Ben Fankhauser, Katie Thompson, Emily Rogers Lead Latest Reading of Ryan Scott Oliver's Gothic Thriller | Playbill

News Ben Fankhauser, Katie Thompson, Emily Rogers Lead Latest Reading of Ryan Scott Oliver's Gothic Thriller Ryan Scott Oliver's We Foxes, a new Southern Gothic musical thriller about an orphan girl in search of salvation, will receive a closed reading at Playwrights Horizons July 24 under the direction of Tony nominee Leigh Silverman.

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Emily Rogers Photo by Matthew Murphy

The reading of We Foxes is produced by Grove Entertainment, hosted by Playwrights Horizons and is closed to the public.

Directed by Silverman with music direction by Rich Silverstein, the piece features a book, music and lyrics by Oliver, whose acclaimed Jasper in Deadland was seen Off-Broadway.

Emily Rogers stars as Willa opposite a cast that includes Jill Abramovitz, Ben Crawford, Ben Fankhauser, Cory Jeacoma, Natalie Charle Ellis, Tori Huston-Elem, Will Erat, P.J. Griffith, Azudi Onyejekwe, Jen Perry, Jim Stanek and Katie Thompson.

Listen to "Map of Scars," performed by Rogers, from We Foxes.

We Foxes is described as "a southern Gothic thriller set in small-town Missouri, 1945. It's the story of Willa, a tough and unmannered orphan girl, and her adoption by the crafty Sheriff’s wife, Vesta Quimby. When Willa discovers the dark secrets beneath the floorboards, a war cuts them apart and Willa must fight to survive. After all, Vesta Quimby is the most beloved and powerful woman in town … Yet she's less humanitarian socialite than she is Machiavellian sociopath… Can Willa discover her own salvation, deliver herself into courage, and sacrifice everything to escape Vesta? It is a story of intense human struggle, deliverance, and the great salvation found only through oneself." The creative team includes music director Silverstein, music assistant Kailey Marshall, stage manager David Lurie and production assistant Nessie Nankivell.

We Foxes was commissioned by Broadway Across America and has been in residence at the 5th Avenue in Seattle, Goodspeed, TheatreWorks, Silicon Valley's Writer's Retreat, Pace New Musicals, CAP 21 and the Weston Playhouse. The York Theatre Company presented the New York premiere Sept. 12, 2014, as part of its Developmental Reading Series.

Oliver has written eight musicals and is a 2011 Lucille Lortel Award nominee, a 2009 Jonathan Larson grant recipient, the 2008 Richard Rodgers Award for Musical Theatre recipient, a 2007 Dramatists Guild Fellow and, most recently, the recipient of residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Weston Playhouse and Cap 21 for We Foxes. His work has been featured at the Kennedy Center, Off-Broadway and on television.

Read more about his work in Playbill.com's Contemporary Musical Theatre Songwriters You Should Know.

 
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