July 17, 2026

COUNTRY/CONVENIENCE

Amy Rox Surratt | Deejay Gray | Astroturf Noise

December 11-13, 2026

[Program tbd]

Runtime: tbd

a new experimental operetta, presented as a workshop performance

Set entirely during a graveyard shift at a rural gas station somewhere in the remote Appalachian backwoods, a (barely?!?) middle-aged queer woman stands alone at the register of the last outpost for miles — and over a single night, her inner life erupts into song.

Part absurdist comedy, part political elegy, this mysterious night unfolds with music that captures a lonely person’s delight and devastation in a country that runs on oil, convenience, and the labor of people it doesn’t count. But, hey, maybe she’ll win the lottery…

Credits

Script/Lyrics/Created by Amy Rox Surratt

Directed by and Developed with Deejay Gray

Music by Sam Day Harmet

Additional Text by Tosha R. Taylor

Live Score performed by Astroturf Noise: Sam Day Harmet (Mandolin/Electronics) · Sana Nagano (Violin/Effects) · Zach Swanson (Upright Bass)

Performed by Amy Rox Surratt

The artists

Amy Rox Surratt

bio

Amy Rox Surratt (she/they) is a queer Appalachian writer/performer. Mistakes Made Productions is their Appalachian-born, NYC-based umbrella for new theatrical works centering queer and experimental narratives, rural communities, and collaborative performance making.

Maybe you saw: FIRSTandLAST(show) (2017), The Desired Affect (2018), AmySurrattPLAYSMarySurratt (2019), and Hillbillie Baroque (a Work In Progress that was destroyed by the year 2020). Probably you didn’t, and that’s okay. FIRSTandLAST(show) was called “a dizzy colorful jamboree of mythic proportions” (NY Theater Review), a “gorgeous take-no-prisoners mess” (The Reviews Hub), and a “hard hitting-phenomenon of a production” (Culturebot).

MFA, Sarah Lawrence College — but Amy probably should have gone to clown school.

Deejay Gray
@deejay.gray

bio

DEEJAY GRAY (he/she/they) is an actor, director, and producer on a mission to share stories about queer liberation. As Founding Artistic Director of TheatreLAB in Richmond, Virginia, Deejay was recognized in STYLE Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40, received the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts from Richmond Magazine, was awarded over 30 Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Awards – and was the first in the awards’ history to win both Best Actor and Best Director. Since moving to NYC, Deejay was named Best Director at the Queens Short Play Festival for his work on The Suicides by Anderson John Heinz, co-produced John Cameron Mitchell’s Club Shortbus with Fempath, made his Off-Broadway debut with STALKER at New World Stages, co-produced Baldwin et Lucien by R. Jahan at New York City Center, directed a workshop of suck the devil’s dick on a sunday by Brynne O’Rourke at Dixon Place, was a Guest Judge for CATS: Jellicle Ball at PAC, and most recently opened the first annual Ouchies! Fest at Purgatory in Bushwick with a preview of COUNTRY/CONVENIENCE with Amy Rox Surratt. Deejay is the Interim Executive Director for Pride Youth Theatre Alliance (PYTA) and lives in Brooklyn.

Astroturf Noise

bio

Astroturf Noise exists at the intersection of free improvisation, effects-heavy noise music, and American roots music.

The group’s sound marries the propulsive rhythmic drive of bluegrass with the snarl of Downtown agitators such as the Lounge Lizards, Arto Lindsay, and James Chance along with textural flavors touching on glitch music, dub, doom metal, and Ornette Coleman. A broad melange to be sure, but one anchored by the group’s energetic drive and idiosyncratic improvisational language. This is the synthetic counterpoint to Bill Monroe’s “Bluegrass Boys”.

Astroturf Noise was formed by Sam Day Harmet (mandolin/fx) and Sana Nagano (violin/fx) in 2016 after meeting at Karl Berger’s Creative Music Studio and discovering a shared affinity for high-energy free improv and American folk traditions. After a period of developing as a duo, they added versatile bassist Zach Swanson in 2018.

Their debut self-titled album features guest contributions from genre-defying artists Billy Martin (percussion) and Sarah Bernstein (violin). Listen to their album to hear the New York avant-garde in conversation with rural America.