Raven Theatre to observe 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with “The Play About My Dad”

The Play About My Dad by Boo Killebrew, which opened at New York’s 595 E 59 Theatres in June 2011, tells of the author’s father, a doctor in Gulfport, Mississippi who stayed behind to take care of patients as the storm hit in August 2005. New Orleans, as the largest city to be hit by the storm, appropriately received most of the media attention, but Katrina’s effects on the Gulf Coast were devastating. Many coastal towns were destroyed, 235 people were killed and more than one million Mississippians were affected. Killebrew’s play shows the doctors’ interactions with several residents caught in the storm – an elderly woman who refuses to leave, a pair of young parents and their five-year-old son who are unable to leave, and a team of paramedics who like the doctor stay behind to provide emergency care. The storm is a backdrop for the play’s meditation on life and death, memory and the present and loss of familial presence and support.

Marti Lyons, Michael Maggio Directing Fellow at the Goodman Theatre and director of such recent productions as Body and Blood at The Gift, Will Eno’sTitle and Deed at Lookingglass and Hot Georgia Sunday with Haven Theatre Company, will make her Raven Theatre debut as director. The play will be performed in Raven’s intimate West Stage space. Previews will be Wednesday October 21 -Sunday, October 25, 2015 with press openings Monday, October 26 and Tuesday, October 27, 2015. The regular run will be October 30 – November 28, 2015. Tickets are on sale now at www.raventheatre.com or by calling 773-338-2177.