World Premiere, October 2 through October 27
featuring Quincy Dunn-Baker, Layla Khoshnoudi, Diana Oh, Claire Siebers, & JD Taylor
Gretchen, Emma and Whitney have been friends since they were teenagers. They've been sober since they were teenagers. They set off on a road trip south--with homemade female urination devices, too much pie, and ill-advised sexual escapades--to celebrate and mourn a figure from their past. Catya McMullen’s new dark comedy GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD reveals what it's like to face adulthood and death after growing up weird and possibly broken.
Scenic Design: Alexis Distler | Costume Design: Sydney Maresca | Lighting Design: Cat Tate Starmer | Sound Design: Almeda Beynon | Props Master: Caitlyn Murphy | Intimacy/Fight Director: Alex J. Gould | Production Stage Manager: Fran Acuña-Almiron | Assistant Stage Manager: Ingrid Pierson
Photos by Jeremy Daniel Photography
REVIEWS
“★★★★”
“Morbidly hilarious…It breaks your heart with a piercing exploration of the ways in which loss, trauma and love—romantic, platonic, familial—shape our lives.”
- Raven Snook, TimeOut New York, CRITIC’S PICK
“Funny, engaging, and occasionally vicious, especially when it dives into its characters’ ugly, vulnerable moments.”
“Hilariously foulmouthed.”
- Maya Philips, The New Yorker
“★★★★”
“With GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD, McCullen celebrates a special sort of resilience that’s rooted in a sense of self, while showing it receives vital nourishment from our connection with others.”
About the Artists
CATYA McMULLEN (Playwright) is a playwright, comedian, TV + screenwriter. Her plays include AGNES (Lesser America/59E59, NYT Critics Pick), LOCKED UP BITCHES (The Flea Theater), GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD (Upcoming World Premiere EST/Youngblood), Everything Is Probably Going To Be Okay, We Pray To Elephants, A**HOLES IN GAS STATIONS, Rubber Ducks And Sunsets (Ground UP Productions) along with numerous shorts. Her play Missed Connection won the Sam French OOB short play competition and was directed by Leslye Headland (Russian Doll). She is the creator of the WE ARE ANIMALS series, a quarterly variety show series she wrote with Scott Klopfenstein of the Gold Record selling band Reel Big Fish, where she performed under her feminist hip hop alias “Chihuahua Fancy.” She is a proud alum of the Obie Award-winning EST/Youngblood and a company member of The Middle Voice Theater Company; the apprentice company of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Film/TV: AMC's Dietland, Freeform's Everything's Gonna Be Okay (upcoming), and currently FX's "Y the Last Man" adaptation. GEORGIA MERTCHING IS DEAD was optioned by STARTHROWER Entertainment, which she adapted. BA UNC Chapel Hill.
GIOVANNA SARDELLI* (Director). With Rajiv Joseph: Los Angeles: Archduke (World Premiere the Taper, CTG), Guards at the Taj (Geffen Playhouse, 2017 Ovation Award for Best Production of a Play). Off-Broadway: Describe The Night (Obie Award for Best New American Play 2018), Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane); Animals Out of Paper – Joe A Callaway Award - and All This Intimacy (Second Stage); The Leopard and The Fox(AlterEgo). Regional: Archduke (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), Describe The Night (Alley Theatre); Mr. Wolf (Cleveland Play House); The Lake Effect (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley); The North Pool (TheatreWorks World Premiere, Barrington Stage Company). Other Select Off-Broadway World Premieres: The upcoming Georgia Mertching is Dead by Catya McMullen (Ensemble Studio Theatre), Little Children Dream of God (Roundabout); Wildflower (Second Stage); Finks (Ensemble Studio Theatre); Apple Cove (Women’s Project). Other Select Regional: the recent World Premiere of Heidi Armbruster’s Mrs. Christie (Dorset Theatre Festival), They Promised Her the Moon, Somewhere, The Whipping Man (The Old Globe); Constellations (Geffen Playhouse); All The Way, The Whipping Man (Cleveland Play House); The Mountaintop, Absalom (Actor’s Theatre of Louisville); Clybourne Park, Lord of the Flies, Muckrakers (Barrington Stage Company); Crimes of the Heart, Velocity of Autumn, Somewhere (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). Though based in New York, Sardelli is the Director of New Works for TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, the recipient of the 2019 Regional Theatre Tony Award. Education: MFA Graduate Acting Program, NYU and graduate of their Director’s Lab.
*Denotes EST Member Artist