Kitchen Dog and SMU set to open Our Lady of 121st Street this week

by Shawn Parikh

Having just won tons of Leon Rabin Awards this week, it is intriguing to see what Kitchen Dog Theater will be presenting next. This weekend, they will be opening Our Lady of 121st Street, in collaboration with SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, and it will run from November 16 - December 15.

The show is written by Stephen Adly Guirgis, who also wrote Jesus Hopped the A Train and The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which is currently playing at Risk Theater Initiative. In this recent Off-Broadway hit, a group of old friends find themselves at Harlem’s Ortiz Funeral Home to mourn the death of a beloved nun from their childhood. As they bounce off of each other with old hurts and the harsh realities of grown-up life, a murder mystery (and a few lives) begins to unravel.

The production will be directed by Co-Artistic Director, Tina Parker, who just snagged the Leon Rabin Award for Best Director. The show also stars Co-Artistic Director Christopher Carlos, Artistic Company Members Ian Leson, Christina Vela (who just won a Leon Rabin for Best Acress) and Bill Lengfelder and SMU alum Jamal Gibran Sterling. They will be joining students Amelia Johnson, Ryan F. Johnson, Giselle LeBleu, Keenan Olson, Joshua Peterson, Gwen Templeton and Johnard Washington.

The production team will feature KDT Artistic Company Members Christina Dickson (costume design), John M. Flores (sound design), Judy Niven and Jen Gilson-Gilliam (prop design)and Michael Wang (technical director) alongside SMU Theatre Department’s Emily Bean (light design), faculty member Ashley Smith (dialect coach) and a set design conceived by the 2008 SMU M.F.A. Design Class. SMU student Lee Helms will serve as Stage Manager.

Talk-backs with the actors and director follow the Sunday matinee performances. Pay-what-you-can specials (available to the first 25 patrons nightly) are on Wednesdays (November 21, 28 and December 12) and Thursdays (November 29 and December 6 and 13). This production contains cigarette smoking and adult language and situations.

Purchase tickets online or by calling 214-953-1055.