Centenary Stage Company’s NEXTStage Repertory Opens Six Rounds of Vengeance Next Week

Centenary Stage Company’s NEXTStage Repertory will open their first mainstage production of the 2023-2024 season with a production of Six Rounds of Vengeance by Qui Nguyen. Performances will take place in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center of the Centenary University campus at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ. Tickets are $17.50 for adults and $10.00 for students and children under 12. For more information, or to purchase tickets, visit centenarystageco.org or call the box office at (908) 979-0900.

In post-apocalyptic “Lost Vegas,” a young gunslinger named Jess December enlists the help of a mysterious samurai cowboy to help avenge the murder of her sister. However, the gang they’ll be going against has powers that go beyond just gunpowder and steel.  To get revenge, they may have to become just as bloodthirsty as the monsters they’re facing. A classic Qui Nguyen play, Six Rounds of Vengeance blends a spaghetti western with his signature post-apocalyptic spin, adding in martial arts, puppetry, and comic book camp.

“Six Rounds of Vengeance relies on westerns, samurai stories, action movies, blaxploitation flicks and vampire chillers. But what sets the company even further apart from its Off-Off-Broadway peers is the ways in which these elements have been given a contemporary twist. Instead of making brawny straight men the heroes, the Vampire Cowboys lionize characters who are women, gay, nonwhite or nerds.”  

– The New York Times. 

Playwright, Qui Nguyen, is also a screenwriter, and co-founder of the Obie Award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company of NYC. His plays include Vietgone (2016 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, 2016 LADCC Tim Schmitt Award, 2016 Edward M. Kennedy Prize finalist); War is F**king Awesome (Frederick Loewe Award); She Kills Monsters (2014 AATE Distinguished Play Award, 2012 GLAAD Media Award nom); Soul Samurai (2009 GLAAD Media Award nom); and the critically acclaimed Vampire Cowboys shows: The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Alice in Slasherland, Fight Girl Battle World, Men of Steel, Six Rounds of Vengeance and Living Dead in Denmark. 

Nguyen’s recent awards include a 2016 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Preschool Animated Program (Peg+Cat) and a 2015 New York Community Trust Helen Merrill Playwriting Award. He is proud member of the WGA, The Dramatists Guild, The Playwrights Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and The Ma-Yi Writers Lab. He’s an alumnus of New Dramatists and Youngblood. For television, he’s written for PBS’s Peg+Cat and SYFY’s Incorporated. Currently, he’s a screenwriter for Marvel Studios and most recently Nguyen co-wrote Disney’s Raya and the Last Dragon.

He is a proud member of the WGA, The Animation Guild, Dramatists Guild of America, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Ma-Yi Writers Lab, and an alumnus of New Dramatists, Youngblood, and the Marvel Studios Writers Program. Currently, Qui’s developing new plays with Manhattan Theater Club/Geffen Playhouse, The Atlantic, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and Center Theatre Group/The Goodman. His company, Vampire Cowboys, often credited for being the pioneers of “geek theatre”, holds the unique distinction of being the first and currently only professional theatre organization to be officially sponsored by NY Comic Con.

The cast of Six Rounds of Vengeance includes: Olivia Tomlin, Malakii Layton, Connor McCrea, Samantha Molle, Luis Rodriguez, Danny Paternina, Claire Finegan, James Brandes, Matt Steen, Erin Clark, Viviana Mendez, Mark Squindo, Madison Rhine, & Christopher Rice. All of whom are Centenary University students, with students also making up a large portion of the creative and stage management team as a part of the NEXTstage Repertory, CSC’s all student performance division. In addition to being a part of the NEXTstage Repertory, these students become a part of CSC’s Professional Theatre Company. Unlike many professional theatres located on college and university campuses, Centenary students play an active and vital role in all professional productions from cast to crew, participating in all facets of production. Students are thereby provided with networking opportunities with artists who come to work with CSC throughout the year. These opportunities allow them to make important personal connections with working professionals.

Tickets for Six Rounds of Vengeance are $17.50 for adults and $10.00 for students and children under 12. Performances will take place Thursday, October 12 at 7:30 pm; Friday, October 13 at 8:00 pm; Saturday, October 14 at 8:00 pm; Sunday, October 15 at 2:00 pm; and Monday, October 16 at 7:00 pm. Performances will take place in the Sitnik Theatre located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center of the Centenary University campus at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ.

For more information, visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979-0900. The Centenary Stage Company box office is open Monday through Friday from 1:00-5:00 pm and two hours prior to performances. The box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ. Centenary Stage Company can also be found across social media platforms; Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. Like and follow to receive the latest in CSC news and special offers.

The 2023-24 Season of Performing Arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, the John and Margaret Post Foundation, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, the CSC corporate sponsors, including Platinum Season Sponsor the House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors, Heath Village, Visions Federal Credit Union, Explore Warren, and Fulton Bank, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.

ABOUT CENTENARY UNIVERSITY

Centenary University offers extraordinary learning opportunities that empower students to develop intellectually, emotionally, and interculturally—keys to career and personal success. Under the leadership of President Dale Caldwell, Ed.D., the University aspires to advance its reputation as a world class institution offering innovative programs, including the world’s first Master of Arts in Happiness Studies, to lift the future for our students and local communities.