A Brittle Peanuts Gang Come of Age in Dog Sees God Off-Broadway, Opens Dec. 15

By 15 Dec 2005

Eddie Kaye Thomas in Dog Sees God. photo by Carol Rosegg

Most of the loveable "Peanuts" comic strip gang are back, now as teens with angst by the barrel, in the Off-Broadway run of Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, featuring young stars of screen, at the Century Center for the Performing Arts.

Trip Cullman (The Last Sunday in June) directs the new run of the award winning 2004 FringeNYC take-off of the "Peanuts" characters. Performances began Dec. 1 toward a Dec. 15 opening night at the downtown stage.

Bert V. Royal penned Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead which follows the original gang from the Charles Schulz comic strip a decade later, soon after their beloved beagle companion dies. Royal’s inspiration was to do a play "about teenagers because I think they are the scariest people, vicious and just mean spirited," the young scribe told Playbill.com. "I wanted to do it with some kids that we felt like we knew and show them as teenagers."

Impending adulthood has now resulted in new identities: a once popular boy in an existential dilemma; an abused pianist; a pyromaniac ex-girlfriend; two drunk cheerleaders; a homophobic quarterback; a burnt out Buddhist; and a drama queen sister.

The starry cast includes Eddie Kaye Thomas ("American Pie," Smelling A Rat) as CB, America Ferrara ("Real Women Have Curves," "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants") as CB’s Sister, Keith Nobbs ("Phone Booth," Romance) as Van, Eliza Dushku ("Bring It On," "Tru Calling") as Van’s Sister, Ian Somerhalder ("Lost," "Rules of Attraction") as Matt, Kelli Garner ("The Aviator," "Thumbsucker") as Tricia, Ari Graynor ("Mystic River," Brooklyn Boy) as Marcy and Logan Marshall-Green ("The O.C.," The Distance From Here) as Beethoven. For more on the characters and actors, visit Playbill.com’s "Meet the Gang" feature.

The design team for Dog Sees God features David Korins (scenic), Jenny Mannis (costumes), Darron L. West (sound) and Brian MacDevitt (lighting).

Dede Harris - currently represented on Broadway by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Hairspray - produces with Martian Entertainment as co-producer. Sorrell Tomlinson and David Carpenter are associate producers.

Produced by File 14 Productions at The New York International Fringe Festival in 2004, the palindromically-titled show then continued at its venue under an Off Broadway contract in association with the Soho Playhouse. The work received a Fringe Excellence Award for Overall Production and GLAAD’s Media Award for Outstanding Off-Off Broadway Production.

Tickets to Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead at the Century Center, 111 East 15th Street, are available through (212) 239-6200. For more information, visit www.dogseesgod.com.