Upcoming: Our Lady of 121st Street, UT Drama Department, November 7 - 15

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Our Lady of 121st Street
Written by Stephen Adly Guirgis
Directed by Luke Leonard

Performances: November 7, 13, 14, 15 at 8:00 PM
November 9, 15 at 2:00 PM
UT Lab Theatre

Admission: Free

Synopsis: The Ortiz Funeral Room is in big trouble: The body of beloved community activist and nun Sister Rose has been stolen from the viewing room, and waiting for her proper return are some of New York City's most emotionally charged, life-challenged neighborhood denizens, trying to find a place to put their grief, checkered pasts and their uncertain futures. A dark comedy in two acts.

Author Stephen Adly Guirgis is a playwright, actor, and teleplay writer. He is a member of the New York City LAByrinth Theater Company, whose other members include Philip Seymour Hoffman and Justin Reinsilber. His play Jesus Hopped the A Train won the Edinburgh Fringe First Award and the Detroit Free Press Play of the year. It was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Awards as Best New Play. Our Lady of 121st Street received a best play nomination from the Drama Desk. In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings was named one of the Ten Best Plays of 1999 by Time Out New York. In 2008 his play The Little Flower of East Orange was produced by New York's LAByrinth Theater Company and The Public Theater, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman and featuring Ellen Burstyn in the title role.

His television writing credits include NYPD Blue, UC: Undercover, and Big Apple, along with many projects in the works. He continues his acting on stage and on film, in movies like Todd Solondz's Palindromes, Brett C. Leonard's Jailbait (opposite Michael Pitt), and Noah Buschel's Neal Cassady.

Director Luke Leonard is a current M.F.A. Directing candidate at The University of Texas at Austin. Before relocating to Austin, he spent 12 years in New York where he received a B.F.A. in Acting from Brooklyn College and worked in theater and film as an actor, writer, director, producer and amateur-cinematographer. Recent awards include: a Morton Brown, Nellie Lea Brown, and Minelma Brown Lockwood Scholarship Fund in Drama, a Jack G. Taylor Memorial Endowed Presidential Scholarship in Fine Arts, a Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professorship Travel Grant, and a the University Co-Op Presents the Cohen New Works Festival Research and Development Grant.