Essential Self-Defense
- Written by Adam Rapp
- Directed by Carolyn Cantor
ADAM RAPP (Playwright / Director) was last represented at Playwrights Horizons with Essential Self-Defense in 2007. His other plays include Red Light Winter (Pulitzer Prize finalist, Obie Award), Bingo with the Indians, American Sligo, Blackbird (two Drama Desk nominations), Stone Cold Dead Serious, Nocturne, Ghosts in the Cottonwoods, Animals and Plants, Finer Noble Gases, Faster, Trueblinka, Dreams of the Salthorse and Gompers. His plays have been collected in Stone Cold Dead Serious and Other Plays and he has written seven novels. He wrote and directed his first feature film, Winter Passing, starring Ed Harris, Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel, for Focus Features. He is also the recipient of two Lincoln Center le Compte de Nuoy Awards; a fellowship to the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France; the 1999 Princess Grace Award for Playwriting; a 2000 Roger L. Stevens Award from the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays; a 2000 Suite Residency with Mabou Mines; the 2001 Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights; Boston’s Elliot Norton Award; and was short-listed for the 2003 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. He is the Resident Playwright for Edge Theater.
Playwrights Horizons: Fly By Night, The Great God Pan, After the Revolution (Callaway Award), and Essential Self-Defense. Other NY Theater: Regrets and Pumpgirl (Manhattan Theatre Club); In A Dark Dark House (MCC Theater); Arlington (Vineyard); Something You Did (Primary Stages); The Talls (Second Stage); Core Values (Ars Nova); Orange Flower Water, Now That's What I Call A Storm, Living Room in Africa, Stone Cold Dead Serious, and Life is a Dream (Edge Theater); EVE-olution (Cherry Lane); and Kitty Kitty Kitty (SPF). Regional: The Violet Hour (Old Globe); Rabbit Hole (Geffen, Garland Award); Diary of Anne Frank (Papermill); Not Waving and King Stag (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Vera Laughed and Get What You Need (NYS&F); After Ashley and Finer Noble Gases (Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference); and Nocturne (Ojai Playwrights Conference). Carolyn is the recipient of the Kanin-Seldes Award from the Theater Hal of Fame, both the Boris Sagal and Bill Foeller Fellowships from the Williamstown Theatre Festival, and a Drama League Directing Fellowship. She was the founding artistic director of the Obie Award—winning Edge Theater and is a graduate of Dartmouth College. (As of 2/2/15)
Co-produced with Edge Theatre
When a disgruntled misfit takes a job as an attack dummy in a women’s self-defense class, he finds himself mysteriously drawn to the repressed bookworm who’s beating on him. But all’s not well on the mean Midwestern streets of Bloggs: with local children vanishing at an alarming rate, our hero, his lady friend, and a motley assortment of poets, butchers, and punk librarians prepare to battle the darkness on the edge of town. A grim fairy tale with generous helpings of rock n’ roll karaoke by the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Red Light Winter.
Featuring
Cheryl Lynn Bowers
Guy Boyd
Michael Chernus
Joel Marsh Garland
Heather Goldenhersh
Lucas Papaelias
Ray Rizzo
Paul Sparks
Playwrights Horizons: Essential Self-Defense (Drama Desk nomination for Best Original Music in a Play). Broadway: Once, Cyrano de Bergerac (also Music). Off-Broadway: These Paper Bullets, Jack’s Precious Moments, Father Comes Home From the Wars (also Music), U.S. Drag, Romeo & Juliet, Cyclone, Walk Two Moons (also Music), Smashing, Cellini. Film/Television: School of Rock, “Blue Bloods,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
Creative Team
David Korins
Scenic DesignerMiranda Hoffman
Costume DesignerBen Stanton
Lighting DesignerEric Shim
Sound DesignerCharles M. Turner III
Production Stage ManagerIn two decades of creating omnidirectional experiences, David Korins and his eponymous New York City based creative studio has reached millions of people globally by helping brands, institutions, and artists bring their stories to life. David created the worlds for 25 Broadway shows, including the Tony Award-winning musicals Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Beetlejuice: The Musical, and in 2023 will open Here Lies Love and The Who’s Tommy. Among numerous TV credits, David recently created the new design of HBO’s “The Big Brunch” with Dan Levy, “Last Week Tonight” hosted by John Oliver, was the Production Designer for the 91st and 94th Annual Academy Awards, and Grease: Live!, for which he received an Emmy Award. Korins is the Director of David Blaine’s newly opened Las Vegas residency, is the Global Creative Director of Lighthouse Immersive for whom he designed Immersive Van Gogh, the highest selling experience nationally in 2021, and in 2023 his work on “Disney Animation: The Immersive Experience” will open in multiple venues around the world. David also continues to hold the title of Theater Designer in Residence for TED's conferences internationally. Collaborators include David Blaine, Bruno Mars, Elton John, Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Andrea Bocelli, Sia, Robin Eley and Takashi Murakami. David’s work has been presented at Madison Square Garden, Coachella, Gagosian, Lollapalooza and SXSW. Brand partnerships include the NFL, Disney, Twitter, Google, Spotify, YouTube, Microsoft, Sotheby’s and ESPN.
Ben is a lighting designer for theater, concerts, dance, installations, and events. He is a five-time Tony Award nominee as well as an Obie, Lortel, IRNE, and Ovation Award winner. Ben is currently represented on Broadway by Maybe Happy Ending at the Belasco Theater. Recent Broadway credits include The Notebook at the Schoenfeld Theater; Mary Jane starring Rachel McAdams; Days of Wine and Roses Starring Kelli O'Hara & Brian Darcy James; Goodnight, Oscar starring Sean Hayes; The Collaboration Starring Paul Bettany & Jeremy Pope; Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Featuring Jefferson Mays; The Rose Tattoo starring Marisa Tomei; Derren Brown: SECRET at the James Earl Jones Theater; Regina Spektor: Live On Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theater; Ayad Akhtar’s JUNK at the Vivian Beaumont; Six Degrees of Separation starring Allison Janney, Corey Hawkins, and John Benjamin Hickey; Deaf West Theater’s Spring Awakening at the Lena Horne Theater; Fully Committed starring Jesse Tyler Ferguson; and Fun Home (Broadway, Off-Broadway, 1st National Tour, London).
Photos of (1) Paul Sparks and Heather Goldenhersh; (2) Ray Rizzo, Joel Marsh Garland, Michael Chernus, and Guy Boyd; (3) Ray Rizzo, Lucas Papaelias, Cheryl Lynn Bowers, Guy Boyd, Paul Sparks, and Heather Goldenhersh; and (4) Guy Boyd, Heather Goldenhersh, Joel Marsh Garland, Paul Sparks, and Michael Chernus by Joan Marcus.
Adam Rapp is a fresh and muscular voice with no fear! The journey is full of ODDBALL JOY with an unabashed affection for bizarre and tragic humanity.
BRILLIANT! A first-class production, courtesy of director Carolyn Cantor and a terrific cast.