nothin’s gonna change my world
Meditations on that mythological place called home
An immersive exploration of the dislocated and relocated, glimpsing stories from across the nation inspired by This American Life, anonymous letters submitted to Found Magazine, RV living blogs, the Occupy Movement and more. A meditation on Americans attempting to locate themselves.
Written and developed in The Civilians R&D Group. Recipient of the New Georges Audrey Residency.
Read about the site-specific production
visionquest: a day with songs
2 Santa Cruz surfer deadbeats, their divorced neighbor, and a teenage runaway get stuck in a rut of self-imposed stasis as they mourn the sudden, uncanny disappearance of the women in their lives. Each one struggles in the face of divorce, death, and mental illness. When they decide to host an impromptu party to break out of their funk, inclement weather and an escaped rattlesnake throw a wrench into their plans. They embark upon a surreal journey to face their demons with the help of some paranormal heralds along the way. visionquest explores the empathy and intimacy that emerges between these men as they learn to fill the gaping hole a world without women has left behind. The play implicates internalized cultural belief systems around “masculinity” to dismantle and reimagine the tropes of modern male narratives. Capturing the unique personality of Santa Cruz, CA, the play is also a love letter to the American Pacific Northwest and all the dreamers who get lost out there on the elusive path towards happiness.
Written with the support of the Pataphysics Stillwright retreat led by Erik Ehn.
Afflicted.
A group of teenage girls struck by a mysterious affliction are forced to turn to social media when their community fails to help them, and decide to take their narrative into their own hands. Inspired by the mysterious case of the twitching girls in LeRoy, NY, and the global legacy of women being silenced in the name of “mass hysteria”, Afflicted is a play about what happens when conflicting truths arise through the collision of paranoia, assumption, sensationalism and the human impulse to make sense of the unfathomable.
Written and developed in The Civilians R&D Group.
That Place On The Map Called France Is Not My Sister
A one-act that follows the patterned variations of a tone row music composition to evoke the kaleidoscopic dream space we enter when waiting for a loved one to die. Two sisters and their grandmother mourn the disappearance of a deadbeat mom, a sister’s failing immune system, and a childhood misplaced long ago. Meanwhile, a supernova is observed in the Milky Way galaxy for the first time since the invention of the telescope.
Written because Lisa D’Amour told me to.
Kill the Keepers
A street spectacle with music and shadow
Incorporating elements of shadow play, live music, and street theater, Kill The Keepers blends Maurice Maeterlinck’s symbolist classic Pelleas and Melisanda with a dystopian New England landscape of floodwaters and lighthouses. Four rogue performers tell a tale of injustice, corruption, and forbidden love—a tale whose telling is in and of itself an act of high treason.
Developed with the support of the P73 Yale Summer Residency. Produced by Perishable Theater, Providence, RI.
Apartment
Accompanied by a live sound score and shadow puppetry, Apartment explores the ironic isolation and solace found in overcrowded urban spaces. Inspired by the 2003 blackout in NYC, five people live alone in separate apartments, just inches apart from each other in the same crowded high-rise. As we visit each apartment, the sounds and sights of each character’s world overlap in a cacophonous visual and aural landscape. When a wrench gets thrown into their daily routines, the neighbors get to know each other whether they like it or not.
NOTHIN’S GONNA CHANGE MY WORLD
Kill the Keepers
Apartment