare Project). Ms. Myles holds a degree in theater from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association. www.kathrynmyles.com
NAEL NACER* (Daniel) is delighted to make his SpeakEasy debut. Area credits include: Our Town (Huntington Theatre Company, IRNE award); Shear Madness (Charles Playhouse); Distracted (Underground Railway Theater); The Kite Runner, Lungs (New Repertory Theatre); The Temperamentals, Animal Crackers (Lyric Stage); Love Person, 1001, The Aliens, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Company One); The Farm, Gary (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre); The Flu Season (Whistler in the Dark); Waters Rising, Shouting Theatre in a Crowded Fire (National Theatre of Allston); A Number (Payomet PAC); and Polaroid Stories (Tinderbox Stage). Off-Broadway credits: The Hiding Place (59E59) and Lemonade (NYC Fringe Festival).
PATRICK SHEA* (Christopher) is very happy to mark his first appearance with SpeakEasy Stage. Mr. Shea began his career in the Acting Ensemble of the New York Shakespeare Festival and in the Broadway production of Child’s Play. A veteran cast member of Shear Madness here in Boston, he has also performed at New Rep, Merrimack Rep, Gloucester Stage, The Wilbur Theatre, The Nickerson Theatres and Worcester Foothills. He’s also made several appearances as an actor and narrator with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, and Boston Lyric Opera. His film credits include Infinitely Polar Bear, Ted, The Invention of Lying, Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, Killer Flood, and By the Sea.
ERICA SPYRES* (Sylvia) returns to SpeakEasy after having appeared in The Light in the Piazza (IRNE Award). Recent credits include Master Class and Marry Me a Little (New Rep); Of Mice & Men (Moonbox); Avenue Q (IRNE Award, Elliot Norton nomination), Time Stands Still (Elliot Norton nomination), The Mikado (Lyric Stage); and Pirates! (Huntington Theatre). Erica is a busy corporate spokesperson, radio/TV announcer, and can be seen and heard on commercials throughout the US. She coaches for My College Audition and is a member of Actors’ Equity Association. www.ericaspyres.com
For tickets or more info on TRIBES, the public can call the BostonTheatreScene Box Office at 617.933.8600 or visit www.BostonTheatreScene.com.