Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

Past Shows

That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play

THAT PRETTY PRETTY; or THE RAPE PLAY
written by Sheila Callaghan
directed by Kip Fagan

Extended!
Feb 10 – Mar 28, 2009
Tues – Sat at 8PM, Sundays at 3PM

A pair of radical feminist ex-strippers scour the country on a murderous rampage against right-wing pro-lifers, blogging about their exploits in gruesome detail. Meanwhile, a scruffy screenwriter named Owen tries to bang out his magnum opus in a hotel room as his best friend Rodney (“The Rod”) holds forth on rape and other manly enterprises. When Owen decides to incorporate the strippers into his screenplay, the boundaries of reality begin to blur, and only a visit from Jane Fonda can help keep worlds from blowing apart. Sheila Callaghan’s THAT PRETTY PRETTY; OR, THE RAPE PLAY is a violently funny and disturbing excavation of the dirty corners of our imaginations.

FEATURING:

(left to right) Joseph Gomez (NY stage debut), Lisa Joyce (Red Light Winter, Blackbird), Greg Keller (Steve & Idi, The Seagull – CSC), Annie McNamara (God’s Ear), and Danielle Slavick (NYC stage debut)

MEET THE TEAM
Sheila Callaghan (Playwright) has seen her plays produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwright’s Horizons, South Coast Repertory, The LARK, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, and New Georges, among others. Her full-length plays include SCAB, CRAWL FADE TO WHITE, CRUMBLE (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), WE ARE NOT THESE HANDS, DEAD CITY, LASCIVIOUS SOMETHING, KATE CRACKERNUTS, and FEVER/DREAM. Sheila has been commissioned by Playwright’s Horizons, South Coast Repertory, The Playwright’s Foundation, Clubbed Thumb, and EST/Sloan. She is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis, a MacDowell Residency, a 2005 Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, and the prestigious Whiting Award. Sheila is a resident at both HERE Arts Center and New Dramatists, and is also a member of the Obie winning playwright’s organization 13P.

Kip Fagan (Director) recently directed Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom by Jennifer Haley (Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville), The Young Left by Greg Keller (Cherry Lane Theatre), and Caravan Man, a musical about the life of the Prophet Muhammad by Tommy Smith and Gabriel Kahane (Williamstown). Other recent NYC credits include: Cory Hinkle’s Cipher (SPF), Sam Marks’s Nelson (Partial Comfort) and Christopher Durang’s Not a Creature Was Stirring (The Flea – world premiere). Other regional credits include Craig Lucas’s Small Tragedy (Playwrights Center, Minneapolis – world premiere), Kenneth Lonergan’s The Waverly Gallery (Empty Space Theatre, Seattle), and several plays with Printer’s Devil in Seattle, which he co-founded. Kip has developed new plays with New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists and Ars Nova, among others. He was a 2003-2004 NEA/TCG directing fellow and was the 2007 Bill Foeller directing fellow at Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Sheila Callaghan in Time Out NY

Sheila Callaghan in the New York Times

Click Here for NYTimes interview with Sheila Callghan, along with a slideshow by Sara Krulwich

See what John Lahr and the New Yorker have to say here.