APPROPRIATE Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT Tasha Gorel, Director of Communications tasha@recroomhtx.com | www.recroomarts.org

REC ROOM EXPOSES AMERICAN FAMILY SECRETS IN OBIE-AWARD WINNING PLAY APPROPRIATE “Exhilarating... Both gravely serious and mordantly funny” -Guardian “A bitingly funny family drama - and a shrewed analysis of the state of the nation” -Financial Times “Remarkable and Devious” -The New York Times

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins | Playwright

Susan Koozin | Toni

Greg Dean | Bo

Foster Davis | Franz

Elizabeth Marshall Black | Rachael

Skyler Sinclair | River

Francisco Zurcher | Rhys

Abbie Bard | Cassidy

(HOUSTON, TX) – (March 5, 2020) — Rec Room Arts continues its esteemed fourth season with the Obie-Award winning play, Appropriate by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and directed by Julia Oppenheim Traber. This riveting Houston premiere begins previews March 26, with an official press opening on Saturday, March 28, followed by an opening reception at Rec Room’s Bar. Performances will run through April 18.

MacArthur fellow and University of Texas at Austin faculty member, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, offers a revelatory American drama about a liberal white family, the Lafayettes, who experience an earth-shattering discovery about their late father’s past while selling his house in Arkansas. The forced reunion causes the family to spiral into explosive confrontations, repressed histories, and stinging regret. Appropriate received its world premiere Off-Broadway at Signature Theatre where Jacobs-Jenkins is an artist in residence. The play won him an Obie award for best new American play that year.

“What really triggered the writing of the play was hearing people describe the great American family drama and what that was,” described Jacobs-Jenkins. “I’d look around and be like, ‘There are no people of color on these lists....For Appropriate, I was interested in how invisible I could make blackness but still have it affect the viewing experiences.

Somehow what marks this family as ‘white’ is the fact that I’m a ‘black playwright.’ And, like, yikes.”

The complete cast of Appropriate features Susan Koozin (The Children, Exit Strategy), Greg Dean (Woyzeck, Exit Strategy), Foster Davis (LAByrinth Theater, Actors Theater of Houston), Elizabeth Marshall Black (Catastrophic Theatre, AD Players), Skyler Sinclair (Alley Theatre, AD Players), Francisco Zurcher (Rhys), Abbie Bard (Cassidy), and Molly Oubre (Cassidy swing).

The production team includes Rec Room mainstays. Scenic design by Managing Director Stefan Azizi, lighting design

by Addie Pawlick, costume design by Victoria Nicolette, sound design by Gage Baker, and dramaturgy by Eric Moore.

Stephanie Britton and Allison Viera are stage managers.

2019-2020 SEASON BIOGRAPHIES Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Playwright) plays include Everybody (Signature Theater), Neighbors (Public Theater), An Octoroon (Soho Rep, OBIE Award for Best New Play), Appropriate (Signature Theater, OBIE Award for Best New Play, Outer Critics Circle nominee), Gloria (Vineyard Theater, 2015) and War (Yale Rep, forthcoming). His plays have been performed at such venues as Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3, Soho Rep, the Public Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Actors Theater of Louisville, Center Theatre Group, Victory Gardens Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theater, The Matrix Theater, CompanyOne, Theater Bielefeld in Germany and the HighTide Festival in the UK. He is currently a Residency Five playwright at Signature Theatre and master-artist-in-residence in the Playwriting MFA program of Hunter College, City University of New York. Other honors include a 2016 MacArthur Fellowship, the Paula Vogel Award, a Fulbright Arts Grant, a Helen Merrill Award, the Dorothy Strelsin playwriting fellowship, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award. He is a Princeton alum from the Class of 2006, holds an M.F.A. in Performance Studies from NYU and is a graduate of the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard.

