Rogue Machine Opens A Great Wilderness at the Matrix Theatre

Sep 12, 2022
A Great Wilderness by Rogue Machine

 Obie Award-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter navigates complex terrain into gay conversion therapy. Walt has devoted his life to "curing" gay teenage boys but his previously unwavering moral compass no longer points one way. How does one find their true north?

"A Great Wilderness is particularly personal and dear to me, explains playwright Samuel D, Hunter. "It's sort of like a group of people who are clinging to the past. That dynamic, that tension, has always been really interesting to me. It's also something I don't see discussed a lot on our stages, which is curious just because we live in such a religious country. I'm so grateful that Rogue Machine is once again giving my work a home in Los Angeles, and choosing to tell this very complex story about very complex people."

Samuel D. Hunter (Playwright) is the recipient of a 2014 MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship for his work as a playwright. His full-length plays include The Whale (Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, GLAAD Media Award, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle nominations for Best Play), A Case for the Existence of God (New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play), A Bright New Boise (Obie Award, Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), Greater Clements (Drama Desk nomination for Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Honoree), Lewiston/Clarkston (Drama Desk nomination for Best Play), The Few, A Great Wilderness, Rest, Pocatello, The Healing, and The Harvest, among others. A film version of The Whale, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Brendan Fraser, is set to be released by A24 Films. He is the recipient of a 2012 Whiting Writers Award and an honorary doctorate from the University of Idaho. His work has been produced Off Broadway in New York City by Lincoln Center Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, LCT3, Signature Theatre, Page 73 Productions, Clubbed Thumb, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre. Elsewhere, his work has been produced by Theatre Royal Bath, Dallas Theatre Center, Seattle Rep, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, South Coast Rep, and Victory Gardens, among others. Two published anthologies of his work are available from TCG Books, and a third is forthcoming. He is a member of New Dramatists and a current Resident Playwright at the Signature Theatre in New York City. He holds degrees in playwriting from NYU, The Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and Juilliard.