Intiman Online
presents

UNDER BIG PINEY

Written & Produced by John Jiler
Directed by Corey Atkins

June 24th, 2021 at 5pm PT and streaming on demand through June 27th

Starring Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother Where Art Thou, Watchmen) and Gloria Reuben (ER, Lincoln)
Featuring Christa Kimlicko Jones, Russell Jordan, and Mike Keller
An online charity reading raising funds for the Southern Poverty Law Center

ABOUT THE PLAY:
Racial and sexual politics collide when an idealistic white man from New York travels to the south to petition for the removal of a Confederate statue. The only problem is, he soon falls in love with the town’s conservative Black mayor. The ensuing courtship is chaotic and forces everyone – Black and white – to confront their shared history. Will demolishing the statue heal the town or further divide it?

Written by John Jiler and developed over the past year by the Actors Studio and with director Leah Gardiner (For Colored Girls… at New York’s Public Theatre), this online reading will be performed by an array of award-winning actors including Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother Where Art Thou, Watchmen) and Gloria Reuben (ER, Lincoln). The reading is directed for Zoom by Corey Atkins. Ticket sales proceeds will be re-granted by Intiman Theatre to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which for fifty years has been a slim, valiant bulwark against racism and right-wing extremism in America.

This event is no longer available to stream on demand.

Your ticket purchase will be re-granted by Intiman to Southern Poverty Law Center. Additional donations can be made directly to the organization by visiting THIS LINK.

LEARN MORE

The Southern Poverty Law Center employs a three-pronged strategy to battle racial and social injustice:

  • FIGHTING HATE – Southern Poverty Law Center monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the U.S. and exposes their activities to law enforcement agencies, the media and the public.
  • LEARNING FOR JUSTICE – We know we don’t achieve equality and justice through the courts and investigative reporting alone. The future of our great country lies in the hands of today’s young people.
  • SEEKING JUSTICE – We use the courts and other forms of advocacy to win systemic reforms on behalf of victims of bigotry and discrimination.

With thanks to our ticket buyers, this event raised $9,610 donated to Southern Poverty Law Center.

CAST

TIM BLAKE NELSON - (Jacob)

Tim Blake Nelson is an actor, writer, director, and producer who has appeared in over eighty films including Just Mercy, Lincoln, Holes, The Incredible Hulk, Meet the Fockers, Minority Report, O Brother Where Art Thou?, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, in which he played the title role. His playwriting credits include The Grey Zone and Eye of God, both of which Nelson adapted and directed for the screen. Other film directing credits include O, Leaves of Grass, and Anesthesia. Most recently, Nelson’s play Socrates premiered at The Public Theater in New York City during the spring of 2019, and he starred in HBO’s critically acclaimed limited series Watchmen.

GLORIA REUBEN - (Deanna)

Gloria Reuben is an actress, singer and published author. Her acting credits include: “Jeanie Boulet” on the hit television series ER (a role that garnered her two Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe nomination) as well as many other television series including RAISING THE BAR, FALLING SKIES, CITY ON A HILL and MR. ROBOT. In film, Gloria portrayed “Elizabeth Keckley” alongside Daniel Day-Lewis & Sally Field in Steven Spielberg’s LINCOLN, appeared with Paul Rudd and Tina Fey in Paul Weitz’s ADMISSION, and starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson in REASONABLE DOUBT. Gloria’s portrayal of Condoleezza Rice in David Hare’s play STUFF HAPPENS at the Public Theater in NYC garnered her a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Play. Gloria’s career in music includes being a backup singer for Tina Turner in 2000, and recording three albums: JUST FOR YOU, PERCHANCE TO DREAM and FOR ALL WE KNOW. Gloria’s non-fiction book MY BROTHERS’ KEEPER: TWO BROTHERS. LOVED. AND LOST. (an intimate tribute to her two brothers who have passed away) was published by Post Hill Press in November 2019.