Julia Oppenheim Traber (Director) is delighted to collaborate with Rec Room Arts this season. Other directing credits include: Catastrophic Theatre’s Fefu and Her Friends; Classical Theatre Company’s Lysistrata; Mrs. Warren’s Profession; Henry V; Miss Julie; The Triumph of Love; Candida. Main Street Theater: The Secretary; RFK: A Portrait of Robert Kennedy. Stages Repertory Theatre: The Ultimate Christmas Show. Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre Company: Dryland. A.D. Players: Harvey. Rogue Productions: Matt and Ben. Stark Naked Theatre: All Girls. Unity Theatre: Becky’s New Car; Doubt; The Miss Firecracker Contest; Shooting Star; Almost Maine; Greater Tuna; Angel Street; The Importance of Being Earnest; Enchanted April; Cyrano. Texas Repertory Theatre: The Lion in Winter; Art; Wit; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).

Upcoming project: Mark Twain’s The Diaries of Adam and Eve at Unity Theatre. Julia assisted directed for Pam MacKinnon and Joe Hanreddy at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre and is a resident artist at Houston’s Classical Theatre Company. She has taught directing for the University of Houston and Rice University, and created and directed the Alley Theatre Young Performers Studio for several seasons. Julia is currently a member of the performing arts faculty at St. Francis Episcopal School and earned her MFA in theatre from the University of Houston.

Susan Koozin (Toni) is happy to be back at Rec Room where she was last seen in The Children and Exit Strategy. She was most recently seen in The Alley Theatre’s Murder On The Orient Express and in Sustainable Living and Whistlin’ Dixie for the Alley All New reading series. Her long association with Stages Repertory Theatre includes the one-woman show, The Blonde, the Brunette, and the Vengeful Redhead and her roles in two of the longest-running productions in Houston’s history, Always…

Patsy Cline and The Great American Trailer Park Musical. Other Stages performances include Pete ‘n’ Keely, Sexy Laundry, The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical, Steel Magnolias, Panto Pinocchio, The Complete History of America (abridged), Grey Gardens, Black Pearl Sings, Nickel and Dimed, Late A Cowboy Song, Bright Ideas, Dirty Blonde, and Company. Also in Houston: You Can’t Take It With You (A.D. Players); A Christmas Story, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Hairspray, The Sound of Music (TUTS); Rocky Horror, Heathers, The Sweet Potato Queens, Bonnie and Clyde, Hands On a Hard Body (TUTS Underground); Shooting Star (Unity Theatre); Ubu Roi (Classical Theatre Company); Defying Gravity (Main Street Theatre). A voice actor, educator and director as well, she is a consultant for the HSPVA Theatre Department. Susan is a proud member of Actors Equity Association.

Greg Dean (Bo) Rec Room: Woyzeck (Doctor), Exit Strategy (Arnold); Mildred’s Umbrella: Footfalls, Not I (director) Cloud Tectonics (Hanibal de la Luna), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (co-director, Karl), Dracula (director, designer, Dracula), The Flu Season (scenic design); The Catastrophic Theatre: Baby Screams Miracle, (Gabriel ), Tragedy: a Tragedy (Frank In The Studio), Jim Lehrer, the Theatre & Its Double, & Jim Lehrer’s Double (director, set, props), Tamarie’s Merry Evening of Mistakes and Regret (Mortando the Clown), Snow White (director, adaptation, Narrator), The Designated Mourner (Jack), Buried Child (Tilden), Tamarie for President (“Greg Dean”), The Hunchback Variations (director, scenic design, Quasimodo), The Pine (Morris the Hesitant), Waiting for Godot (Vladimir), The Tamarie Cooper Doomsday Revue (“Greg Dean”), Endgame (Hamm), Crave (scenic design, A), Paradise Hotel (co-director; scenic, props, sound design), Bluefinger (Ensemble), Hunter Gatherers (Richard), Our Late Night (scenic design, Lewis); Unity Theatre: And Then There Were None (Blore); Horse Head Theatre: Evocation to Visible Appearance (Russell); Hune Company Living Room Series: Blackbird (Ray); 14 Pews at La Colombe d’Or: The Fever (director, performer); Bobbindoctrin Puppet Theatre: Dance Macabre: The Constant Companion (Sid); Stagger Lee Presents The Caretaker (Davies); Infernal Bridegroom Productions: Endgame (Hamm), Eddie Goes to Poetry City (director; scenic, sound design), Quartett (director; scenic, prop, sound design, Valmont), Samuel’s Major Problems (director, designer, Samuel), Woyzeck (Woyzeck), Guys and Dolls (Sky Masterson), The Cherry Orchard (director, designer, Firs); Houston Shakespeare Festival; Classical Theatre Company; Alley Theatre; West-Mon Repertory Theater; Urban Theatre Project.

