COEURAGE THEATRE COMPANY — LA’S PAY WHAT YOU WANT THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS

NICKY

Coeurage Theatre Company, LA’s Pay What You Want theatre company, has announced the first production of its eighth season, the world premiere of Nicky, by acclaimed Los Angeles playwright Boni B. Alvarez. Directed by Beth Lopes, there will be two preview performances on June 1 and 2 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, June 3 at 8pm. Nicky will play through July 1 at the Greenway Court Theatre.

Inspired by Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov, playwright Alvarez transforms the world of 1800s Russia into present-day Palm Springs. Under the piercing desert sun, characters plod through the unforgiving heat, clinging to their self-described identities while chasing after and running away from their true desires. Nicky was developed in the Coeurage CoLab.

Boni B. Alvarez is a Los Angeles-based playwright whose plays have been produced and/or developed at Playwrights’ Arena, Skylight Theatre, Chalk Rep, Second Generation (2g), The Vagrancy, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Teatro Bravo, and Interact Theatre. His plays include Before We Do, Bloodletting, Dusty De Los Santos, Marabella, The Special Education of Miss Lorna Cambonga, Poke Back, Dallas Non-Stop, The Debut of Georgia, and others. His works have been finalists for the PEN Center USA Literary Award, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Aurora Theatre’s Global Age Project, and Clubbed Thumb’s Biennial Commission. Alvarez has participated in Playwrights’ Arena’s New Pages Lab, the CBS Diversity Writers Mentoring Program, Skylight Theatre’s Play Lab, and Center Theatre Group’s Writers’ Workshop.

Director Beth Lopes received a BFA in Drama from New York University and an MFA in Directing from UC Irvine. Recent projects include the regional premiere of Grand Concourse with Theatre Horizon, the world premiere of Alex Burkart’s Atlas Pit (LA New Court Theatre), and the development of a new rock musical, The Merry Lives of Windsor High, with LA company mediaV. Later this summer, Lopes will be directing The Taming of the Shrew at the New Swan Shakespeare Festival.

Coeurage Theatre Company exists to make impassioned theatre accessible for all audiences through Pay What You Want admission and fresh, challenging productions. The company’s name is inspired by a re–imagining of the word courage — coeur is French for heart, and rage, meaning fervor; on fire. Together, Coeurage (pronounced “courage”) is a heart enflamed with passion, which the company strives to bring to every production.

There will be two preview performances of Nicky on Thursday, June 1 and Friday, June 2 at 8pm and opening is set for Saturday, June 3 at 8pm. The regular running schedule is Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm through July 1. All seats are available on a Pay What You Want basis and may be reserved online at www.greenwaycourttheatre.org/nicky or by calling (323) 673-0544.