HURRICANE DIANE Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT info@recroomhtx.com | 713-344-1291

REC ROOM VENTURES TO RESTORE THE EARTH TO ITS NATURAL STATE WITH OBIE AWARD-WINNING PLAY ‘HURRICANE DIANE’

Kasi Love Diane

Jeanee Harris Carol

Chelsea Ryan McCurdy Pam

Jasmine Renee Thomas Renee

Elizabeth Marshall Black Beth

HOUSTON, TX (April 21, 2022) — Rec Room Arts (Artistic Director Matt Hune, Associate Artistic Director Sophia Watt, Managing Director Stefan Azizi) will present the Houston premiere of Hurricane Diane, Madeleine George’s (Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building) Obie Award-winning play that turns the Greek god Dionysus into Diane, a lesbian permaculture gardener whose secret mission is to save the planet from the ravages of climate change. Lily Wolff (Alley Theatre) will direct the production. Preview performances begin May 5, with an official press opening on Saturday, May 7. Performances will run through May 28.

Rec Room kicks off Houston’s hurricane season with a boisterous and searing comedy about…climate change. Loosely based on Euripides’ The Bacchae, Hurricane Diane infiltrates the lives of four tenacious women who have established comfortable roots on a New Jersey cul-de-sac. Equal parts Greek tragedy and ‘The Real Housewives of New Jersey,’ playwright Madeline George describes the production as “a sequel to The Bacchae in sitcom form.” Hurricane Diane uses absurdism and comedy as a way to explore humanity’s complex reactions to global warming and our capacity for change. “What can comedy let us see or think about or ask in a way that we can’t bear to see or think about or ask in drama? Does comedy open a door?” asks George.

The complete cast of Hurricane Diane includes Kasi Love (Diane), Jeanee Harris (Carol), Chelsea Ryan McCurdy (Pam), Jasmine Renee Thomas (Renee), and Elizabeth Marshall Black (Beth).

Hurricane Diane will feature scenic design by Stefan Azizi, costume design by Harri Horsley, lighting design by Madeleine Reid, sound design by Robert Meek, vocal consultation by Teresa Zimmermann, and fight and intimacy direction by Skye Bronfenbrenner. Trin Ho is the assistant director and Jessica Casanova is the production stage manager.

COVID Protocol Rec Room Arts is committed to welcome audiences back to its beloved downtown home. To play our part in helping to protect everyone as we return, Rec Room has made renovations and upgrades to the bar, lobby, and theater. In addition, all artists and staff have been fully vaccinated and take part in weekly COVID testing. Patrons are encouraged to mask inside the theater. All policies are subject to change and are dependent on CDC guidance.

HURRICANE DIANE COVID Protocol Rec Room Arts is committed to welcome audiences back to its beloved downtown home. To play our part in helping to protect everyone as we return, Rec Room has made renovations and upgrades to the bar, lobby, and theatre. In addition, proof of complete vaccination and negative weekly COVID-19 tests will be required for all artists and staff. So long as COVID-19 cases continue to transmit, audiences will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test upon entry. A complete vaccination means having received a final FDA or WHO vaccination dose at least 14 days before the performance date. Face masks will be required inside the building except when actively eating or drinking. All policies are subject to change and are dependent on CDC guidance.

BIOS MADELEINE GEORGE (Playwright) plays include Hurricane Diane (Obie Award), The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence (Pulitzer Prize finalist; Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award), Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (Susan Smith Blackburn finalist), Precious Little, and The Zero Hour (Jane Chambers Award, Lambda Literary Award finalist). Honors include a Whiting Award, the Princess Grace Award, and a Lilly Award. Madeleine’s translation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters is set to premiere at Two River Theater in 2022, and her audio adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For is forthcoming from Audible Originals. Madeleine is a founding member of the Obie-Award-winning playwrights’ collective 13P (www.13p.org), the Mellon Playwright in Residence at Two River Theater, and a writer on the Hulu mystery-comedy Only Murders in the Building. Since 2006, she has worked with the Bard Prison Initiative at Bard College, where she currently serves as Director of Admissions.

