Married couples David and Cathy Calhoun and Brad and Beth Youngquist live with their children in a relatively peaceful town. David and Beth, after years of maintaining a platonic friendship, begin an adulterous affair with disastrous consequences. Through a series of scenes which all take place on or around a single bed, we see the painfully intense real-time unraveling of both marriages and, eventually, the construction of a very fragile but authentic new beginning for everyone concerned.

Orange Flower Water
Written by Craig Wright
Directed by Mark Routhier
Featuring Veronica Russell, Kerry Cahill, Marie Lovejoy (understudy), Will Schneider and Garrett Prejean, with Jenny Billot stage managing, Emma Hill assistant directing, set design by Phil Cramer and costumes by Veronia Russell.

Orange Flower Water opens April 8th and runs through May 14th every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm.

BEST ENSEMBLE 2011 – The Elm Theatre
BEST DRAMA 2011 – The Elm Theatre
BEST DIRECTOR OF A DRAMA 2011 – Mark Routhier
BEST ACTRESS IN A DRAMA 2011 – Kerry Cahill
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA 2011 – Veronica Russell

Bio’s for Orange Flower Water

Craig Wright (playwright) Recent productions: Mistakes Were Made at A Red Orchid Theatre, Hartford Stage and the Barrow Street Theater; Blind at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre; The Gray Sisters at Third Rail Rep; The Unseen at Actors Theater of Louisville and upcoming at Stages Rep with Lady, which was commissioned by and received its world premiere from the Northlight Theatre and was subsequently produced at Rattlestick and around the country; Grace premiered at Woolly Mammoth theatre (nominated for the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play); Recent Tragic Events debuted at Woolly, and was produced at Playwrights Horizons (finalist for the American Theatre Critics New Play Award and the Helen Hayes Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play); and Melissa Arctic, a contemporary adaptation of The Winter’s Tale, premiered at the Folger Theatre (2005 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play). Other productions: Main Street, commissioned and premiered by the Great American History Theatre; Orange Flower Water, produced at the Steppenwolf (Chicago Sun-Times named it one of the Best of the Year); Molly’s Delicious, debuted at the Arden Theatre (Barrymore nomination for Best New Play) and at Arizona Theatre Company; The Pavilion, dozens of productions around the country including an extended run at Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre (Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding New Play). Publications include Main Street and The Unseen by Playscripts, Inc.; Molly’s Delicious by Dramatic Publishing; The Pavilion, Orange Flower Water, Grace, and Recent Tragic Events by Dramatists Play Service.

Mr. Wright received an Emmy nomination for his Six Feet Under episode Twilight and served as writer and producer for Lost, Brothers & Sisters, United States of Tara, and his own series on ABC, Dirty Sexy Money. His alternative rock band The Tropicals’ first release, Live At The Jungle, was named one of the Top 10 local releases by every leading Twin Cities newspaper and weekly. As a member of the band Kangaroo he has released two albums, Phantom and the brand new Skyscraper Spaceship. A graduate of United Theological Seminary, Mr. Wright lives in Los Angeles.

Mark Routhier- (Director) Mark’s local directing credits include Cat’s-Paw with InsideOut Prod. at the Allways Lounge and Theatre, The Santaland Diaries with A.J. Allegra at Le Chat Noir, The Piano Teacher, Opus, and The Seafarer at SRT, as well as Zombie Town: A Documentary Play and Love Child for Southern Rep @ Le Chat Noir. Bay Area and Regional credits include: Orlando Shakes (Opus), Magic Theatre (Monkey Room), Encore Theatre (Skin, The Bone Man of Benares, 70 Scenes of Halloween), Golden Thread (Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes, Compression of a Casualty, Coming Home), Best of Playground (Net, I’ll be Home for Christmas), Impact Theatre (Cartoon).

