Holly Hagan is Ariella is The Lab’s ’55 and Over’

Opening for a limited, 3-performance run on May 26 at Lab Theater is a new play (which is actually still under development) by Zalman Velvel by the name of 55 and Over. It shines a harsh light on severely burdened seniors, that is retired folks living exclusively on Social Security who shell out more than half of their income for rent. 55 and Over revolves around a 75-year-old by the name of Moe who’s been evicted from his apartment because he opted for groceries and his expensive heart medication in lieu of paying his rent. That’s when Moe’s grandson shows up for a visit with his pregnant 17-year-old girlfriend, Ariella.

Holly Hagan plays the part of Ariella. Lab Theater audiences last saw Holly as the app-crazed enchantress in Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Sirens. Sweetly naïve and seemingly oblivious to the sexual innuendo and double entendre ladled into the lines of dialogue given to her in the play, Hagan’s siren was unquestionably a statement role for the [then] 18-year-old actress.

Naïvety was also the order of the day in her prior role – the beautiful young heiress Olivia in The Lab’s 2015-2016 season ending production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Under Nykkie Rizley’s expert direction, Hagan portrayed the young heiress not as a rich noblewoman consumed with propriety and her newfound station in life, but more as a sexually-inexperienced woman who suddenly discovers she’s free to explore her sexuality and vent her latent carnal desires for the very first time.

Prior to Twelfth Night, Holly was serving up drinks to the well-lubricated Eight as they gathered in the Red Nose Inn to meet the press over allegations of sexual harassment and impropriety by the legendary he-ain’t-no-saint Nick in The Eight: Reindeer Monologues. Hagan’s other acting credits include Angela in Stage Kiss, Thomasina Coverly in Arcadia, Soupy Sue in Urinetown and Kate Keller in The Miracle Worker. Holly was also a member of the team of actors who performed Ben Lamoureux’s one-act play, Bird Flew, which was both the judges’ and people’s choice in Lab Theater’s 24-Hour Playwriting Project on December 6, 2015.

May 12, 2017

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