Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra
- Written by Kirk Lynn
- Directed by Anne Kauffman
Kirk Lynn lives in Austin, TX with his wife, the poet Carrie Fountain and their children, Olive and Judah. Kirk writes plays, generally with the Rude Mechs theater collective. He's one of six artistic directors for the Rudes, whose new work, Stop Hitting Yourself, played at LCT3 in January-February 2014. Kirk is the Head of the Playwriting and Directing Area in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Texas at Austin. Kirk was the USA Jeanne and Michael Klein Fellow in 2011 in Theater Arts. Kirk wrote the first draft of Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra at the MacDowell Colony in summer of 2012. Kirk is a Texan and likes to hunt and fish and camp and tell jokes with his Dad, who knows a lot of jokes because he's barber. (As of January 2014)
Anne Kauffman (Directing Consultant) New York Philharmonic, BAM, Ars Nova, NYTW, Roundabout Theatre Company, Encores! Off-Center, Women’s Project, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, The Public, P73 Productions, New Georges, Vineyard Theater, LCT3, Yale Rep, Steppenwolf, Goodman Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Z Space, American Conservatory Theater and Berkeley Rep. She is a Resident Director at Roundabout Theater, Artistic Associate and Founding Member of The Civilians, a Clubbed Thumb Associate Artist and co-creator of the CT Directing Fellowship, a New Georges Associate Artist, an SDC Executive Board Member, Vice President and Trustee of SDCF 2020-2023 and Artistic Director of City Center’s Encores! Off-Center 2017-2020. Kauffman’s awards include a 2024 Tony nomination for Best Director for MARY JANE, a 2023 Tony nomination for Best Revival for THE SIGN IN SIDNEY BRUSTEIN’S WINDOW, three Obies, the Joan and Joseph Cullman Award for Exceptional Creativity from Lincoln Center, the Alan Schneider Director Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, a Drama League award and the Joe A. Callaway. Co-creator of the Cast Album Project with Jeanine Tesori.
WORLD PREMIERE
Carla agrees to marry Reggie on one condition: to break down any walls between them, they'll reenact their individual sexual histories with one another, good and bad, for better or worse. Years later, these stories bring unexpected hope to their household, now forced to confront those barriers a second time. Kirk Lynn's tough-love comedy navigates the boundaries of intimacy, finding startling empathy in the story of a father hell-bent on saving his family.
Featuring
Maxx Brawer
Zoë Sophia Garcia
Rebecca Henderson
Ismenia Mendes
Will Pullen
Chris Stack
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: Don’t Go Gentle (MCC). Other theater: Into the Woods (Kid City Theatre Company), Showcase (Player’s Loft). Film: Twelve. Television: “Are We There Yet?,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” “All My Children,” “Between the Lines,” “Another World,” “100 Centre Street.”
Playwrights Horizons debut. New York Theater: La Ruta (Working Theatre). Other theater: The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity, That Noise, Oh Gastronomy! (Actors Theater of Louisville). Film: Bed, One Day, The Heart of San Francisco.
Playwrights Horizons: The Whale, The Retributionists. Other Off-Broadway: Too Much, Too Much, Too Many (Roundabout); Red-Handed Otter (Cherry Lane); The Collection/A Kind of Alaska (Atlantic); Canary (Rattlestick); Three Sisters, The Misanthrope, Scapin (Classic Stage Company), Baby Face (Soho Rep). Other New York: Roadkill Confidential (Clubbed Thumb), Spin (StageFARM). Film/Television: True Story, “The Good Wife.”
Playwrights Horizons: Your Mother's Copy of the Kama Sutra. Off-Broadway: The Wayside Motor Inn (The Signature), Much Ado About Nothing (The Public), Family Furniture (The Flea), Baby Screams Miracle (Clubbed Thumb). Regional: Katharine/Boy in Henry V (Two River Theater). Training: Juilliard.
Playwrights Horizons debut. Off-Broadway: Marie Antoinette (Soho Rep), Scarcity (Rattlestick). Other Theater: Breaking Heels, Curse of the Starving Class, Hamlet, Oleanna, As You Like It, The Lower Depths, The Black Box, True West.
Chris Stack (Simon). With David Adjmi: Marie Antoinette at Soho Rep. Off-Broadway: Kirk Lynn’s Your Mother’s Copy of the Kama Sutra, The Secret Life of Bees and Blue Ridge at Atlantic Theater Company, Ugly Lies the Bone (Roundabout), Afghanistan Zimbabwe America Kuwait (Rattlestick/Rising Phoenix Rep), Wayside Motor Inn (Signature), Killers & Other Family (Rattlestick). Film and TV credits include Midday Black Midnight Blue, Interview with the Vampire, and A Better Half.
Creative Team
Laura Jellinek
Scenic DesignEmily Rebholz
Costume DesignBen Stanton
Lighting DesignDaniel Kluger
Original Music and Sound DesignVanessa Coakley
Production Stage ManagerPlaywrights Horizons: The Light Years, A Life (Lortel Award, Drama Desk nomination), Marjorie Prime, Your Mother’s Copy… Broadway: Marvin’s Room. Other Off-Broadway: The Antipodes, Everybody (Signature); The Nether (MCC, Lortel nomination); Buzzer (The Public); The Wolves (Playwrights Realm). Regional: Yale Rep, Bard Summerscape, Cincinnati Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Williamstown, Southcoast Rep. Opera: Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Atlanta Opera. Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Design.
Costume Designer + Stylist: Lover of sharp tailoring, vintage buttons, matching socks and pocket squares, my roof deck in the summer, clog boots in the winter, Franny’s Pizza, Italian white wine and summer fairs.
First Costume Design: Godspell, 1994. Back when you could still find vintage Mickey Mouse t-shirts at the Goodwill in Memphis.
First Broadway Show: During my college tour weekend of NYC: Phantom of The Opera and Sunset Boulevard. Classic Broadway!
First Show to Design Off-Broadway: Gutenberg the Musical!
First Show to Design on Broadway: Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Places of Inspiration: The NYC Subway, The Duchess County Fair, Paris, Italy, India, Upstate New York–anyplace I’ve ever traveled, my favorite magazine and tobacco shop at the corner of Spring and Lafayette, The Strand, Street Style Blogs and tourists at museums.
Lifelong Goal: To understand people through the observation of what they wear and to help tell their stories through the language of clothing.
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).
Daniel Kluger is a composer, music producer, orchestrator and sound designer.
Known for his Tony, Grammy and Olivier nominated bluegrass orchestrations of the Broadway revival of OKLAHOMA!, Kluger’s musical work spans a range from electronic dance music, to neoclassical chamber composition, jazz and atmospheric synth soundscapes. He has created original scores for dozens of award-winning theater projects, films and podcasts.
NYC based AEA stage manager with 15 years of experience on Broadway, off-Broadway and on national tours.
Photos by Jeremy Daniel
RIVETING. It's about secrets, trust, and communication. Kirk Lynn is an intriguing, promising and wise playwright who keeps distracting you until he is ready to reveal his hand. Discerning playgoers will want to discover it themselves.
Lynn writes tremendous scenes – the fights feel so unchoreographed and furious, you expect family therapists to be waiting backstage.
