DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE

MAR 8 - 23, 2024

WRITTEN by Sarah Ruhl
DIRECTED by Epic Jones

An incessantly ringing cell phone in a quiet café. A stranger at the next table who has had enough of it. A dead man with a lot of loose ends.

Dead Man's Cellphone is an eccentric comic-noir about Jean, a woman who follows a ringing cell phone down a rabbit hole of adventure into a mysterious man’s life.

Borrowing elements of “film noir,” this unique and fanciful play serves as a spiritual sequel to Sarah Ruhl’s acclaimed play Eurydice, which the WSSR presented in the fall of 2021.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

SARAH RUHL

Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist, and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room, or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages.

Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006.

She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

SHOW TIMES

FRI Mar 8 - 8pm - Opening Night!
SAT Mar 9 - 8pm
SUN Mar 10 - 4pm

FRI Mar 15 - 8pm
SAT Mar 16 - 8pm
SUN Mar 17 - 4pm

FRI Mar 22 - 8pm
SAT Mar 23 - 8pm

Running Time: 120 Minutes + Intermission

FREE TICKETS

WE BELIEVE EVERYONE SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXPERIENCE THEATER…

…so we are launching PUBLIC ACCESS THEATER— and we need you to be part of it!

Here’s how it works:

1. We make all of our tickets FREE

2. You help us do it by DONATING

This simple, yet powerful approach makes sure everyone can attend!

DONATE

The cost to bring Dead Man’s Cell Phone to you is $8,000.

Part of our budget goes to the actors, some of whom work for over 100 hours.

Each actor receives a $300 stipend to help them cover expenses associated with participation in theater, including transportation and child care.

If you are able to Add A Donation to your Free Tickets, you will support Public Access Theater and help us make sure everyone in our community can come to the show!

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With a WSSR Membership, you can reserve more than 2 tickets at a time!

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CONTENT INFO

DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE is an eccentric comedy with elements of adventure and film noir. It contains profanity.

For specific information about the content, please contact us.

ABOUT THE WSSR PRODUCTION

A DEAD MAN AT THE WEST SIDE SHOW ROOM
by Yoandy Cabrera

The West Side Show Room (WSSR) in Rockford, Illinois, is currently presenting Sarah Ruhl’s Dead Man’s Cell Phone from March 8 to 23, 2024. This play made its debut in 2007 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co. in Washington, D.C. Notably, this isn’t the first time WSSR has showcased Ruhl’s work; they previously staged Eurydice from September 23 to October 17, 2021, marking their return after the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus.

Attending Eurydice by WSSR also marked my return to theater after the pandemic and introduced me to their productions. What stuck with me most from that experience were the awkward and unexpected moments, particularly in the reimagining of a classical myth about the underworld, afterlife, and love. The play was punctuated by dark humor and dialogues that wavered between solemnity and whimsy, with ingenious plot twists keeping the audience engaged throughout. The scene design, which included water on the stage, presented its own unique set of challenges.

In Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Ruhl’s poetic elements such as death, the afterlife, romantic entanglements, and familial conflicts are woven into the fabric of a noir film context. Much like Cervantes in Don Quixote parodies medieval and early modern chivalric romance, or Tarantino constructs his homage to martial arts movies in Kill Bill, Ruhl’s play can be seen as both a tribute to and a satire of the noir genre. Epic Jones, the director of this production, aptly describes it as an “eccentric comic-noir,” blending elements of humor and existentialism in a unique theatrical experience.   

* * * * * * * *

Read the full article on Deinós, a critical journal produced by the Department of Languages, Philosophy, Religion, and Cultures of Rockford University.

CAST

Mrs. Gottlieb - Carolyn Cadigan

Jean - Kira Dolan

Hermia - Karlee Dodd

Gordon/Dwight - Eduardo Galaviz

The Other Woman/Stranger - Tambi Leslie

PRODUCTION STAFF

DIRECTOR
Epic Jones

COSTUME DESIGNER
Colin Meyer

PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Epic Jones

CHOREOGRAPHER
Stephanie Foster

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER
Ky Rankin

INTIMACY DIRECTOR
Erica Terry

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Bob Peterson

STAGE MANAGER
Meredith Laubert

PROPS COORDINATOR
Axandra Smalley

PRODUCTION MANAGER
Beth Edgerton

WARDROBE COORDINATOR
Alana Kellogg

SET CREW
Carolyn Cadigan
Adrian Diaz
Matthew Rip

SPECIAL THANKS

Beth Drog

Charmaine Schreiner

Lenae Weichel

COVID SAFETY

If you aren’t feeling well or are experiencing symptoms, please stay home.

Any questions? contact@wssr.org

“DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com

Playwrights Horizons, Inc., New York City, produced the New York Premiere of DEAD MAN’S CELLPHONE Off-Broadway in 2008.

Originally produced June 2006 by Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington, DC Howard Shalwitz, Artistic Director; Kevin Moore, Managing Director.

DEAD MAN’S CELL PHONE was commissioned by Playwrights Horizons with funds provided by the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Commissioning Program.