Autumn is almost here!
A note from the Artistic Director
Dear Friends,
Rehearsals started last week for our production of A Lonely Realization. It’s a funny play for theatre people in particular - many of the scenes take place in the context of rehearsals for a play where the actors never know what script they will be handed next (sound familiar, anyone?) The subtext isn’t as funny: our main character is coping not only with the aftermath of sexual assault but also with the response of her community.
And thereby hangs a question:
“Is there any topic which is too serious to joke about?”
The overall response of the cast and myself as director is, “Probably not.” We all agreed, however, that the context matters. The context tells you who gets to make the joke and who gets to laugh. The rest of us get to wince or groan and/or squirm in our seats.
So, you’re all invited to see A Lonely Realization when we open October 18th at TPS’s Theatre4. (Get your tickets now!!) There’s more information below about the creation of this searingly personal, absurdly funny new play. We’ll set the context. Let’s see where you’re at with the jokes.
Warmly,
Rebecca
Rebecca O’Neil, Artistic Director (she/her)
Back to “School”
…with our Incubator-Mentor Cohort Alumni! What they’re doing now:
Alison Kozar (2020-21 Directing Cohort)
“Earlier this year I co-produced and tech directed immersive dance show Punchbowl with an entirely local team of choreographers. Look out for future dance parties! Currently I am designing sound for upcoming SGP production A Lonely Realization, and heading the sound team for an upcoming horror installation at the Annex Theatre.”
Aidyn Stevens (2023-24 Directing Cohort)
“I just got done with directing another production with SGT, Through the Window & (Into the Cabin), and really enjoyed the experience. Next I will be teaching movement and storytelling classes in Assisted Nursing Facilities over the next year. And costume designing a show with Bainbridge Performing Arts. Hoping to continue directing, teaching, performing, and designing as much as possible!”
Christie Zhao (2023-24 Directing Cohort)
Christie is about to open Passage with Yun Theatre at 12th Ave Arts (9/12-27).
Lisa A. Price (2023-24 Playwriting Cohort)
“I am honored to be included in the 10-minute Inspired By...Festival that will take place in early October. We were paired with an inspiring community activist to create a play. My play, Tituba, integrates two stories of hope and resistance: Tituba, the Carribean woman at the center of the Salem witch trials and the story The People Could Fly I'm proud of the work I did with this play, packing so much history, hope and resistance into 10 minutes with a surprise ending.”
We’re so proud of ALL our Incubator-Mentor Cohort alumni - and excited to see what they’ll put out into the world next! It’s sure to be powerful and thought-provoking!
A Lonely Realization
October 18-27 at TPS Theatre 4
Directed by Rebecca O’Neil, Written by Darby Sherwood & Emily Stone
Follow the trials and triumphs of a disembodied pair of legs, woodland thespians, a beleaguered stage manager, the ideal 1950s couple, Vladimir Lenin’s wife, Jay Gatsby, and more, as they detangle and process the impact of sexual assault on one survivor and the people in their community. Can they listen to each other? Can they heal?
Meet Mushroom and Frog, two aspiring professional actors. Their friend Legs has lost her voice and the gossip about what happened is interfering with rehearsals! Meanwhile, Hattie and Mort, the ideal 1950s couple, have discovered a distasteful object in their picture-perfect dining room - what can possibly be done to remove it? Someone in authority must know! Alas, the wife of Vladimir Lenin and Jay Gatsby have also come onto the scene – but, for what purpose?
A Lonely Realization teases out the comic absurdity of our fear and inhibitions around discussing sexual assault and invites the audience as well as the characters into a space where individuals and institutions are taught to listen, hear, and possibly even understand.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
This production of A Lonely Realization is being presented as a COVID-Safer Event to protect our actors and to welcome a broader spectrum of audience members into our space. All audience members will be asked to wear masks and to remain masked throughout the performance and within the walls of Theatre4. Masks will be provided on request. We are grateful to have air purifiers provided by the Clean Air Collective
Content Information: The play includes descriptions of the emotional impact of sexual assault and descriptions of inappropriate sexual behavior by teachers toward students. Check our website soon for a separate page of information sharing spoilers and support resources.
