THE SUNKEN LIVING ROOM

THE SUNKEN LIVING ROOM was first picked up for production by Ryan Rilette, who was then Artistic Director of Southern Rep in New Orleans.  The play was one of eight new plays chosen for a reading in their Southern New Plays Festival.  As the winning play from that festival, THE SUNKEN LIVING ROOM was awarded a production in the Fall of 2005.   The play was cast and ready to go into rehearsal when Hurricane Katrina hit.   Through the intervention of Rem Cabrera, of the Miami-Dade County Bureau of Cultural Affairs, an introduction was made to Rafael de Acha, then-Artistic Director of New Theatre in the playwright's hometown of Miami.  Mr. de Acha offered the play a slot later in their season as a co-production.  Mr. Rilette went to Miami to direct the play.  Lead actor John Magaro, cast out of New York, was the only actor able to continue with the project.  The following year, when Mr. Rilette was able to get Southern Rep up and running again, the play was remounted there, with the same terrific cast that performed in Miami, except for the role of Lynnette.  The play also got a small rewrite to tighten things up, and the New Orleans production was a smash hit, winning the Ambie Award for Best Original Play.   Mr. Caudle will always feel awed, humbled and grateful for the generosity of New Theatre and the dedication and resilience of Mr. Rilette, and the staff of Southern Rep.

 The play's inspiring journey to the stage was documented in the publications below.

NEW YORK TIMES: A Domestic Play Takes a Stormy Path

TIMES PICAYUNE: The Sunken Living Room Rises Again

 WHERE Y'AT Magazine: Bellbottom Blues

 And From:

AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE (April, 2006)

New Orleans and Miami: An Ill Wind

Hurricane-ravaged New Orleans hardly brings the word "serendipity" to mind, but Southern Rep artistic director Ryan Rilette is finding a use for the phrase. The Sunken Living Room--Miami-born David Caudle's portrait of a 1970s Miami family--was scheduled to premiere this past November at Southern Rep, having been plucked from the company's Southern New Plays Festival lineup of readings. "We worked on it over a year," says Rilette. "That made it one of the most frustrating plays in our season to have to cancel." Enter serendipity: Rafael de Acha, artistic director of Miami's New Theatre, responded to an e-mail from Rilette asking for support.  It turned out de Acha was looking to fill a hole in his season with a Miami play by a Miami playwright.  The co-production runs at New Theatre April 6-May7 (complete with one actor from the original cast, John Magaro).  Southern Rep will remount the production in January. "I'd like to have done it earlier," says Rilette, "but that would have put the play back in the middle of hurricane season.  I couldn't do that to David." -- Sarah Hart

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

David Caudle was inspired to write THE SUNKEN LIVING ROOM after taking Nancy Robillard's  acting class at Naked Angels in New York.  Sections of early drafts were read in Naked Angels' Tuesdays@Nine reading series.   Mr. Caudle further developed the play in the Downstage Miami playwriting workshop in his hometown of Miami.   This workshop was the brainchild of the Dade County Cultural Affairs Department's Rem Cabrera.  Mr. Caudle's mentor on the project was Arthur Kopit. 

The first full readings of the play were at the Barrow Group theatre company in New York, directed by Georgi Silverman.  The original cast of those readings was:  Polly Adams (Lynnette), Matthew Landfield (Wade), DeAnna Lenhart (Tammy) and Taylor Ruckel (Chip.)  A subsequent reading was held at Gablestage in Miami, at the invitation of Artistic Director Joe Adler.  

The play became a Finalist at the Lark's Playwright's Week, and a Gold Medal Finalist for the Pinter Review Prize for Drama.   This information was reported in an online newsletter for alumni of the theatre department at UConn, where Mr. Caudle received his MFA in Set Design.  Ann Mahoney, an alumna actress who was a complete stranger to Mr. Caudle, passed the information on to Ryan Rilette at Southern Rep.  Mr. Rilette asked to read the script, and accepted the play into the Southern New Plays Festival.  He would have directed the reading, except that he was acting in the Elvis miniseries starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers.  Ann Mahoney stepped in to direct.  The play won the Festival and was chosen for production.  During the reading process, Southern Rep dramaturg Brian Sands led an insightful question-answer session that factored into further development of the script.