October 27 – November 18, 2017
CoHo Productions and Rolland Walsh present
Year of the Rooster
by Olivia Dufault
Directed by Alexandra Kuechler-Caffall
Featuring Sam Dinkowitz, Ahna Dunn-Wilder, Paige Johnson Jones, Michael O’Connell and Rolland Walsh
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
Year of the Rooster is a furious, foul-mouthed, comedic attack on heavy-weight subjects like rural poverty, animal cruelty and toxic masculinity in America.
“Ya gotta have winners and losers in this world.”
Gil is a loser in a loser town. He still lives with his mama, with no friends or future plans, just the 19-year old manager at McDonald’s who bullies his broken spirit while dreaming of Disney World and world domination. Gil’s chance at winning the American Dream is a nightmare until he gets a prize-fighting rooster named Odysseus Rex. Cockfighting was invented by the ancient Greeks (just like Democracy); now illegal in all 50 states. The stakes are life and death, the rooster is on stage – what are you willing to bet he wins?
REVIEWS
Dufault has laid a foundation of pathos.” –New York Times
“…the play deals with hardscrabble folks in an unspecified Southern state. But it doesn’t indulge in cheap humor at their expense. And without ever being preachy, Dufault has a lot of sharp things to say about what we do to each other – and to animals – and about bullying.” – New York Post
“…it’s about the consuming drive to be a winner, especially when that drive becomes absurd or impossible and instead leads to mindless rage…we sense the real vulnerability that lies at the heart of these characters as the powerful are revealed to be pathetic, and vice versa.” – Austin 360
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Olivia Dufault’s plays include Year of the Rooster (New York Times Critics’ Pick), The Tomb of King Tot (New York Times Critics’ Pick), The Messenger, and For Want of a Horse. Her plays have been performed at the Ensemble Studio Theatre/Youngblood, Clubbed Thumb, the Flea Theatre, and the Marin Theatre, amongst others.
She is the 2015-16 Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop Fellow and 2013=14 PoNY Fellow, as well as the recipient of the 2015 Playwrights of New York Fellowship, the 2013 David Colicchio Emerging Playwright Award, the 2010 Lipkin Playwriting Award, and the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Harle Adair Damann Playwriting Award. She currently writes for the AMC television show Preacher. She is a member of New Dramatists, the LCT Writers in Residence, and the Youngblood Playwriting Group.