2019-2020 SEASON BIOGRAPHIES Foster Davis (Franz) A Texas native and member of Actors Equity, this is Foster’s first appearance at Rec Room. He is based primarily in New York, but has returned to Houston in recent years to work with old friends (and new), playing Frederick Fellows in Noises Off at Unity Theater, and Ichabod Crane in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at The George Theater with Episcopal HS. While he resided in Houston (1997-2004) Foster was a company member of Chris Wilson’s Actors Theater of Houston (R.I.P), where he performed on the regular. Highlights include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Baltimore Waltz, Toyer, and Spike Heels. He also played roles with the Houston Shakespeare Festival & Main Street Theater. In New York he has Off Broadway credits from productions at the McGinn Cazale Theater, the Irish Arts Center, LAByrinth Theater, and Looking Glass Theater among others. He has many Off Off Broadway credits, his favorite roles being Astrov from Uncle Vanya and Ross from Spinning Into Butter. Foster has also played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, toured with the American Shakespeare Center, and appeared in film, television, and commercials. His podcast Truest Thing I Know can be heard everywhere. He is a graduate of HSPVA and the University of Texas at Austin.

Elizabeth Marshall Black (Rachael) Elizabeth Marshall Black is happy to be making her Rec Room debut. Other acting credits include A.D. Players: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Christina Drayton), Harvey (Betty Chumley), You Can’t Take it With You (Gay Wellington), The Miracle Worker (Kate Keller) and O Little Town of Bagels, Teacakes and Hamburger Buns (Inez); Catastrophic Theatre: Tragedy, A Tragedy (Constance at the Home), Trevor (Morgan Fairchild), The Blackest Shore (Mel); Main Street Theatre: Private Lives (Amanda), The Secretary (Janelle), The Book of Will (Elizabeth/Emilia/Anne), Silent Sky (Annie Cannon), Peace in Our Time (Lyia), Fallen Angels (Saunders), Heartbreak House (Lady Utterword); Mildred’s Umbrella: The Hunchback of Seville (Queen Isabella), Becky’s New Car (Ginger), Carnival ‘Round The Central Figure (Becky); Celebration Theatre: The Divine Sister (Sister Acacius), The Beebo Brinker Chronicles (Beebo Brinker); Classical Theatre Company: The Government Inspector (Luka/Merchant); Ensemble Theatre: By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Gloria Mitchell). Elizabeth holds a B.S.and M.B.A.from the University of Texas at Austin and also studied acting at SUNY Purchase.

Skyler Sinclair (Toni) Skyler Sinclair is thrilled to make her Rec Room debut. Past credits include The Alley Theatre: Crimes of the Heart; A.D. Players: Around the World in 80 Days, Harvey; Main Street Theater: Private Lives, The Secretary, Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley, Peace in Our Time; 4th Wall Theatre: Shakespeare in Vegas, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Classical Theatre: Lysistrata, Catastrophic Theatre: The University of Tamarie; Unity Theatre: Doubt; Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre: Dry Land; Landing Theatre: Oleanna; Celebration Theatre: The Divine Sister; Shakespeare Outreach: Romeo and Juliet (Tour); Education: B.F.A., University of Houston.

