JANUARY 8 - 31
Fri. & Sat. - 8:00 PM
Sun. - 7:00 PM
Special $5 Thursday performance - Jan. 28th - 8:00 PM

The 2010 Season begins with a play from local playwright Johnna Adams, examining the lives of two young girls, one injured, one killed, when they get involved in a dangerous humanitarian mission to South America. Jill Johnson has previously directed productions of "The Insanity of Mary Girard" as well as producing two installments of the "Dead Letter Office" festival.
 

CAST
Amber Noonan……………………………………………………......…….......................................Kelly
Jennifer Pearce…………………………………….……..………….….…......................................Tracy
Cynthia Ryanen………………………………………....………...…….....................................Elizabeth
 

PRODUCTION CREW
Jill Johnson..............................................................................................................................................Director
David Dominic Yu......................................................................................................................Stage Manager
Mark Matzkanin..........................................................................................................................Lighting Design
Lanie McGill.................................................................................................................................Sound Design

PLEASE JOIN THE HUNGER ARTISTS THEATRE COMPANY
IN THEIR 2010 SEASON OPENER AND WEST COAST PREMIERE OF
SANS MERCI BY JOHNNA ADAMS

JANUARY 8 -31, 2010

FULLERTON, CA – The Hunger Artists Theatre Company is proud to present Sans Merci by Johnna Adams as its first show of the 2010 Season. This West Coast Premiere of Sans Merci is directed by Hunger Artists Company Member Jill Johnson.

An idealistic young woman - a crippled survivor of an attempted murder by South American revolutionaries- is visited by the conservative mother of the other attack victim.

Tracy and Kelly, young students at UCI, are determined to make a difference by helping the U’wa Indians in Colombia organize a resistance campaign to protest the Occidental Petroleum Corporation’s plan to drill for oil on the tribe’s sacred sites.

Three years later, a no longer idealistic Kelly is the crippled survivor of a brutal attack, and Tracy never returned from the ill-fated mission of mercy. One rainy day in Los Angeles, Tracy’s mother Elizabeth shows up unexpectedly at Kelly’s apartment. This is their first meeting. Slowly, the two dance through their grief, while negotiating the truth of what brought the two young women together, why they undertook their dangerous humanitarian mission, and what happened on that final day.

Sans Merci was first premiered by the Bloomington Playwrights Project, Bloomington, Indiana, October 23 – November 8, 2008,  as the winner of the Bloomington Playwrights Project’s 2008 – 2009 Reva Shiner Award. The play also received a staged reading produced by The New York Group, New York, New York on March 3, 2009. This is the West Coast Premiere.

This production features Amber Noonan as Kelly. Noonan returns to the stage after touring schools with Phantom Projects Educational Theatre Group. She also plays on Safety Safari improv team at the Empire Theatre in Santa Ana. Jennifer Pearce appears in her second production at The Hunger Artists as Tracy. Pearce is a regular at Theatre Out in downtown Santa Ana, having appeared in Twilight of the Gods and Laramie Project earlier this year. She won the Camin Ovation Awards for best actress and best supporting actress for her performances in Accomplice and The Supporting Cast at the Camino Real Playhouse last season.  Elizabeth, the grieving mother is portrayed by Cynthia Ryanen. Ryanen is a founding member of Stage Theatre and trained in New York at New York’s H.B. Studios. She played Mary Mack in the West Coast Premiere of Johnna Adams play The Miracle of Mary Mack’s Baby and was most recently seen as Judy Sheppard in The Laramie Project An Epilogue: 10 Years Later.

David Dominic Yu is the Stage Manager for this production. Mark Matzkanin is providing lighting design and Kaitlyn Tice is designing costumes. Lanie McGill will be designing sound.

Johnna Adams is a New York-based playwright. Flux Theatre Ensemble (New York, NY) produced three of her full length plays, THE ANGEL EATER TRILOGY in November of 2008. The trilogy was nominated for seven 2009 New York Innovative Theater awards, including Best Original Full Length Play. Her play SANS MERCI received a reading at The New Group in March of 2009 (featuring Judith Ivey). Adams’s play SANS MERCI was the 2008-2009 Reva Shiner Award winner, and was produced by the Bloomington Playwrights Project in October of 2008.

"I was in tears the first time I read this play.” says director Jill Johnson. “I am so fortunate that Johnna Adams trusted me to bring this script to life. Adams is an amazing writer and takes us on an incredibly emotional journey. The characters are so complex and moving, yet they are easily relatable. I am so pleased with this cast and have enjoyed taking every emotional step with them.”

Jill Johnson has been a Company Member of the Hunger Artists since their second show in 1998. She previously directed The Insanity of Mary Girard for the 2006 season and Beyond Convention II and wrote for Beyond Convention I.  She was the production manager for the theatre from 2004 to 2007. She has worn many different hats for many of the past productions including: set designer, lighting designer, costume designer, and sound designer.  Johnson has also produced, conceived, and appeared in the writing festival Dead Letter Office and Dead Letter Office II.

“I am thrilled to be opening our 2010 season with this play,” says Artistic Director Amber Scott.  “Johnna is a well respected local playwright who has worked with us in the past, and I’m glad to be presenting another of her pieces.  It’s a beautifully written, poetic show that deals with a lot of ideals and realities in a lyrical way.  It’s a perfect fit for Hunger Artists.”

Performances of Sans Merci will take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 7 pm, with a special performance on Thursday, January 28^th   at 8 pm. General admission tickets are $18; senior and students (with valid ID) may purchase tickets for $15.  Tickets for the Thursday performance are $5.  Patrons may purchase tickets online by visiting our website (www.hungerartists.com). To reserve tickets by phone, please call 714.680.6803. For more information about Sans Merci or the Hunger Artists Theatre Company’s upcoming 2010 season, please visit www.hungerartists.com.  Programming, dates and times are subject to change.