KISS (2019)

REGIONAL PREMIERE

by Guillermo Calderón
Directed by Monty Cole
July 18 - August 18
Haven Theatre (at The Den Theatre)

Two couples meet for their weekly soap opera viewing party, but that standing double date quickly starts to feel like a soap opera itself when the friends unpack scandals, secrets and their heart-rending passions. Guillermo Calderón has written a bold and political theatrical experience that explodes the romantic drama and asks what it means to empathize with a culture and conflict that is not your own.

Monty says, “I directed this play in grad school and it stuck with me. The way play constantly shifts, it asks its audiences if we could ever understood or feel an issue, a war, a battle outside of our culture. In my grad school production, I was charged with how I could’ve made the production more personal. There’s a point in the middle of the play when the “director” (an actor) shifts the production into a new direction. I wondered what it would be like to take this play back to Chicago, but instead of an actor playing the role of the director that makes a mistake, what would it look to throw myself into that position? Would it deepen the stakes? Would it change the audience experience? What does a collaboration look like when the director is part of the ensemble, moving the project forward as a collective? That ensemble carried me through a run of this show and I’ll never forget it.”

ENSEMBLE: Arti Ishak (Hadeel/Andrea), Salar Ardebili (Youssif/Daniel), Cassidy Slaughter-Mason (Bana/Laura), Monty Cole (Ahmed/Martin), Gloria Imseih Petrelli (Woman/Ameera’s Sister), Sami Ismat (Interpreter)

PRODUCTION TEAM
Scenic Design: William Boles
Lighting Design: Claire Chrzan
Sound Design + Original Music: Jeffrey Levin
Costume Design: Kotryna Hilko
Props Designer: Emily Boyd
Video Design: Liviu Pasare
Fight Choreographer: R&D Choreography - Victor Bayona and Rick Gilbert
Dialect Coach: Adam Goldstein
Intimacy Director: Gaby Labotka

Stage Manager: Corbin Paulino
Dramaturg: May Treuhaft-Ali
Associate Director: Abhi Shrestha

PRESS AND RECOGNITION

“Everything that leads up to the end is riveting, well-acted and deserving of the thunderous applause this company earned opening night." - Colin Douglas, Chicago Theatre Review

“Cole and Salar Ardebili perform very well as Ahmed and Youssif and the actor who plays Hadeel is excellent and full of dramatic energy.” - Nancy Bishop, Third Coast Review

KISS (2017)

Dec 1, 2017 - Dec 9, 2017
at California Institute of the Arts

Monty says, “The first time I directed this play on a large scale as part of my education at CalArts. With every shift of the play, the design shifted too creating some exciting moments in the space. This production had the potential to be extremely intimate and then very epic in the blink of an eye.”

ENSEMBLE: Karina Fathi (Hadeel/Andrea), Rishi Mukherjee (Youssif/Daniel), AJ Delaire (Bana/Laura), Freddy Ramsey (Ahmed/Martin), Tori Danner (Woman/Ameera’s Sister), Melis Yoruk (Interpreter)

PRODUCTION TEAM

Scenic Design: Melanie Waingarten
Lighting Design: Ben Wilson
Sound Design: Gahye Ryu
Costume Design: Edurne Fernandez
Video Design: Kam Yi Lee

Stage Manager: Dee Chiasson