Southern Rep to Stage MOLD World Premiere, 3/20-4/14

Southern Rep Theatre continues its 26th Season Mainstage Series with the World Premiere of MOLD by John Biguenet at The Contemporary Arts Center directed by Mark Routhier starring Trey Burvant, Kerry Cahill, Randy Maggiore, and Carol Sutton. In MOLD, John Biguenet, Louisiana Writer of the Year 2012, completes his award-winning Rising Water Trilogy including RISING WATER and SHOTGUN about the flooding of New Orleans and its aftermath. Set the summer after the levee collapse MOLD depicts a young husband forced to choose between his wife and the city he loves. The production runs between March 20 and April 14.

"Southern Rep Theatre instigated the Rising Water Trilogy in 2006 with a commission for John so it is incredibly rewarding to realize this final installment of his exploration of love among the ruins or more directly Big-Easy-life-post-2005. MOLD eloquently speaks to the resilience and strength of New Orleanians via quite a bit of laughter and just a few tears. During the production's run we look forward to many talkbacks not only to engage with the play but also to check in with our audiences including those who started this journey with RISING WATER and SHOTGUN and welcoming new audiences to both the city and John's work." -Aimee Hayes, Producing Artistic Director

MOLD is the third installment of the Rising Water Trilogy which is being produced simultaneously across the state with Swine Palace of Baton Rouge producing RISING WATER, March 6-17, and Acting Unlimited Inc. of Lafayette producing SHOTGUN, March 9-17.

"John Biguenet's Mold is the last installation of his Rising Water Trilogy. The trilogy explores the repercussions of a terrible tragedy in New Orleans history and this final part is an important part of the American playwriting canon. I feel honored to be a part of it." -Mark Routhier, Director, MOLD

Southern Rep and 504ward have teamed up to introduce the next generation of arts enthusiasts and supporters to Southern Rep followed by cocktails and a talkback by playwright, John Biguenet. 504ward Night, Wed March 20th, Preview Performance at the CAC.

Attention All Bloggers and Book Clubs: Join us for The Night of Bloggers and Book Clubs! Our Thursday, March 21st, Preview Performance welcomes local bloggers to attend the show on us. If your publication or business has a blogger on staff, send them our way and we will have two tickets waiting for them. Contact the Box Office at 504.522.6545 to take advantage of this special offer. This offer is only good for the March 21st performance. Attention All Book Clubs: Come see the show and enjoy a talkback with Louisiana Writer of Year 2012, John Biguenet, after the Preview Performance on Thursday, March 21st. Group discounts are available, contact the box office at boxoffice@southernrep.com.

Get informed! Support Gulf Restoration Network and join in a talkback with playwright, John Biguenet, and Aaron Viles of Gulf Restoration Network as they discuss the intersection of Art and Action during a panel discussion which will take place after the Friday, March 22nd, Preview Performance at the CAC. This preview is $25 with $5 dollars of each ticket sold going to the Gulf Restoration Network.

Pay What You Can Night! Thursday, March 28, 7:30pm is Southern Rep's Pay What You Can performance.

The award-winning design team includes Set Design by Geoffrey Hall; Lighting Design by Martin Sachs; Costume Design by Veronica Russell; Sound Design by Mike Harkins; and Prop Design by Emily Ross.

JOHN BIGUENET has published seven books, including Oyster, a novel, and The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories, released in the U.S. by Ecco/HarperCollins and widely translated. His work has received an O. Henry Award for short fiction and a Harper's Magazine Writing Award among other distinctions, and his poems, stories, plays, and essays have been reprinted or cited in The Best American Mystery Stories, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, The Best American Short Stories, Best Music Writing, Contemporary Poetry in America, Katrina on Stage, and various other anthologies. His work has appeared in such magazines as Granta, Esquire, North American Review, Oxford American, Playboy, Storie (Rome), Story, and Zoetrope. Named its first guest columnist by The New York Times, Biguenet chronicled in both columns and videos his return to New Orleans after its catastrophic flooding and the efforts to rebuild the city.

Biguenet's radio play WUNDMALE, which premiered on Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Germany's largest radio network, was rebroadcast by Österreichischer Rundfunk, the Austrian national radio and television network. Two of his stories have been featured in Selected Shorts at Symphony Space on Broadway, the Long Wharf Theatre, and elsewhere. THE VULGAR SOUL won the 2004 Southern New Plays Festival and was a featured production in 2005 at Southern Rep Theatre; he and the play were profiled in American Theatre magazine. RISING WATER was the winner of the 2006 National New Play Network Commission Award, a 2006 National Showcase of New Plays selection, and a 2007 recipient of an Access to Artistic Excellence development and production grant from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as the 2007 Big Easy Theatre Award for Best Original Play; it has had numerous productions around the country. SHOTGUN, the second play in his Rising Water cycle, premiered in 2009 at Southern Rep Theatre, with subsequent productions at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and Florida Studio Theatre, both in 2010; it won a 2009 National New Play Network Continued Life of New Plays Fund Award and was a 2009 recipient of an Access to Artistic Excellence development and production grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. SHOTGUN is published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc. His ongoing trilogy of plays about the flooding of New Orleans has been the subject of articles in American Theatre, The American Scholar, and elsewhere. He was awarded a Marquette Fellowship for the writing of NIGHT TRAIN, his new play, which he developed on a Studio Attachment at The National Theatre in London and which premiered at New Jersey Rep Theatre in 2011. In 2008, Biguenet was named Theatre Person of the Year at the Big Easy Theatre Awards, the region's major professional theater awards. He received the Louisiana Writer Award in 2012.

Having served twice as president of the American Literary Translators Association and as writer-in-residence at various universities, he is currently the Robert Hunter Distinguished University Professor at Loyola University in New Orleans.

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