Aux Dog Theatre Season Opens With THE SCARLET LETTER

The Aux Dog Theatre Nob Hill opens its 2018/19 Season with the classic drama, Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER adapted by acclaimed contemporary playwright, Phyllis Nagy.

Widely regarded as America's first great novel, this compelling story of Hester Prynne and her defiance of local custom is even more resonant in today's reality of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. This seven character story transports the audience back to the earliest days of Puritan Boston. Crimes such as adultery were punished by measures which included: public shaming to whipping to death. Most punishments were leveled against the women involved in the "crime".

Our heroine, Hester Prynne chooses to wear her punishment, a scarlet "A" proudly upon her chest at all times and also refuses to divulge the name of her illegitimate child's father. The story is complicated by the arrival of Hester's husband, presumed dead. The events are seen through the eyes of young Pearl, Hester's illegitimate daughter who is described as "a wild child." This modern adaptation challenges our perception of female morality and the punishments society still devises to control it.

This provocative adaptation is written by Phyllis Nagy who wrote the screenplay to the Academy Award nominated film, CAROL which was her second film with Number 9 Films and Killer Films. Her first collaboration was the HBO film, Mrs. Harris, written and directed by Nagy, which premiered at The Toronto International Film Festival and went on to garner 12 Emmy nominations (including nominations for Nagy for her writing and directing), three Golden Globe nominations and two Screen Actors Guild award nominations.

Ms. Nagy's plays have been performed throughout the world and include: Weldon Rising, The Strip, and Never Land at The Royal Court Theatre, London; Butterfly Kiss, Almeida Theatre Company, London; Disappeared, premiered at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester in 1995 in a production directed by the author which subsequently toured the UK before a London run at The Royal Court Theatre (Winner of a 1992 Mobil International Playwriting Prize, and a Writer's Guild of Great Britain Award and a Susan Smith Blackburn prize); and Trip's Cinch, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival. Nagy's stage adaptations and translations include: Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, Palace Theatre, Watford; Chekhov's The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre; and Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Classic Stage Company, New York and Chichester Festival Theatre. Directed by Douglas Garland who directed Ibsen's GHOSTS at the Aux Dog.

Mr. Garland has been directing and designing in professional and university theatres from Boston to Jackson Hole, Wyoming for over 40 years. Favorite credits include Assistant to the Director on the original Broadway production of THE WHO'S TOMMY and directing and designing THE LEARNED LADIES at New York's Westbeth Theatre Centre. CAPSULE VERSION: THE CAST The complete cast of THE SCARLET LETTER features CAITLIN KELLY (Hester Prynne); Mario Cabrera (Governor Bellingham); ANNIE ELLIOTT (Pearl); RUBEN MUELLER (Master Brackett); STEPHEN FORREST (Arthur Dimmesdale); MIKE LONG (Roger Chillingworth); and JUDY HERRERA (Mistress Hibbins).

As current as the #MeToo Movement, Hawthorne's great American gothic romance comes to searing life in this daring and thought-provoking stage adaptation by Phyllis Nagy. THE SCARLET LETTER is a classic tale of love, sin, punishment, shame, revenge and redemption set in the 17th century Puritan world of Boston, Massachusetts. This adaptation by Ms. Nagy has a distinctly contemporary sensibility and message for modern audiences.

Academy Award and Emmy Award nominated writer/director, Phyllis Nagy wrote the screenplay for CAROL and wrote and directed MRS. HARRIS, which premiered at The Toronto International Film Festival and went on to garner 12 Emmy nominations (including nominations for Nagy for her writing and directing), three Golden Globe nominations and two Screen Actors Guild award nominations. Also a playwright, Nagy's plays have been performed throughout the world and include: Weldon Rising, The Strip, and Never Land at The Royal Court Theatre, London; Butterfly Kiss, Almeida Theatre Company, London; Disappeared, premiered at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester (Winner of a 1992 Mobil International Playwriting Prize, and a Writer's Guild of Great Britain Award and a Susan Smith Blackburn prize); and Trip's Cinch, Actors Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival. Nagy's stage adaptations and translations include: Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, Palace Theatre, Watford; Chekhov's The Seagull, Chichester Festival Theatre; and Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER, Classic Stage Company, New York and Chichester Festival Theatre.

The show opens Sept. 7th, 2018 and runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm in September through the 30th. Tickets online at www.auxdogtheatre.org or call 505-596-0607 for more info. THE SCARLET LETTER will be followed by another take on the classic Hawthorne novel, this time, Suzan-Lori Park's (playwright of the Pulitzer Prize winning Topdog/Underdog) IN THE BLOOD featuring Angela Littleton as Hester running November 16 to December 16, 2018.