Shotgun

Shotgun

Written by: John Biguenet 

Southern Rep Theater    5/6/2009 - 6/14/2009 (schedule)

Producer: Southern Rep

Category:  Drama · World Premiere · Professional

Photo Gallery (4 images)
 
 
 

NOW, EXTENDED THROUGH SUNDAY, JUNE 14!

In SHOTGUN, the second play of his acclaimed RISING WATER Trilogy, John Biguenet explores what happens when the storm water recedes. Mattie, an upwardly mobile African American landlord, rents the other half of her shotgun double to the white carpenter Beau and his teenage son who lost their home to the flood waters. Dexter, Mattie’s unemployed machinist father, has moved in with her and is none too happy that she’s renting to Beau. In this pressure-cooker of a house divided, these wounded people must choose between living in the dark past or looking to a brighter future.

Total performances: 16

Cast
Alex Lemonier.... Eugene Harlan
Donna Duplantier.... Mattie Godchaux
Kenneth Brown, Jr..... Clarence (Willie) Williams
Lance Nichols.... Dexter Godchaux
Rus Blackwell.... Beau Harlan
*=featured role

Staff
Valerie Curtis-Newton ....  Director
Sarah Zoghbi ....  Prop Master; Production Stage Manager
Eric Shimelonis ....  Composer; Sound Designer
Ashley Heitzman ....  Run Crew
Patti West ....  Lighting Designer
Kelly James-Penot ....  Costume Designer
Geoffrey Hall ....  Scenic Designer
Julie Hamberg ....  Managing Director
Lauren Guillot ....  Associate Stage Manager
John B. Barrois ....  Production Photographer

News

From PlayFest: Looking at John Biguenet and 'Shotgun'
John Biguenet, whose new play Shotgun will get public readings Friday Jan. 23 and Tuesday Jan. 27 at [Orlando's] PlayFest, answers some questions about his new play.
by E. Maupin
Orlando Sentinal 1/22/09
 
Exorcising Katrina: John Biguenet works through the emotional aftermath
The drama, called “Shotgun,” is the second in a three-play cycle that Biguenet undertook during the months following New Orleans’ disastrous tangle with Hurricane Katrina. The cycle began with his “Rising Water,” staged at Southern Rep Theatre in 2007. He says the project arose from a need to tell the story of how the city suffered as a result of negligence and bungling by people charged with protecting it.
by Kathy Finn
OnStage Magazine / myneworleans.com 5/01/09
 
Community Theater
Shotgun, the second installment in John Biguenet's Rising Water cycle, opens this week at Southern Rep and is as much a forum for conversation as it is a form of entertainment
by Noah Bonaparte Pais
The Gambit Weekly / bestofneworleans.com 5/04/09
 
In John Biguenet's post-Katrina trilogy two families struggle to restart their lives...
Novelist, short story writer, essayist and playwright John Biguenet found dark inspiration in a desperate New Orleans for his play "Rising Water, " which depicted a typical New Orleans couple trapped as the flood waters surrounded them, then forced out onto the roof of their home. Now, in his new play, "Shotgun, " which opens this week at Southern Rep, he ventures into the flood's aftermath.
by Susan Larson
The Times-Picayune / nola.com 5/05/09
 
Talk back with playwright John Biguenet at S. Rep
It was Booklovers Night at Southern Rep on Friday, May 8, and an enthusiastic crowd of theater-goers was on hand for the second preview night of John Biguenet's "Shotgun," the second in his "Rising Water" trilogy. Approximately 50 audience memebers remained after the play for a discussion with the playwright, director Valerie Curtis-Newton and actor Lance E. Nichols, who plays Beau Harlan, a dispossessed, widowed carpenter in the play.
by Susan Larson
The Times-Picayune / nola.com 5/12/09
 
REVIEW:'Shotgun' uses pair of families to explore the emotions bared by Hurricane Katrina's flooding
During the sharing of stories and pains and grievances so common shortly after Hurricane Katrina, a wise friend remarked that we should be willing to forgive anyone anything that caused hurt in those first stressful days and weeks. In "Shotgun," the second of a planned trilogy of Katrina plays, playwright John Biguenet exposes with power and grace the wounds that remain anyway and examines how they might best be healed.
by Theodore P. Mahne
The Times-Picayune / nola.com 5/15/09

Notes: John Biguenet was named the inaugural Theatre Person of the Year at New Orleans' Big Easy Awards in 2007. Biguenet, the Robert Hunter Distinguished Professor at Loyola, has won numerous awards for his stories, plays and essays. His recent play about Hurricane Katrina, RISING WATER, debuted at Southern Rep and became their bestselling show ever. The play was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and has since gone on to productions across the country. Biguenet also penned the play VULGAR SOUL, the novel "Oyster" and "The Torturer's Apprentice: Stories," among many other works. RISING WATER was the winner of the 2006 National New Play Network Commission Award, a 2006 National Showcase of New Plays selection, and a 2007 recipient of an Access to Artistic Excellence development and production grant from the NEA. VULGAR SOUL won the 2004 Southern New Plays Festival at Southern Rep. He has been awarded a 2007 Marquette Fellowship for the writing of his next play, NIGHT TRAIN, which he has been invited to develop at the Royal National Theatre in London. His radio play WUNDMALE, which premiered on Germany's largest radio network, was rebroadcast by the Austrian national radio and TV network. Two of his stories have been featured in "Selected Shorts" at Symphony Space in NYC. His work has received an O. Henry Award and a Harper's Magazine Writing Award among other distinctions. Named its first guest columnist by The New York Times, Biguenet has chronicled in both columns and videos his return to New Orleans after the flood as well as the efforts to rebuild the city.
Record created by: kori koerner


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