by Shawn Hirabayashi

Directed by: Julie Hamberg

Previews begin Thursday, September 12th
Special Benefit Performance
Sunday, September 15th

Opens Thursday, September 19th
Thursdays - Saturdays @ 8:00 p.m. - Sundays @ 7:00 p.m.
Through October 6th

How bad do things have to get before you hire a hit man to kill your roommate and former best friend? FUNNY examines how this and other seemingly random circumstances dramatically impact the relationships of three inseparable friends. In this surreal world where time runs wild, the everyday is taken to extremes. Beginning in New York City and ending up in a mysterious river region of Papua New Guinea, the play examines the moments when life's absurdity becomes all too apparent. These are the kind of moments that you never imagined possible; it is not until you encounter them that you realize there are no clear answers. As "funny" as the situations may be, no one escapes unscathed and the fall-out ultimately affects them all.

Playwright SHAWN B. HIRABAYSHI, who recently completed a residency with The Playwright Project in NC, received the greater part of his theatre training from Milan Stitt at the Yale School of Drama. He has had plays produced in NYC by Starfish TheatreWorks, One Dream, Circle Rep Lab, Nada, Atlantic Theatre Company Theater School, and The Lab (Circle East). He received a Berrilla Kerr Award in 1997. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Starfish TheatreWorks, Circle East, Reckless Theatre Company, and is an Artistic Associate of Vital Theatre Company.

Director JULIE HAMBERG helmed Vital Theatre's main stage production of DUCKS CROSSING in January 2002, which "creatively [proved] that you don't need millions to produce a rich stage environment, just a sharp imagination”(Show Business Weekly). Among her long list of credits is the rarely revived RAIN FROM HEAVEN for Reckless Theatre Company where she is Associate Artistic Director. As a four-time alumnus of the Lincoln Center Theater’s Directors Lab, she was awarded a Workshop Production in 1997 to direct Simon Fill’s POST PUNK LIFE. Julie has directed new plays at The ArcLight, the Westbeth Theatre Center, NYC's Fringe Festival, Six Figures, Gilgamesh, New Georges, The Lab and Circle Rep Lab. She also served as assistant director at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theatre and most recently as a Drama League Fellow as assistant director to Daniel Sullivan on Shaw’s MAJOR BARBARA for the Roundabout Theatre on Broadway.

Featured in the cast are Jeremy Brisiel, Ivanna Cullinan, Jacqueline Mazarella, and Erik Kever Ryle.

Now in its fourth year, VITAL THEATRE COMPANY, has mounted eleven full-length main stage productions, five short-play series, five installments of Vital Signs, the company's semi-annual festival of new works. In May of 2000, Vital Theatre Company received the Off Off Broadway Review's Award for Excellence for its production of Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery. In addition, the critically acclaimed Vital Children's Theatre received the Off Off Broadway Review's Award for Excellence in June 2002. For more information on Vital Theatre Company, please visit www.vitaltheatre.org.

FUNNY begins previews Thursday, September 12th at 8 p.m. and opens Thursday, September 19th at 8 p.m. Performances run Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., through October 6th.