April 1st - 24th

Orange County playwright Hogan's
moving story of the US Government's
atomic cover-up in 1950's Utah.

Click here for OC WEEKLY review

Directed by:
Darcy Hogan

Featuring:
Michael Serna - as The Man
Jason Lythgoe - as Joe
Erin Michaeli - as Maggie
Abbie DeVera Jackson - as Liz
Joyce Eriksen - as May
Jeremy Gable - as Boy
Kimberly K. Mitchell - as Girl

Stage Manager: Kara Rubio
Technical Assistants: Brey Barrett, Yesenia Soto
Production Assistants: Sammy Smith, Kimberly K. Mitchell

Co-produced by
The Hunger Artists Theatre Company & The March Hog Theater Company

Click here to download the STUDY GUIDE

Please visit the play's website: http://www.landsouthward.com

Postcard design and photography by Darcy Hogan

THE HUNGER ARTISTS THEATRE COMPANY AND THE MARCH HOG THEATER COMPANY PROUDLY PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF DARCY HOGAN’S PROVOCATIVE AND CONTROVERSIAL NEW PLAY

THE LAND SOUTHWARD

APRIL 1-24, 2005

FULLERTON, CA – The Hunger Artists will present the World Premiere of Darcy Hogan’s provocative and controversial new play The Land Southward, a chronicle of the abuses of the American atomic weapons program in Southern Utah, in a co-production with March Hog Theater Company, April 1-24, 2005 at The Hunger Artists Theatre Company, 699-A South State College Boulevard, Fullerton. 

Throughout the nineteen fifties, the United States government conducted above-ground nuclear testing in Nevada. Fallout from these tests rained down on rural Southern Utah. The “downwind” syndrome was born. Moving from the 1940s to present-day, The Land Southward follows the stories of a bright-eyed soldier and his young Mormon bride, an aging downwind survivor and an over-zealous writer from Los Angeles to explore and expose one of the most deadly United States government conspiracies to date.

Directed by Hogan and Jeremy Gable (who also plays The Boy), The Land Southward features Michael Serna (The Man), Abbie DeVera Jackson (Liz), Joyce Eriksen (May), Jason Lythgoe (Joe), Erin Michaeli (Maggie), Cheryl Rodes (The Girl) and Kimberly K. Mitchell (Understudy). Kara Rubio serves as production stage manager for The Land Southward.  Jill Johnson designs lights. Sets and props are by Hogan and Gable. Costumes will be designed by The Land Southward production assistants Sammy Smith and Kimberly K. Mitchell. Brey Barret and Yesina Soto serve as technical assistants.

Tickets to The Land Southward are $15. Discount tickets of $12 are available for seniors over 65, students with valid ID and groups of 10 or more.   Performances will take place on Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm. There will be a special evening performance on Monday, April 18, 2004 at 8pm. For tickets, please call 714.680.6803 or send an email request at least 24 hours in advance to hungerartists@yahoo.com.

Since 1945 there have been a total of 2,057 known nuclear tests worldwide. 1,030 of these tests were performed by the United States. 935 of those were performed in Nevada. Throughout the 1950s, the United States government conducted above-ground nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site. According to the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, an estimated 80,000 people who lived in or were born in the United States between the years 1951 and 2000 will contract cancer as a result of the fallout caused by worldwide atmospheric nuclear weapons testing.

Fallout from the tests is believed to have created radioactive hot spots thousands of miles away from the test sites. Hot spots due to testing in Nevada occurred as far away as New York and Maine. But the preponderance of radioactive material is believed to have been carried directly to rural Southern Utah. Government officials were aware of the risk, yet failed to warn those most directly effected. For example, in the 1950s the government informed photographic film producers of expected fallout patterns so they could protect their film supply, but did nothing to inform milk producers.  Radioactive iodine in milk is thought to be a major reason for the high incidents of thyroid cancer in downwinders.

“The Hunger Artists Theatre Company is proud to present the world premiere of this frank and disturbing work,” says Artistic Director Kelly Flynn. “Darcy Hogan’s play bravely sheds light on a shameful chapter in American history, one that is often willfully overlooked.  This is a story that needs to be told, especially now that the current administration is pushing so forcefully to develop a new generation of nuclear weapons. If we are not actually all downwinders now, we soon may be.”

Darcy Hogan is an emerging American playwright with a unique voice and Utah roots. In addition to The Land Southward, she has written several other pieces including the historical short “The Tramp Takes a Wife,” and the one-acts “Immunity,” “One for the Road” and “Moonlight & Jose Cuervo.” She is currently working on the full-length comedy, The Very Important Issue Project, with Jeremy Gable. Her 20-year acting career has included four seasons with the Utah Shakespearean Festival, and roles throughout New York, California and Utah. Hogan currently lives in Southern California, where she serves as co-artistic director of the March Hog Theater Company and associate producer of the Orange County Theater Festival.

For more information, please call the theater at 714.680.6803
or email hungerartists@yahoo.com