The Louboutin at plumage.'s 5-10: Still Winter!

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The Louboutin was presented at plumage.'s 5-10: Still Winter on March 9, 2015.

It featured Irene Rivera & Rachel Lin and was directed by Eric Powell Holm. 

It was an evening of 6 10-minute plays featuring the talents of the plumage. writers. It was a packed house and evening full of connective lines and references to the cold. Thanks to everyone who came out! 

 

 

 

 

This Week in Theatre: Readings, Seeings, Devisings.

Read: Lucas Hnath's Death Taxes. February 9, 2015. Saying Yes Changes the Play. 

Devised! More: Great things happening. Landings. Arrivals. And we ourselves, landing. February 8, 2015. 

Read: Idris Goodwin's How We Got On. There will be mistakes. Don't forget the joy. February 2, 2015. 

Saw: Ria T. DiLullo's Grief Lines, at a Marrow's Edge Salon. January 31, 2015. 

Attended: New York Stage and Film's 2015 Kick-Off. Great people, great conversation. How to rebrand so people find you. January 29, 2015. 

Read: Courtney Baron's Eat Your Heart Out. "Take an L." January 26, 2015. 

Saw: RCDS's Festival Choir Concert. The Power of Unified Voice. January 25, 2015. 

We're Devising: American Mythology

It's happening. Elana McKelahan of Highly Impractical Theater and I are teaming up to bring you an amazing immersive devised piece of theater. Coming to a theater near you, likely in Spring of 2016. Or so. We'll see.  

But until then, check back here for updates/photos/and snippets as we work to bring you a piece of theater all about our American values, mythologies and history. It's going to be insane, unbelievable, and a whole lot of everything. Much like our nation itself. 

This Whatever in Theater: Birdman, Boleros, Iphis.

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It's been awhile. Holidays. New Years. Whatever it was: We're back. 

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Saw: Elise LeBreton's Myth of Iphis at The Brick. December 12-13th. "Myths are public dreams, and dreams are private myths."

Saw: Birdman. December 3, 2015. All the thoughts. Just, go see it. 

Read: Jose Rivera's Boleros for the Disenchanted. December 2014- January 2015. Telling stories of the after after ever after, and the land on the other side. Spoiler Alert: Disenchantment. 

5-10: Thanks for Loving (and eventually Leaving, appropriately, at the right moment)!

Thanks to everyone who came out to plumage.'s first 5-10: Loving & Leaving!

It was night full of great work, exciting stories, and one very full theater. My piece After You, was presented alongside some truly excellent work. Lesson: Relationships are hard. Or to quote the indelible Taylor Swift, life makes love look hard. 

You all rock. Check out some photos from the event. 

For more After You shots, click here. 

This Week in Theater: Dance, Music, Dates, Grief.

What a full week. 

Saw: Old Music, New Art. November 13, 2014. Music as a search for resolution. 

Saw: Sadeh 21 at BAM. November 13, 2014. The heartbreak of falling off walls. 

Produced/Wrote: After You, part of plumage.'s 5-10: Loving & Leaving. A night of small fast theater. What fun. November 17, 2014. 

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Read: Ria T. DiLullo's Grief Lines. November 18, 2014. A play as eulogy.


This Week in Theater: FatherComesHome, LipsTeeth, StrangeAttractors.

What a great week in theater. 

Saw: Suzan Lori Park's Father Comes Home From the Wars, at The Public. Start with a bet. Keep it dangerous. October 25, 2014. 

Saw: Terrence McNally's Lips Together, Teeth Apart, at Second Stage Theatre. The pool that no one can touch. October 27, 2014. 

Read: David Adjmi's Strange Attractors. Keep it quirky. October 27, 2014. 

This Week in Theater: Torched, Foreigners, Shores, Willing.

Here's to Many Things in Many Places. 

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Saw:  Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro's Torched at TADA! October 11, 2014. Matches out like a wizard. 

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Saw: Caridad Svitch's Upon the Fragile Shore. At New Dramatists. October 16, 2014. Tell foreign stories. 

