MAGIC IN ROUGH SPACES: Selected Staged Readings and Events

houseonstilts

FORGOTTEN KINGDOMS: A Staged Reading

By Randy Baker
Directed by Shirley Serotsky

A part of The Kenedy Center’s
PAGE TO STAGE FESTIVAL
Monday, September 5 (Labor Day) @ 130pm
in the Kennedy Center’s THEATER LAB

FEATURING Shravan Amin. Jeremy Gee, Ahmad Kamal, Jennifer Knight, Emily Kester and Grady Weatherford

On a small island in Indonesia, a wooden house balances on stilts over a churning sea. In this house Reverend David Holiday tries to convert a skeptical young local whose fate has become improbably intertwined with his own. At stake this night is the life of the young man’s father, the future of this island’s ancient culture and the happiness of an American family caught between worlds. As the night turns into morning, the fate of David’s haunted young son becomes the biggest question of all.

By Randy Baker, Allyson Currin and James Hesla
Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick

September 2010: The Millenium Stage at the Kennedy Center
part of The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage FestivalPart of the Kennedy

Rorschach’s first experiment in the program that would become known as KLECKSOGRAPHY.

EAT ME or WHAT YOU WILL

By Karl Miller
A world-premiere staged reading
September 7, 2009

The Family Theatre at the Kennedy Center
part of The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival

EAT ME or WHAT YOU WILL is a consumer-conspiracy comedy that follows a young couple through the stressful wormhole of marriage prep. As they plan the most expensive event of their lives, Aaron and Laura fall prey to an elaborate guerilla marketing scheme that causes them both to re-evaluate their marital bond as well as their place in the world.

DIRECTED BY Grady Weatherford
FEATURING Joe Isenberg, Lee Liebeskind, Amy McWilliams, Marissa Molnar, Dylan Myers, Jay Saunders, Jenna Sokolowski

THE MINOTAUR

By Anna Ziegler
A world-premiere staged reading
September 1, 2008

The Family Theatre at the Kennedy Center
part of The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival

A loose adaptation of the myth in which Theseus kills the Minotaur and steals Ariadne away from Crete and into an uncertain future. A poetic and quirky exploration of the vagaries of storytelling, THE MINOTAUR is set in a timeless present where its themes of love, loss and primal longings are startlingly relevant.
Went on to be produced at Rorschach Theatre in January 20013

DIRECTED BY Randy Baker
FEATURING Wyckham Avery, Matt Dunphy, Danny Gavigan, Marissa Molnar, Colin Smith, Jeremy Webb
DRAMATURGY BY Carrie Hughes

 

GILGAMESH

By Randy Baker
A world-premiere staged reading
May 15, 2007

Long before the tanks reduced Iraq to rubble there was Gilgamesh, an ancient hero who risked everything in a quest to overcome death. Considered to be one of civilization’s first stories, Artistic Director Randy Baker’s retelling looks at the ancient tale with new eyes.

DIRECTED BY Jenny McConnell Frederick
FEATURING Michael John Casey, Maggie Glauber, Lindsay Haynes, Lee Liebeskind, Tiernan Madorno, Scott McCormick, Becky Peters, Alexander Strain, Jesse Terrill, Yasmin Tuazon

 

365 Days/365 Plays

By Suzan-Lori Parks
Produced by Becky Peters and Jessie Gallogly
May 21 2007

Seven plays.
Fourteen actors.
Six directors.
One juggler.

Parks wrote one play each day for a year. Inspired by her example RORSCHACH THEATRE presented its seven plays in the same sort of whirlwind spirit. Actors and directors met on Saturday to receive scripts and a list of challenges to work into their productions. On Monday night the theatre doors opened and RORSCHACH THEATRE presented seven fully staged productions to an audience hungry for spectacle and excitement!

