In Exit 27, Portland playwright Aleks Merilo tells a riveting story of survival. Since the year 2000, the citizens of one town have abandoned nearly 1,400 boys in the Utah desert to reduce the competition for wives in their polygamist community. These young men are called “The Lost Boys of Utah” and Exit 27 is imagined from Aleks’ actual interviews with these true teenage outcasts. With an MFA in Playwriting from UCLA, Aleks’ plays have been produced in numerous theaters across the country as well as off-off-Broadway. His Blur in the Rear View won the James Rogers Playwriting Contest in Lexington, KY and will be produced by North Carolina’s Fly-By-Night Theater in March of 2013.