He directs Debauchery!, an ongoing live soap opera by Pat Bourgeois, and oversees 6×6 (6 ten minute plays by 6 local playwrights), both part of the Wednesday Night Series for Southern Rep @ Le Chat Noir. He directed The Streetcar Project, a workshop of A Streetcar Named Desire with InsideOut Productions at The New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane. He’s also directed workshops with playwrights Eisa Davis, Annie Baker, Marisa Wegrzyn, Rajiv Joseph, Carly Mensch, Lia Romeo, Susan Stanton, and Chris Chen. He dramaturged Peter McElligott’s With a Bang for Southern Rep among many others. He is Associate AD at Southern Rep. He was Literary Manager and then Director of Artistic Development at Magic Theatre in San Francisco. He serves on the Executive Committee for the National New Play Network (NNPN). Mark received an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU.

Kerry Cahill- (Beth)Kerry has studied at the British American Drama Academy, Queen’s University in Belfast, Loyola University New Orleans, Second City Chicago, and currently partakes in the wildness that is Suzuki at Southern Rep. In New Orleans Kerry has been seen in Story Circle, The Vagina Monologues, Flanagan’s Wake, Twelfth Night (the drinking game), Zombietown, and most recently Closer.  Kerry has worked as a teaching artist with Young Audiences, the Contemporary Arts Center, Voices for Children, and the Princeton Review. She was a founding member of NOLA Playback. Kerry has been seen in Chicago on stage in The Lost Shakespeare Play, Mechanical Angels, Heads, and Next Beer Is Here. She pursues film as well and can be seen drinking coffee in The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans and leading the swat team in Memphis Beat. Kerry would like to thank all the people of Le Chat Noir, her very understanding tech, her family, and to all the family upstairs…thanks for pulling some strings for me…Love you dad; hope this is long enough. Hooah!

Veronica Russell (Cathy) is an award-winning local actor and costume designer. She has been seen in The Piano Teacher  at Southern Rep, Hurlyburly  and Small Craft Warnings at Le Chat Noir, Equus at Le Petit, and Two Easy Pieces at the New Orleans Fringe Festival, among others. Her current project, A Different Woman: a True Story of a Texas Childhood is a one-woman show adapted from Gertrude Beasley’s controversial memoir which was published in 1925, then immediately banned and largely destroyed by authorities. She has performed it locally at the Shadowbox and le Chat Noir, and will be touring it across Canada over the summer.

Will Schneider – (Brad) To begin, Will first wants to thank everyone at the Elm Theatre for giving him this opportunity.  It is Will’s first time performing at this venue, and hopefully, it won’t be the last.  As an avid member of SHINE Productions, Will has portrayed many roles in many productions throughout the Greater New Orleans Metro Area, the state of Louisiana, and across several states in the Midwest, but his most important role is the one he plays everyday: Mr Schneider, a 9th grade Physical Science teacher at Chalmette High School.  Will would like to thank his family, his friends, and Ms.LaPres for all their time, devotion, and love.  Enjoy the show!!!

Garrett Prejean (David) as born and raised in North Baton Rouge (NBR), La.  Garrett is a graduate of Northwestern State Unverisity and also a graduate of The Conservatory Program and the Acting Program at The Second City Training Center in Chicago.  Garrett has also studied Acting with Darrell W. Cox and Erica Daniels from Profiles and Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago as well as Viewpoints with Michael Patrick Thorton from The Gift Theatre and Steppenwolf in Chicago. Garrett was a founding member and the Artistic Director of EP Theater in Chicago.  There he worked to develop new plays with Chicago playwrights as well as New York and Los Angeles. Garrett most recently taught Acting 1 classes and Audition classes at the Second City Training Center in Chicago.  He was also known as the “Resume Doctor” for The Second City Training Center, assisting students find opportunity in the Art/Theatre industry. He was last scene in The Elm Theatre’s production “Blackbird”, by Adam Rapp. Garrett’s theatre credits include: “Avenue A” in the highly recommend show (Chicago Tribune, TimeOut Chicago), by David Steen at EP Theater. Other EP Theater credits include, “Grey” co-writer (Recommend Windy City Times), “Life Support”, “La Belle Vito”, and the “Woods”. “Automobile Graveyard”, “Showmakers”, “The Flies” at the Trapdoor Theatre. “True Crimes”, “The Vortex”, and “Creeps” at Boxer Rebellion Theatre. “The Neberska Project” and “I Saw You’s” at Brusied Orange Theatre. “The Gurney”, Secret Life Theatre.