Photo Credit: Cliff Roles

The doors open tonight for Sarasota’s newest performing arts venue, Urbanite Theatre, with the U.S. premiere of the award-winning play, Chicken Shop. Written by London-based playwright Anna Jordan and starring Joseph Flynn and Ashley Scallon, Chicken Shop tells the tale of Hendrix and Luminita - one a bullied son of two moms, desperate to prove his masculinity, and the other a young woman caught in the world of modern day sex trafficking – and the bonds they form in the upstairs room of a local fried chicken shop.

“This is a perfect example of the kind of shows that we’re going to do,” said Brendan Ragan, who founded Urbanite Theatre alongside co-founder and fellow FSU/Asolo Conservatory grad Summer Dawn Wallace. “It’s very exciting and something the community has never seen before – award-winning, fringe, intimate blackbox theater.”

Impressed by the manner in which the play dealt with heavy and universal subject matter such as modern-day masculinity, the objectification of women and sex trafficking, the Urbanite founders could see why Jordan’s original run won Fringe Production of the Year in London last year, and fought to bring the U.S. premiere to Sarasota. In an attempt to make the story more relatable, Ragan and Wallace worked with Jordan on updating the locations and the dialogue to fit a New York City-based version. “The issues this play addresses are devastatingly important in the U.S., and in Florida specifically,” said Ragan. “We didn’t want to present these issues as alien or exclusive to the UK. They’re immediate and they’re here.”

To direct Urbanite’s first production, Ragan and Wallace tapped veteran performer and director Barbara Redmond, a previous regular among the Asolo Rep talent and Wallace’s former instructor at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory. “We left the show in very, very capable hands,” said Ragan. “We saw the show last night and it’s great. The audience is going to love it.”

Chicken Shop opens tonight at Urbanite Theatre at 8pm and runs Wed-Sun until May 3. Tickets cost $20 or $5 for students.

Photo Credit: Cliff Roles