by Brent Askari

Directed by: Laura M. Stevens

Production Manager: Sharon Fallon
Stage Manager: Fran Rubenstein

Set/Lighting Design: Obadiah Savage
Costume Design: Staci Shember
Sound Design: Bill Grady

Fight Direction: Laurie Miller and Edward J. Wheeler
Assistant Director: Shannon Henry Golub
Technical Director: Martin Miller

Set in the world of Virginia’s exclusive horse-and-hunt set, “HORSEY PEOPLE” satirizes over-zealous parents who live vicariously through their children. Sydney Stevens, a mother who will stop at nothing to bolster the riding career of her sheltered teenage daughter Brittany, convinces her husband to murder the horse of their daughter’s rival. While descending into increasingly deeper and deeper chaos and hilarity, “HORSEY PEOPLE” provides an intimate, knowing glimpse into their skewed world.
Playwright BRENT ASKARI’s one-act Rural Play was recently presented at Vital Theatre as part of Vital Signs, Vital Theatre Company’s semi-annual festival of new works. Mr. Askari has won awards in Source Theatre’s Ten-Minute Play competition and Lamia Ink’s One-Page play competition. His plays have been produced in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Connecticut, Maine and Pennsylvania. As a screenwriter, he was part of HBO’s New Writers Project and recently co-wrote a script with Chum Langhorne, which was commissioned by Marvel Films and Artisan Entertainment. He has also worked with film directors Jim Abrahams ("Airplane!," "Naked Gun" and "Hot Shots") and Larry Guterman ("Antz" and the upcoming "Fighting Like Cats and Dogs"). Mr. Askari is the author of the novel Not Ready For Prime Time (Carroll & Graf) and has written stories, poems and humor pieces for a number of literary magazines.

This is Director LAURA M. STEVENS’ second collaboration with Mr. Askari, whose one-act Rural Play she directed for Vital Theatre Company’s new works festival last fall. A Founding Member of Vital Theatre Company, and currently its Associate Artistic Director, Ms. Stevens was most recently praised by critics for her “smooth, fluid direction” of the company’s “very engaging [and] fascinating” production of The Arrangement. Other directing credits include Charity, Your Mother’s Butt (Alan Ball) and Meet Rachel Barracuda of the Empire State Arts Council.

Featured in the cast are LEIGH PITTARD, BOLEN HIGH, DIANE GROTKE, JEFF PATTERSON, COLIN FICKES and TED RODENBORN.