Francesca Choy-Kee as Agnes at Long Wharf Theatre, director: Eric Ting
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. Against the subterranean rhythms of a subway train, an
itinerant subway
busker, a Liberian home care worker, a former Bulgarian ringmaster and
his wife, and an Indian call center escapee find and redefine themselves
in today’s America. "...this lovely, brooding play bodes well for the future of the theater." -Sylviane Gold, NY Times
"...a
tough and tender play ... that is as graceful and evocative as trapeze
artists flying through air with the greatest of ease." -Frank Rizzo, Variety
"Lives
intersect while others hover in parallel, but Kapil has created a
masterly matrix for what are essentially first-person short stories told
by the five main characters... this lyrical, bittersweet play is a
spirit-soaring experience." -Susan Hood, Hartford Courant
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. Featured in the New Play Festival at Arena Stage, January 2011 Premiered
at Mixed Blood Theatre and Long Wharf Theatre in 2011, and Borderlands
Theater in 2012, in a NNPN rolling world premiere.
Dramaturg: Liz Engelman
LOVE PERSON
'Love Person' at Marin Theatre, CA- May 2008
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
