Island City Stage presents The Dying Gaul by Craig Lucas

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Island City Stage

Island City Stage presents The Dying Gaul by Craig Lucas

A salacious love triangle, secrets and intrigue haunt the modern American tragedy The Dying Gaul by Craig Lucas making its South Florida premiere at Island City Stage on May 22. The show runs through June 15.

In The Dying Gaul, a grieving screenwriter compromises his ideals to make a small fortune that enables him to climb from invisible poverty into the rarefied seductions and surreal beauty of the Hollywood Hills. Hailed in 1998 as the best American play by The Wall Street Journal and USA Today, The Dying Gaul premiered off-Broadway at New York City’s Vineyard Theatre to rave reviews. Craig Lucas later adapted the play into a 2005 film (starring Peter Sarsgaard, Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson) marking his directorial debut. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize and the National Board of Review awarded the film Special Recognition for Excellence in filmmaking.

The personal and professional life of acclaimed playwright, screenwriter and film director Craig Lucas is as engrossing as his plays. Abandoned as a child when he was eight months old and adopted by a conservative Pennsylvania couple, he repressed both his Jewish identity and sexual preference for years. It was only till he embraced his identity as a gay Jewish man that he was able to develop as an artist and as a person. A 1973 graduate of Boston University, earning a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and theater, his mentor Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Anne Sexton, urged him to move to New York City to become a playwright. In 1979, his life-changing professional break took place when he collaborated with theater and film director Norman René. The two wrote several plays throughout the 1980s. They both achieved their biggest commercial and critical success in 1990 with Prelude to a Kiss, which earned a 1991 Pulitzer Prize nomination. The play was later made into a film starring Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin. René died of complications from AIDS in 1996. Since 2001, Lucas has received numerous awards as a playwright, director and screen writer including a 2001 Obie Award and a 2003 New York Film Critics Award. In 2022, he was nominated for a Tony Award for the musical, Paradise Square.

Island City Stage’s production of The Dying Gaul is directed by Rogow and stars Amir Darvish (Jeffrey), Jorge Amador (Robert), Autumn Kioti Horne (Elaine), and Ted deChatelet (Foss).

The Dying Gaul is co-produced by Thel Boyette and David Page. Talent Sponsors are DC Allen & Ken Flick and the No Gay Hate Fund at The Our Fund Foundation. Lights and Sound Sponsor is Scott Bennett and Costume Sponsor is the Parrot Lounge. Additional funding is provided by the following: The Our Fund Foundation, The Schubert Foundation Inc., The SHS Foundation, The Maval Foundation, Warten Foundation and the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council.

Tickets for The Dying Gaul are $43 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday matinee) and $48 (Saturday and Sunday performances). A Mimosa Sunday performance will take place on Sunday, June 1, with tickets at $55. The show runs for two hours and five minutes with one intermission.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.islandcitystage.org, call (954) 928-9800 or email boxoffice@islandcitystage.org. Follow Island City Stage on Facebook at facebook.com/IslandCityStageFL and on Instagram at @islandcitystage1.