DIRECTED BY Cecilia Cackley, Sarah Denhardt, Jessie Gollogly, Ashley Hollingshead, Ryan Taylor and Andy Wassenich
FEATURING JJ Area, Molly Cahill, Megan Dominy, Ken Elston, Valerie Felton, Heather Elaine Gaither, Jason Linkins, Cedric Mays, Casie Platt, Megan Reichelt, John Tweel and Simone Zvi

 

BLOOD BOUND AND TONGUE TIED

By Jacqueline Lawton
A world-premiere staged reading
February 19 2007

A depression-era adaptation of OEDIPUS, Lawton’s explosive BLOOD BOUND AND TONGUE TIED follows the astonishing journey of Jocasta, a black woman who passes for white and shuns her entire past when she falls in love with a successful white politician. With the birth of their son, Oedipus, Jocasta’s lies instigate a wave of bloodshed and carnage.
DIRECTED BY Patrick Crowley
FEATURING Paige Hernandez, JJ Johnson, Adrienne Nelson, Greg Reid, Clay Steakley

 

ONLY WE WHO GUARD THE MYSTERY SHALL BE UNHAPPY

By Tony Kushner
October 25, 2004

Directed by Steven Carpenter
Staring Rick Foucheux and Helen Headman

A Fully staged presentation of Kushner’s hot new political protest piece about Laura Bush reading Dosteyevsky to Iraqi children in Heaven. The short play was followed by an energetic discussion about politics in the theatre and issues surrounding the upcoming 2004 election

UPSHOT

By Ami Dayan
A world premiere staged reading
September 19, 2004

DIRECTED BY Shirley Serotsky
FEATURING Jason Lott, Michael John Casey, Louise Andrews

 

BEHOLD!

By James Hesla
A world-premiere staged reading
part of The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival
September 4, 2004

Palomino, the proprietor of The Palace of the Peculiar must find Anna Tingle’s Box of Prophecy. When startling coincidences lead all paths to converge, the mysteries of the Box are revealed.
Went on to be produced at Rorschach Theatre in May 2005

DIRECTED BY Randy Baker
FEATURING Scott Graham, Mark Sullivan, Alex Major, Heather Haney, Matt Anderson, Caroline Kenney, Jason Linkins, Brent Lowder, Elizabeth Chomko, Scott McCormick

 

MAGIC IN ROUGH SPACES:
Three Bold New Plays

A Weekend of Free Staged Readings
November 22-23, 2003

BEHOLD!
By James Hesla

Palomino, the proprietor of The Palace of the Peculiar must find Anna Tingle’s Box of Prophecy. When startling coincidences lead all paths to converge, the mysteries of the Box are revealed.
Went on to be produced at Rorschach Theatre in May 2005

DIRECTED BY Scott McCormick
FEATURING Steve Schatzow, Eric Schoen, Grady Weatherford, Yasmin Tuazon, Bill Gillette, John Horn, Jason Linkins, Jason Lott, Alia Faith Williams

LOVE LIES BURNING
By Andy Mitton

As the world unravels, perhaps hurtling towards its end, the lives of a strange menagerie of characters unfold.

DIRECTED BY Jessi Burgess
FEATURING Jenny Morris, Sarah Painter, Sara Garland, Matt Hartman, Austin Bragg, Steve Sawicki, Mark Sullivan, Ben Hill, David McKeever

ETERNAL HYDRA
By Anton Piatigorsky

Issues of ownership and art appropriation race to the forefront and mingle with a battle of control over a recently discovered masterpiece by a forgotten modernist writer.

DIRECTED BY Rahaleh Nassri
FEATURING Steve Carpenter, Thembi Duncan, Sarah Fischer, Richard Pelzman, Veronica del Cerro

 

After the Flood

A world-premiere staged reading
part of The Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival
September 1, 2003

Went on to be produced at Rorschach Theatre in January 2004

FEATURING James O. Dunn, Maggie Glauber, Franklin Dam, Josef Villanasco, Yasmin Tuazon. Joey Cabrera, James Hesla

 

“MOTIONLESS IN TIME…”

An evening of Archibald MacLeish’s Poetry
And the visual art of Ben Shahn
September 30, 2002

Presented by Rorschach Theatre and Theater J
In Conjunction with the Anne Loeb Bronfman Gallery exhibit:
“For All These Rights: Works by Ben Shahn, 1936-1970”

DIRECTED BY Randy Baker
PRODUCED BY Tim Getman, Jenny McConnell, Ari Roth
FEATURING Tim Getman, Tracy Olivera, Richard Kirkwood, Grady Weatherford
SLIDE PRESENTATION DESIGN BY Debra Kim Sivigny