Emily Stone & Darby Sherwood wrote & will perform in A Lonely Realization
A Lonely Realization Journal
By Emily Stone (writer, performer & SGP Board Member)
“This is surreal!” I texted to Darby a few weeks ago during our very first design meeting for the production of our play. An entire team of artists, nearly 10 of us on a zoom call, all talking about how they were interpreting and envisioning the staging of our play?? How was this possible? How could the thing that Darby and I made in our free evenings together, with a construction paper and school glue set, be something that a costume designer, a props designer, a set designer, a sound designer, a lighting designer, a director, a stage manager, and an *assistant* stage manager, could all be pouring their creativity into, and collaborating to bring to life? I’m so flabbergasted, stunned, amazed, to see what other artists and designers are “seeing” in the script and inspired to make real! Something that particularly delighted me was the diagram that props designer Alicia Crowley made to show how she {check pronouns?} would use oatmilk cartons to execute our laughingly nebulous stage direction stipulating there would be stick puppets that transform from an auditorium into a chair.
Seeing where we are now, on the cusp of diving fully into rehearsals and a team of designers hard at work, I’m so grateful for the guidance of director Rebecca O’Neil and dramaturg Buddy Todd. When Darby and I were revising our script, they continually encouraged us to be descriptive and precise with our stage directions, to write down where and how we envisioned certain elements might be staged. I can truly see what they meant now when they said it would be helpful for designers, and I hope that what we wrote was useful! But there is no way we can claim credit for the brilliance of the oatmilk cartons.
On the day of our next design meeting, my grandmother passed away after over a decade of living with dementia. I rushed home to California to be with my family as, one by one, multiple family members began to test positive for COVID, which was unfortunately unsurprising given the huge wave — one of the largest summer waves ever that is cruising into an autumn back-to-school wave. While I chose to stay visiting family, I took every precaution I could to protect myself and others from getting it too — distance, delaying visiting certain family members, tests, masks, and air purifiers running. Coming out of that experience (and monitoring myself for any symptoms) is compounding the gratitude I have for the fact that our production will be covid safer during this ongoing pandemic. I love knowing that we are using all the tools we have to prevent the spread of disease while gathering together! Audiences and performers shouldn’t need to risk their health to experience art together!
I was thinking too about the legacy of my grandmother and my family, as I read our script during our first rehearsal table read over zoom from home. My family has all too familiar stories of abuse and harm. People I love deeply, beautiful people who raised me and made me who I am, have had their lives changed forever by sexual violence. My grandmother was an artist, who loved to walk on the beach, and paint landscapes, birds, and horses. I think about her creativity and her love for beauty, the ways she taught me to see as an artist. I’ll be thinking about her, just like I’ll be thinking of everyone I love who has been harmed, as we continue into rehearsals for our show.
Left: Tim Takechi, Leah Shannon & Rebecca O'Neil; Middle: 1-Act Titles; Right: Rebecca O'Neil & Molly Hall
THANK YOU!!!
…to those that braved a mostly chilly, rainy weekend and showed up at the MLK Fame Center to catch two world-premiere, one-act plays: Summer at the Window in the Cabin by the Lake in the Woods and Further Unexpected Events and also enjoy some light snacks and raffle giveaways, and on Sunday the friendraiser party after the shows! We ate yummy nibbles, drank a little wine and were serenaded by the Lucille Street Collective’s luxurious sounds following our final show, and most importantly, made lots of new friends!
Thanks SO much all to our intrepid cast & stage manager (Molly Hall, Rebecca O’Neil, Leah Shannon, Tim Takech & Ana Rusness-Peterson), who took the show indoors for the first two nights due to possible rain, adapting their blocking on the fly (no easy task) and were finally able to present the show as rehearsed outside on a very sunny Sunday! Thanks also to our playwrights, Miriam BC Tobin and Carolynne Wilcox, who wrote the pieces specifically for the event, all our volunteers (board members Kristina Washburn, Emily Stone, Cara Thomas; Darby Sherwood, Samantha Anderson & both playwrights) who helped run and facilitate, the band (Cyndi Morning, Peter O’Neil, Peter Wilson & Tom Malphrus) who supplied us with live music & a party atmosphere, and of course, the generous folks at local, CD businesses (Nancy Fiala, Nido Seattle, Madrona Wine Merchants, Cupcake Royale & Hi-Spot Cafe - go patronize them!) who donated to our raffles and snack table. We couldn’t have pulled it off without any of you, and hope you’ll join us for next year’s friendraiser too! Thank from the bottom of our hearts.