LILY WOLFF (Director) is the Literary Manager at the Alley and works passionately on the Alley All New initiative. Formerly from Austin, she has directed at Hyde Park Theatre, the Vortex Rep, Trinity Street Theatre, Salvage Vanguard Theatre, ZACH Theatre, Ground Floor Theatre, The Back Pack, UT Austin, Southwestern University, and Santa Cruz Theatre. Austin directing credits include: The Madres (NNPN Rolling World Premiere), Cry It Out, A Bright Room Called Day, The Effect, Fahrenheit 451, Lungs (“Best Direction” Austin Critics Table), As You Like It, and Gidion’s Knot. Lily has assistant directed at the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Cornerstone Theatre Company, and ZACH Theatre, among others. Developmental work includes plays

by Hilary Bettis, Claire Kiechel, Kyle John Schmidt, Tegan McLeod, Barbara Hammond, Charles Fuller, Bess Wohl, Neil LaBute, Christina Anderson, Johnna Adams, Julie Marie Myatt, and Gabriel Jason Dean. Lily is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

TICKETS AND INFORMATION Single tickets are now on sale and range from $10 - $50. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at https://www.recroomarts.org/hurricane-diane.

Hurricane Diane begins performances on Thursday May 5 and will run through Saturday May 28, with an official press opening on Saturday, May 7.

The performance schedule is Wednesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

All performances are downtown at Rec Rom, 100 Jackson Street 130C, Houston, TX 77002 ABOUT REC ROOM ARTS Rec Room Arts is a non-profit theatre 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 providing unique and enjoyable experiences through theatre that enhance the cultural imagination and social wellbeing of Houston. Rec Room believes in the theatrical examination of individual experiences and operates under the principles that theatre shapes behaviors, patterns, and the collective unconscious. Furthermore, Rec Room believes in the importance of making the overall experience of going to the theatre pleasurable. Therefore, audiences are invited to arrive early and stay late to socialize in our bar.

Matt Hune is Artistic Director/Co-founder; Stefan Azizi is Managing Director; Sophia Watt is Associate Artistic Director.

HURRICANE DIANE FACT SHEET Rec Room Arts Presents HOUSTON PREMIERE 2019 OBIE AWARD WINNER FOR PLAYWRITING

HURRICANE DIANE

Written by Madeleine George Directed by Lily Wolff Opening Press Night: Saturday, May 7, 2022 | Closing: May 28, 2022 Wednesdays - Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $10 - $50 Rec Room, 100 Jackson Street, Houston, TX 77002 Website: www.recroomarts.org Phone: 713-344-1291 Meet Diane, a permaculture gardener dripping with butch charm. She’s got supernatural abilities owing to her true identity—the Greek god Dionysus—and she’s returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state. Where better to begin than with four housewives in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac? Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards.

Full-resolution images and photo credits available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1nEs_06X0QEbJlU6yNXtjI2PRQN1e_5FJ?usp=sharing

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HURRICANE DIANE REC ROOM ARTS’ 2022 THEATRE SEASON: Houston Premiere 2019 Pulitzer Prize Finalist 2017 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Winner 2015 Relentless Award Winner

DANCE NATION

Written by Clare Barron Directed by Sophia Watt January 13, 2022 - February 5, 2022 Somewhere in America, an army of pre-teen competitive dancers plots to take over the world. And if their new routine is good enough, they’ll claw their way to the top at the Boogie Down Grand Prix in Tampa Bay. But in Clare Barron’s raucous pageant of ambition and ferocity, these young dancers have more than choreography on their minds, because every plié and jeté is a step toward finding themselves, and a fight to unleash their power.

Houston Premiere 2018 Obie Award Winner

HURRICANE DIANE

Written by Madeleine George Directed by Lily Wolff May 5, 2022 - May 28, 2022 Meet Diane, a permaculture gardener dripping with butch charm. She’s got supernatural abilities owing to her true identity—the Greek god Dionysus—and she’s returned to the modern world to gather mortal followers and restore the Earth to its natural state.

Where better to begin than with four housewives in a suburban New Jersey cul-de-sac? Pulitzer Prize finalist Madeleine George pens a hilarious evisceration of the blind eye we all turn to climate change and the bacchanalian catharsis that awaits us, even in our own backyards.

Houston Premiere 2018 Obie Award Winner 2015 Relentless Award Winner

IS GOD IS

Written by Aleshea Harris Directed by Candice D’Meza July 14, 2022 - August 6, 2022 Is God Is is a modern myth about twin sisters who sojourn from the Dirty South to the California desert to exact righteous revenge. Winner of the 2016 Relentless Award, Aleshea Harris collides the ancient, the modern, the tragic, the Spaghetti Western, and Afropunk in this darkly funny and unapologetic new play.

Houston Premiere

PUT YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER

Written by Ike Holter Directed by Matt Hune October 20, 2022 - November 12, 2022 A romantic-comedy/horror/thriller about a first date that spirals into a race against an invading force. When the city around them begins exhibiting signs that something is terribly wrong, Caroline and Roland quickly have to learn to trust each other to stand a chance against the horrors outside the gate. This Houston premiere from one of Chicago’s hottest playwrights (Exit Strategy, Sender) explores new beginnings at the end of the world.