A Message to Key West From Playwright Halley Feiffer

With her record-breaking play “I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard” opening at the Studios of Key West this
week, playwright/actress Halley Feiffer wanted to make sure the island’s theater lovers know she hopes
they’ll come to see the play.

With connections to several Key West friends, she sent a message down about the play, which opens
Wednesday, January 23 rd for a two-week run at the Studios’ Helmerich Theatre. She wanted Key Westers
to know it’s a play close to her own heart.

“We don’t have a lot of art that’s really just about a father and a daughter,” Feiffer said, “and that’s an
important relationship. I think there’s something in the play that everyone can relate to.”

“I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard” is a fiercely funny yet powerfully dramatic play about a famous
playwright and his actress daughter who has just achieved her first Broadway role. They retire to his
apartment to await the reviews of her play, and in the ensuing discussion, things take a decidedly darker
turn – a searingly honest look at how psychological damage can be passed from generation to
generation without even knowing it.

Feiffer knows what she’s writing about. Like the main character in the play, she grew up in the shadow
of a famous father – the daughter of famed playwright/screenwriter Jules Feiffer.
“I was ferociously determined to become a successful playwright,” Feiffer wrote in her letter to
TheatreXP, the producers of the Studios of Key West production, “in much the same way as the
protagonist Ella in the play.”

She first worked into the business as an actress, however, garnering raves for performances in Broadway
shows like “The House of Blue Leaves” and “The Front Page.” She also made waves in film and television
with roles in HBO’s “Mildred Pierce” and “Bored To Death”, and films like “The Squid and the Whale”.
But it’s as a playwright that Feiffer has really found success. With plays like “How To Make Friends and
Then Kill Them”, and “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Gynecologic Oncology Unit at the
Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City,” she rocketed to prominence at theater companies like

Rattlestick, MCC, and Atlantic Theatre Company, the latter where “I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard”
premiered and broke all attendance records, ending up with an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination.
She’s been asked if the play was written about her father and their relationship, but she’s avoided
answering the question. But she did say in her letter that “once I finished it, I felt something I hadn’t
expected, something I couldn’t completely understand and that was: I don’t care if anyone else ever
reads this, sees this; I don’t care if this is ever produced or shared with the world in any way; I’m just glad
it’s out of me.”

But she’s thankful the world has seen it. It’s an incandescent, powerful play, and “this kind of honesty –
and surrender – is what I’ve striven for in all my work since,” Feiffer said. “Because it’s the kind of
surrender I think we all need in order to survive – certainly in order to be content, even useful. It’s
incredibly hard, often exquisitely painful. It’s also necessary.”

“I’m Gonna Pray For You So Hard” runs at the Studios of Key West through February 2. There’s a special
Sunday performance on January 27, and a talkback with the cast and director after the performance on
Friday, January 25. There’s also a Reduced-Price Preview on Tuesday, January 22. All curtains are at 8
pm.

Tickets are available at tskw.org or by calling 305-296-0458.

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]