Yoo-Hoo and Hank Williams ― A Play

In Yoo-Hoo and Hank Williams, Gregory S. Moss’s quirkily re-imagined version of the American South in the fifties, the Yoo-Hoo Girl is a shy, eccentric romantic, fond of her fantasies and of instant foods (Rice-a-Roni, Jell-O, Salisbury steak TV dinners?), movie star magazines, Elvis, and of course Hank Williams. Her neighbors? They’re pretty dreamy and eccentric too?the Paperboy; big, loud Amy; and the old lady Madeleine aka Batty, who’s prepared to wait out a nuclear strike in her basement with old Sears catalogs and lemonade to sustain her. Life here is crazy but simple, but then gets more crazy, more complicated, and more real, when the seductive Salesman turns up at the Yoo-Hoo Girl’s house. A favorite with actors for its powerful, poignant, and highly original monologues and scenes, Yoo-Hoo and Hank Williams is a dark, absurdist delight.

Gregory S. Moss is a playwright and educator, and currently serves as head of the MFA program in Dramatic Writing at the University of New Mexico. He has had plays produced or developed at the Guthrie, South Coast Rep, and New York Theatre Workshop, among others. He is currently working on commissions from Playwrights Horizons and Woolly Mammoth as well as collaborating on a new musical based on the life and work of Hunter S. Thompson for La Jolla Playhouse. He divides his time between Albuquerque, NM, and Brooklyn, NY.