LOVE PERSON is a four part love story in Sanskrit, ASL and English in which love transcends sexual orientation, physical attraction, and social structure, and rests instead on the ways in which we communicate and how communication bonds or breaks us. The play is structured around 4 Sanskrit love poems that influence and reflect the journeys of the characters. Free, a Deaf woman in a relationship with Maggie, accidentally falls into a deceptive email correspondence with her sister Vic’s love interest Ram, a Sanskrit professor. Free and Ram discover a connection, based largely on an affinity between their two languages. As a result of the deception, Vic and Ram also begin to fall in love. Meanwhile Free and Maggie’s relationship struggles to survive.
Quotes:
"Kapil's "Love
Person" is a fascinating brew of emotion, wit and intellect that
challenges its audience to reassess how the form of communication
shapes understanding." Lisa Brock, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"startling and evocative" Michael Opperman, Twin Cities Daily Planet
"Heart-pounding
attraction, intense all-night conversations- Aditi Brennan Kapil's Love
Person captures the giddiness of new love affairs. But the play is even
more eloquently realistic about the wear and tear that time wreaks on
relationships." Nicole Estvanik, American Theatre Magazine, July 2008
Cast Requirements: 3 women, 1 man Vic: 30’s, 2 divorces, drinks too much. Free’s sister. Some basic ASL skills. -Brash Free: 30’s-40’s, Deaf, Maggie’s lover, Vic’s older sister. Uses ASL exclusively, does not voice. -Restless Maggie: 30’s-40’s, English Lit professor, Free’s lover. Fluent ASL, interpreting for Free is 2nd nature. When they’re alone together they sign only. -Content Ram: Sanskrit Professor from East Coast, 2nd generation, fully westernized. Here on a short visit, quiet and intelligent. -Lonely
Development History: Originally created in a Many Voices residency at the Playwrights’ Center- Minneapolis, MN 1st Reading: Wednesday Night Roundtable, Playwright’ Center, MN; March 2005 Commissioned for further development by Mixed Blood Theater, MN; July 2006 Workshop: Playwrights Week, Lark Theater, NY; September 2006 Reading: National New Play Network Conference; December 2006 Workshop Production: Icarus Falling Theater, Lansing, MI, June 2007 Produced in a rolling world premiere as part of NNPNs CLNPF Program, 2007/2008 Season at Mixed Blood Theatre, MN; Marin Theater, CA; Phoenix Theater, IN Produced in 2008/2009 at Live Girls Theatre, WA; Alley Repertory Theatre, ID; Victory Gardens Theatre, IL Received the 2009 Barrie & Bernice Stavis Award
Dramaturg: Liz Engelman
Agnes Under The Big Top, a tall tale
AGNES UNDER THE BIG TOP, A TALL TALE explores the intersecting lives of immigrants in a US city. It is a magical tale of hope and disappointment, identity and reinvention, narrated by an itinerant subway busker. Agnes, a Liberian home care worker, discovers that she is dying of cancer and sets in motion a series of events pitting Ella, her elderly rheumatoid employer, on a collision course with a subway train driven by a former Bulgarian ringmaster. Along the way she encounters characters who have lived alongside her, unnoticed, for years. In allowing them to affect her, and in affecting them in return, she rediscovers her lost place in the world. And in the critical mass of people connecting and intersecting as Agnes figures out how to finish her own story, the tower that has insulated Ella and imprisoned Agnes comes tumbling down. Casting Requirements: 3 women, 3 men Ella: American, white. An rheumatoid, bedridden woman. She is deformed and wooden, her fingers trapped in claws. Prematurely aged. Agnes: Liberian immigrant, 30s, Ella’s home care worker. Tough and funny. Roza: Bulgarian immigrant, 40s-50s, speaks Bulgarian, Ella’s home care worker. Silent except when addressing birds. Shipkov: Bulgarian immigrant, 40s-50s, Roza’s husband, drives a subway train. Former ringmaster. Happy: Indian, 20s, recently immigrated con artist, training as subway driver. Unrelentingly happy. Busker: Plays an instrument on the subway platform, is all other voices/voiceovers, moves freely through time and space
Development History: Commissioned by Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis, MN Agnes Under the Big Top was developed through a consortium led by The Lark Play Development Center (New York City) and includes Rhodopi International Theatre Lab (Smolyan, Bulgaria), Interact Theatre (Philadelphia), and Mixed Blood Theatre Company (Minneapolis). Agnes Under the Big Top was selected as a NEA Distinguished New Play Development Project as part of the NEA New Play Development Program, hosted by Arena Stage.