Francisco Zurcher (Rhys) is a senior at HSPVA and is excited to be in Appropriate, his credits include: Tartuffe (Tartuffe), Mary Poppins (George Banks), The Crucible (Danforth), The Bald Soprano (Mr. Martin), Peter Pan (Mr. Darling/ Smee), A Wrinkle in Time (Reader 6), Woyzeck (Ensemble), The Chore (Paper boy), Marie (Dead child/Solder/ Court Ensemble), The Nutcracker (Party Child).

Abbie Bard (Cassidy) is a senior acting major at The High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and is ecstatic to be making her professional debut with Rec Room’s Appropriate. She has previously been seen at HSPVA in Hedda Gabler, The Crucible, Baltimore, Peter Pan, and Tales of the Lost Formicans, and will soon partake in Bernarda Alba. She gives all her thanks and love to her family, friends, instructors, and Baxter.

Molly Oubre (Cassidy U/S) is a junior at HSPVA and most recently could be seen in TUTS’s Spring Awakening (Ensemble) and HSPVA’s Into the Woods (Jack’s Mother). Other credits include TUTS Memphis (ensemble), Wildfish’s Carrie (Chris), and HSPVA’s Too Much alight Makes the Baby Go Blind (ensemble) She would like to thank her friends, family, and teachers for all of the amazing support.

TICKETS AND INFORMATION

Single tickets are now on sale and range from $5 - $40. They can be purchased at the door or online at https://www.recroomarts.org/appropriate.

Tickets can be purchased online by visiting www.recroomarts.org, over the phone by calling 866-811-4111, or in-person at the box office one hour before curtain. $5 Wednesdays - During the first Wednesday of each production, tickets will be $5.00. Limited to availability. First come first served.

Each production runs Wednesday – Saturday evenings with showtimes at 7:30 every night.

All shows are downtown at Rec Room, 100 Jackson Street, Houston, TX 77002.

ABOUT REC ROOM ARTS

Rec Room Arts is a non-profit arts organization whose mission is to develop innovative performances by emerging and established artists in order to energize a new generation of audiences for the arts.

Rec Room Arts is interested in supporting artists who work to bend and break the rules of conventional performance.

Along with our theatrical season, Rec Room Arts supports the work of Artists in Residence by providing time, space, and resources to create and present new work.

Current Resident Artists include musician Faith Fossett and Elizabeth Keel.

The Rec Room Bar is open show nights for drinks beginning at 6:30 p.m. The Bar serves as a communal gathering spot for patrons and artists.

Matt Hune is Artistic Director/Co-founder; Stefan Azizi is Managing Director; Sophia Watt is Associate Artistic Director; Tasha Gorel is Director of Communications; Allison Viera is Company Manager. The Board of Directors includes Evan Wildstein (President), Colin Brokaw, Abby Koenig, and Stephanie Wittels Wachs (Co-founder).

FACT SHEET Rec Room Arts Presents

OBIE AWARD WINNER: BEST NEW AMERICAN PLAY HOUSTON PREMIERE

APPROPRIATE

Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Directed by Julia Oppenheim Traber Opening Press Night: Saturday March 28, 2020 | Closing: April 18, 2020

Wednesdays - Saturdays @ 7:30 pm Tickets: $40 General Admission; $15 Student w/ valid ID Rec Room, 100 Jackson Street, Houston, TX 77002 Website: www.recroomarts.org Featuring: Abbie Bard Elizabeth Marshall Black Foster Davis Greg Dean Susan Koozin Molly Oubre Skyler Sinclair Francisco Zurcher Scenic Design: Stefan Azizi Lighting Design: Addie Pawlick Costume Design: Victoria Nicolette Sound Design: Gage Baker Stage Manager: Stephanie Britton Allison Viera Dramaturg: Eric Moore

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