Undermain Theatre presents Whither Goest Thou America, its third series of readings of new American plays examining the American Landscape. The centerpiece production will be the virtual solo performance of David Rabe’s new play, Suffocation Theory, with Bruce DuBose. The play originated as a short story that Rabe wrote for The New Yorker. He is working remotely with Undermain Theatre in order to transition the story to a virtual, streaming film.
The Festival will also feature readings by local playwrights, Teresa Marrero and Blake Hackler, and New York based playwright, Lenora Champagne. Each week of the festival will present a new streaming reading, starting April 14 and running through May 2, 2021. Past festivals have brought the work of local writers Jonathan Norton and Blake Hackler and other American playwrights such as Adrienne Kennedy, Barbara Hammond, Gordon Dahlquist, and Len Jenkin. J
Suffocation Theory
Streaming April 7 – 25, 2021
Suffocation Theory explores a kind of dreamscape or nightmare-scape of destabilization—of climate, of public events, of private lives—in which all of the narrator’s fears seem to materialize at once. Suffocation Theory will be directed by Jake Nice.
Second Hand Conversations With Irene: Remembering Long Enough
Streaming April 14 – 18, 2021
Second Hand Conversations with Irene: Remembering Long Enough explores the topic of living with dementia/Alzheimer’s through the story of two creative women who are nearing the end of their lives. Yet, their identities can still be discerned in spite of the fog. “This play was inspired by two events: attending a week-long play writing seminar with Maria Irene Fornés in 1998 at UCLA and watching Michelle Memran’s soulful documentary, The Rest I Make Up at the ATHE conference in Orlando, Florida, summer 2019. This fanciful conversation was sparked during a long road trip while driving a car. There is a sense of movement embedded in it. It also harks to the playwright’s and Fornes’ shared fascination with shopping at resale and consignment stores, and their respective sense of style. The character of Mami is based on my mother, a highly skilled dress-maker who lived with dementia between the years 2000 and 2015 when she passed away at age 85.” States Teresa Marrero on her inspiration for the play. Second Hand Conversations will be directed by Sorany Gutierrez.
Bright Boys
Streaming April 21 – 25, 2021
In Bright Boys, baptist minister Peter unwittingly exposes his family’s darkest secrets after he welcomes a young drifter into their home. When their teenage son learns the truth about his parents, Peter and his wife Sondra must confront their own shortcomings and keep their lives from going up in flames. “Bright Boys is the third in a trilogy which includes This Sweet Affliction and The Necessities, seen at Second Thought Theatre in 2017. All three plays explore how people cope with tragedy – how tragedy can reshape and redirect a life. Inspired by a true story of a spate of church burnings in East Texas, the play asks what happens when the compromises we’ve made, both conscious and unconscious, can no longer be born. As in so many plays, movies, and stories, a stranger comes to town and things change. But the stranger in Bright Boys… well, he might be a little different.” Remarks, Blake Hackler on his inspiration for Bright Boys. Jake Nice will also direct Bright Boys.
Feeding on Light
Streaming April 28 – May 2, 2021
Nora is a curious writer who seeks to understand her friend and collaborator Katherine’s obsession with 20th-century French philosopher and activist Simone Weil. As their discussion deepens, Nora and Katherine embody scenes from Simone’s life in an attempt to communicate with her across time and space. Feeding on Light is based on playwright Lenora Champagne’s personal relationship and discussions with Undermain Theatre’s late Founding Artistic Director Katherine Owens, to whom the play is dedicated. In October of 2020 Champagne received the inaugural commission of $10,000 from the Katherine Owens/Undermain Fund for New Work for Feeding on Light to be eventually developed as a fully staged play.
Lenora Champagne explains how Feeding on Light came to pass, “I approach Feeding on Light with trepidation. Simone Weil is as fascinating as her ideas are demanding. Her mother remarked that it was hard to have a daughter who was a saint. I was asked to write this play by Katherine Owens, a friend, director and supporter of my work, and founding Artistic Director of Undermain Theatre in Dallas. We met in New York City and upstate to discuss the project and work on it together. She was happy for me when I was awarded a residency fellowship to work on the play in France. Over the summer of 2019, I was deeply involved in re-reading Weil’s biography and her work, which had fascinated me some years ago, when I learned that Katherine had died. She was only 61, and I’d had no idea that she was ill. She only knew she was ill a short time herself, and had thought she would recover. I have tried to take to heart the exhortation to wait for the light, to humbly hope for grace to somehow lift these words to a place of joy. Thanks to the Brown Foundation Fellows program and the Dora Maar House, in Menerbes, France, where most of this play was written.” Bruce DuBose will direct Feeding on Light.