CHRISTA KIMLICKO JONES - (Sue Ann / Heather)

Select NYC Credits include: Awake and Sing!, The Seagull, The Whale, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya (Harold Clurman Lab), A Name for a Ghost to Mutter, The Soldier Dreams (Theatre East), Umbrella, Harvest (Alchemy Theatre). Select Regional: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Austin Playhouse), Hedda Gabler, Desire Under the Elms, Fool for Love (the dirigo group). Member of V.A.S.T.A., League of Professional Theatre Women, and Actors’ Equity Association.   ChristaKJones.com

RUSSELL JORDAN - (Remington / Isaiah)

Russell Jordan is excited to revisit the roles he portrayed in Under Big Piney developmental readings at The Actors Studio and at the St. Malachy’s Church Reading Series. He wants to thank playwright John Jiler for this opportunity. Russell earned a 2020 Helen Hayes Awards Outstanding Performer – Visiting Production nomination for his work in Vivian’s Music, 1969. As theatres reopen, he looks forward to reprising his Vivian’s Music, 1969 role. Off-Broadway: Vivian’s Music, 1969 (59E59 Theaters). Other theater: Street Theater [The Other Side of Silence] (New York Innovative Theatre Awards Nomination for Outstanding Ensemble), Planet Connections: Dig Infinity! (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Musical or Play with Music), Dash (Outstanding Actor in a Staged Reading). TV: “FBI,” “The Blacklist,” “Dietland,” “Dangerous Book for Boys.” Follow Russell on Twitter and Instagram at @russjordan.

MIKE KELLER - (Bobby / Lloyd)

Mike Keller is an actor/director who holds his MFA from The New School for Drama.  He is a NJ native, former West Point cadet, director member of the Actors Studio Playwright/Directors Unit, and runs Lyle Kessler’s private workshop in the East Village, NYC.  Recent theater credits include “Cliff” in The Woolgatherer, directed by Chazz Palminteri, and “Chicken” in Tennessee Williams’ Kingdom of Earth, at St. Luke’s Theater.  TV Credits include FBI, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Law & Order: Organized Crime, Godfather of Harlem, The Plot Against America, Madam Secretary, Bull, Younger, The Detour, The Path, Daredevil, The Mysteries of Laura, Seven Seconds, The Good Fight, Ray Donovan, and 30 Rock.  On film, he’s “T-Rex Rinaldi” in Girl Most Likely, opposite Kristen Wiig, “Officer O’Callaghan” with Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola’s, On The Rocks, and he’s the only guy who refuses the drink from Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers.

CREATIVE TEAM

John Jiler - Writer & Producer

John Jiler is a writer of drama and prose. He won both the Richard Rodgers and Kleban Award for AVENUE X, which played in New York at Playwrights’ Horizons and over a hundred theatres around the world. His work has been seen coast to coast, from the O’Neill National Playwright’s Conference to the Kennedy Center to LAByrinth Theater and places in between. His most recent book, Sleeping With The Mayor, was a New York Times’ “Notable Book Of The Year.”
As a journalist he has written for the NY Times, The Nation, and the Village Voice, where the stories that led to AVENUE X and Sleeping With The Mayor first appeared.
Among his current theatrical projects are BIG RED SUN, a World War Two-era story with composer Georgia Stitt, STRANGE ROOTS a new one man show about American politics, and UNDER BIG PINEY, an exploration of sex and racism in the south.

Corey Atkins - Director

Corey Atkins is a Utah/Idaho born-and-raised, New York City-based, writer/director and artistic producer. As a director he’s worked with Lincoln Center Theatre/Institute, Noor Theatre/NYTW, The Acting Company, Cleveland Play House, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hangar Theatre, Portland Stage Company, and Evan Bernardin Productions, among many others. His writing spans fiction, non-fiction, theatre and TV/Film, and he was recently selected to develop his one-hour pilot, “Zone of Silence,” with Sundance Institute’s Collab. As an artistic producer, Corey spent two seasons as Artistic Associate with Obie Award-winning The Playwrights Realm, where he produced and administered the company’s playwright development programs, and continues as a freelance script consultant. From 2011-2016 he was Associate Producer for the 2015 Tony Award-winning Cleveland Play House. He is a Drama League Directing Fellow, a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and a former member of the Translation Committee of the Latinx Theatre Commons. M.F.A. Directing – University of Texas at Austin.