Manning Up @ Salt Lake Acting Company (Salt Lake City, November & December)

MANNING UP A NNPN Rolling World Premiere

By SEAN CHRISTOPHER LEWIS

Directed by TRACY CALLAHAN

“Childbirth is a journey for you too.”

 -Donnie to Raymond, Manning Up

Salt Lake Acting Company is pleased to present the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of MANNING UP by Sean Christopher Lewis. This warm-hearted comedy is the second production of SLAC’s 42^nd Season and it will be directed by Tracy Callahan, performed in the Chapel Theatre. The National New Play Network is an organization which unites nonprofit theatres that champion the development and production of new plays. Through its program the Continued Life of New Plays Fund, NNPN supports three or more theatres which choose to mount the same new play within a twelve-month period. The result is a "Rolling World Premiere" where the playwright develops a new work with at least three different creative teams, for three different communities of patrons, and will join the repertoire of frequently produced new American plays. NNPN provides grants to each participating theatre. We share MANNING UP’s Rolling World Premiere with Riverside Theatre in Iowa and Actors' Summit in Ohio.

In MANNING UP, we meet Raymond and Donnie, long-time friends and soon-to-be-fathers. The way pregnancy is changing their wives is obvious -- but Donnie and Raymond are discovering that fatherhood is changing who they are, too. Together, in Raymond’s ‘Man-Cave’ the guys discuss their fears, harness their energies and explore their pasts and their futures as….men. The quirky friends are an odd yet endearing pair, based off of Playwright, Sean Christopher Lewis’ true life best friends; two men who discovered their wives were pregnant at the same time. Drawing on the realities unfolding in the lives of his friends, Sean felt compelled to articulate his personal fears about fatherhood through comedy.

MANNING UP gives new fathers a voice in a typically female dominated conversation. From Lamaze Class to the rediscovery of their own masculinity, MANNING UP is a humorous insight into what men can expect when they’re expecting.

Salt Lake Acting Company’s production of MANNING UP is directed by Tracy Callahan, Head of the Acting and Directing Program at Weber State University. Tracy’s directing credits at SLAC include the World Premiere of COURSE 86 B IN THE CATALOGUE, SIX YEARS, HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE, and MERE MORTALS. Real life, soon-to-be-father Lanny Langston is happily making his debut in Salt Lake City after recently receiving his MFA in Acting from the University of Idaho. Jesse Peery returns to the SLAC stage after appearing in last season’s World Premiere of A MAN ENTERS. Jesse will next be seen in Pygmalion Theatre’s Production of A NIGHT WITH THE FAMILY, a play that was a part of SLAC’s New Play Sounding Series in 2011.

SEAN CHRISTOPHER LEWIS (Playwright) Sean Christopher Lewis is the Artistic Director of Working Group Theatre. He is a contributor to NPR'S This American Life and his plays have been awarded the National New Play Network Annual Commission, the Kennedy Center's Rosa Parks Award, the National New Play Network Smith Prize, NEA Voices of Community Award, the William Inge Fellowship, a National Performance Network Creation Fun Grant, a Barrymore Award, two Central Ohio Critic Circle Citations and a National New Play Network Emerging Playwright Residency. His plays and solo pieces include KILLADELPHIA (Available Light Theatre, Baltimore CENTERSTAGE, Drilling Company NYC, Gerald W. Lynch Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Hartbeat Ensemble, Touchstone Theatre, Riverside Theatre, Legion Arts, Empty Boat Theatre, Adirondack Theatre Festival and more); JUST KIDS (Pontine Theatre, Sandglass Theatre, Working Group Theatre); I WILL MAKE YOU ORPHANS (Galapagos Art Space, Riverside Theatre, Uno Festival of Solo Performance, Hyde Park Theatre); MILITANT LANGUAGE (Know Theatre; Halcyon Theatre); THE APERTURE (Cleveland Public Theatre) and MAYBERRY (Hancher Auditorium; Bucksbaum Performing Arts Center and Iowa Arts Center).

NATIONAL NEW PLAY NETWORK (NNPN) is the country’s alliance of non-profit professional theatres that champions the development, production, and continued life of new plays. Since it’s founding in 1998, NNPN has commissioned almost two dozen playwrights, provided nineteen MFA graduates with paid residencies, and supported more than 100 productions nationwide through its innovative Continued Life of New Plays Fund, which creates “rolling world premieres” or new plays. Hundreds of artists have gained employment through these efforts in the dozens of regions of the country where NNPN member theatres are located. NNPN receives substantial support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, the Shubert Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

FACT SHEET

SLAC PRODUCTION                                     MANNING UP

PLAYWRIGHT                                               Sean Christopher Lewis        

DIRECTOR                                                     Tracy Callahan

CAST                                                               Lanny Langston, Jesse Peery

SET DESIGN                                                   Keven Myhre       

COSTUME DESIGN                                        Brenda Van Der Wiel

LIGHTING DESIGN                                       James M. Craig

SOUND DESIGN                                            Josh Martin

PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER               Jennie Sant

DATES                                                            Previews:         November 7 & 8, 2012

                                                                        Press Opening: November 7, 2012

                                                                        Closes:            December 9, 2012

TIMES                                                             Previews:         Wed & Thurs- 7:30 p.m.

                                                                        Regular:           Wed – Sat- 7:30 p.m. 

                                    Sun- 1:00 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.

SLAC NOTES

SLAC has tickets for every budget. Student, Senior and 30 & Under discounts are available. Single tickets range from $15, $23, $28, $38, depending on night of performance. Discounts are also available for groups of ten or more. Subscribers always pay the lowest price.

For tickets call 801-363-SLAC, visit www.saltlakeactingcompany.org, or come to the box office at 168 West 500 North, Salt Lake City, Utah 84103

SLAC is a not-for-profit 501(c) in 1970 and is dedicated to producing, commissioning and developing new works and to supporting a community of professional artists.  SLAC has been nationally recognized by the Shubert Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Edgerton Foundation, among others. SLAC operates under a STP Actors Equity Association contract. SLAC is a Constituent Member of Theatre Communications Group, a national organization for non-profit professional regional theatres, and the National New Play Network.