Read: Amy Herzog's Willing. October 20th, 2014. Puns, ambiguity, and magical solutions. 

"We are Samurai" a Critic's Pick / Best Play with DC Metro

‘We Are Samurai’ at Venus Theatre

By

Michael Poandl

-

September 8, 2014

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Experiencing Venus Theatre’s production of Daria Miyeko Marinelli’s We Are Samurai feels something like when your dad threw you into the deep end so you could learn to swim. At first, it is scary and a bit overwhelming; but when you begin to find your rhythm and get the hang of what’s going on in Deborah Randall’s hallucinatory production, it is pure floating bliss.

Elias (Cathryn Benson) is a kimono-clad psychic who can sniff out her one true love, Regan (Daven Ralston). Photo by Curtis Jordan.

It is difficult to distance yourself from this unusual, evocative piece of theatre, because you’re literally in the middle of the action. We Are Samurai is staged “promenade style” meaning that the audience itself moves through the space of Venus’ “Play Shack” in Laurel, Maryland. As you move through the different arenas (“The Worship”, “The Void”, “The Living Room”, “The Kitchen, “The Garden”), a narrative begins to emerge. You stitch together what is happening by absorbing a piece of dialogue here, a snatch of monologue there, a flash of music or a moment of physical action. The result is, by its nature, fragmented, and because there is no specified path for the audience to move through the space, it is inevitable that you will not get the whole story.

But truthfully, the “story” of We Are Samurai, such as it is, is not really the most important thing about the show. Sure, you’ll want to pay attention to the death of two beloved housecats, a young man’s unhealthy obsession with his iPhone, and the danger of a powerful love-inducing perfume – not to mention the silent samurai floating around the space.

But the most evocative moments of the show aren’t found in the arc of the story, but in the twists and turns that the characters’ relationships move through. Elias (Cathryn Benson) is a kimono-clad psychic who can sniff out her one true love, Regan (Daven Ralston), whom she assures has been her destined companion over hundreds of reincarnations throughout history. Meanwhile, Regan’s brother, Rocky (Patrick Gorirossi) insists that nothing is really real until it exists on the Internet, and when he is separated from his beloved smart phone, he demands to know if he still exists. Finally, Rocky’s girlfriend Josephine (Ann Fraistat) is a Donna Reed style domestic whose kitchen is plastered with pictures of her cats, and lays out cucumber sandwiches that the audience can actually eat (I must have indulged in a half dozen). It is the death of Josephine’s poor kitties that sets off a chain of events that, while ultimately tragic, includes moments of absurd comedy along the way.

Josephine. Photo by Curtis Jordan.

If it sounds like an Ionesco sushi roll stuffed with Kafka and sprinkled with patchouli oil, you’re in the ballpark. But despite the occasionally incomprehensible bits of narrative, the show is ultimately a pleasure to experience, because however crazy the world of the play becomes, the actors commit to it wholeheartedly.

The chaos of We Are Samurai is belied by the tight, well-rehearsed performances of the cast. Director Deborah Randall extracts sincere feelings of love, jealousy, rage, and grief from underneath the stylized staging. The absurdity of the characters transforming from squatting, singing samurai (yes, singing) into writhing cats is juxtaposed with an earnest, almost severe realism. When Josephine brews tea or Regan cooks rice, there is such a natural, matter-of-fact quality to the action that you almost feel like a voyeur. It is this tension between the everyday and the fantastical that makes We Are Samurai fascinating.

It is much more difficult, and expensive, to see theatre than it is to switch on the TV or plop down in front of some Netflix. The relative inaccessibility of live theatre makes me crave to see something new on stage. So when I come across a show like We Are Samurai, it makes me want to shout from the rooftops that everyone should go see it. Because no matter what you think of the Lynchian surrealism that is Daria Miyeko Marinelli’s play, you can rest assured that you’ve never experienced anything quite like it.

Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.

We Are Samurai plays through September 28, 2014 at Venus Theatre— 21 C Street in  Laurel, MD. For tickets call the box office at (202) 236-4078, or purchase them online.

https://dctheaterarts.org/2014/09/08/samurai-venus-theatre/