Chagrin Falls
Note
Not yet published.Description
To live in Chagrin Falls, Oklahoma is to be in the killing business. The town’s major employers are a cattle slaughterhouse and a penitentiary where lethal injection is administered. Whether they work at the slaughterhouse, or play preacher or guard to death row inmates, or merely offer a bed and a hot meal to those visiting the prison, each resident of Chagrin Falls makes their living off of death and captivity. A week prior to a particular execution, an Asian-American graduate student comes to town — purportedly to do a story on a man who is scheduled to die. As this would-be journalist interviews a cross-section of the population she finds her subjects revealing far more than their opinions on capital punishment. She is repelled by the recently-retired slaughterhouse employee’s morbid humor and his strangely intense interest in her background. She is seduced by one prison guard’s painful tale of sacrifice, and is comforted by the naivete and kindness of another. Though she never gets what she came for, when she witnesses the execution she becomes one of them: a participant in the killing, an honorary resident of Chagrin Falls.
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Contemporary Costumes
Press Quotes
“There’s a scene toward the end of Act One … that is so quiet and unassuming, yet so provocative, so dramatically sound and so richly satisfying, that it all but explains what the theater is for.” —Tom McElfresh, Cincinnati City Beat
“Ms. McCullough has the gift of tricking you into thinking her elegant, eloquent dialogue could be real conversation, but of course, conversation is rarely this casually illuminating or so filled with gentle laughter.” —Jackie Demaline, The Cincinnati Enquirer
“The play marks the emergence of a very promising theatrical voice — one with both style and substance.” —Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
Author
Mia McCulloughMia McCullough's plays have been produced at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago Dramatists, and Stage Left Theatre in Chicago, as well as around the country at the Old Globe and Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego, InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, Actor's Express in Atlanta, and the Victory Theater Center in Los Angeles, among others. Her work has been developed through Goodman Theatre's New Stages Festival, the PlayPenn conference, Steppenwolf Theatre Company's First Look Repertory, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Stage Left Theatre's LeapFest and Chicago Dramatists. Her play SINCE AFRICA received its New York premiere at Red Fern Theatre Company in February 2014. Her play IMPENETRABLE, which recently opened at Clockwise Theatre in Waukegan, was a finalist for the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)'s 2013 Steinberg Award. She has won the ATCA Osborn Award, the Julie Harris Playwriting Competition, a Cincinnati Entertainment Award, and a Jeff Award for New Work (all for CHAGRIN FALLS). Ms. McCullough has been a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (SINCE AFRICA), the Jane Chambers Award (IMPENETRABLE), as well as a nominee for a Jeff Award for Best New Play multiple times. Several of her plays have been published by Broadway Play Publishing. She is adjunct faculty at Northwestern University, where she teaches playwriting and screenwriting. She is also the author of several screenplays, a resident playwright with Chicago Dramatists, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. She lives just outside Chicago with her husband and child.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | |
| Pages | 92 |
| ISBN | 9798888560617 |
Special Notes
CHAGRIN FALLS was originally produced by Stage Left Theatre Company
Jessi D. Hill, Artistic Director, in Chicago, IL,
and was developed in part through
Chicago Dramatists and The Playwrights Collective.
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com