McNally's Corpus Christi to Play Limited Engagement at the Rattlestick

By Andrew Gans
August 27, 2008

108 Productions' staging of Terrence McNally's Corpus Christi, previously seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival, will play a limited run at the Rattlestick Theater in New York this fall.

The two-week run, Oct. 14-26 at the Rattlestick, will commemorate the death of Matthew Shepard, the gay college student who was brutally murdered in 1998 just a day before the controversial Corpus Christi made its world premiere at the Manhattan Theatre Club amidst a slew of protests.

Proceeds from the show will benefit The Matthew Shepard Foundation.

Directed by Nic Arnzen, the cast features Nic Arnzen as Peter, Amanda Axelrod as Simon, Jan Ambler as Andrew, James Brandon as Joshua, Steve Callahan as Judas Iscariot, Melissa Caulfield as John the Baptist, Elizabeth Cava as Matthew, Mark "Colby" Colbert as James, Steve Hasley as Bartholomew, Molly O'Leary as Thomas, David Pevsner as Philip, Sheilagh Polk as James the Less (Week One), Scott Presleyas James the Less (Week Two) and Suzanne Santos as Thaddeus.

Jeremy Pivnick is the technical director/lighting designer. Elna Kordijan stage manages.

Corpus Christi, according to 108 Productions, is a "retelling of the Jesus story, with Jesus as a gay man living in 1950s Corpus Christi, Texas."

The Rattlestick Theater is located at 224 Waverly Place in New York, NY. For tickets visit www.smarttix.com or call (212) 868-4444. For more information go to www.108productions.org.