This Week in Theatre: Samurai and Search Parties.

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This Week in Theatre:

Saw: We Are Samurai. September 26-28th. A drive down to Laurel, MD to see an indoor/outdoor/walk-around version of We Are Samurai, directed by the lovely Deborah Randall. AMAZING. What great work. Big post to follow. 

Saw: A reading of Stefan Hartmann's Search Party. September 28th. Snakes eating tails. 

Read: Nocturama. By Annie Baker. September 29th. Dance.

Deb Randall on We are Samurai in Theatre Bloom

Director Deborah Randall talks on We Are Samurai to Theatre Bloom: 

Can you tell us a little bit about this production We Are Samurai?

Deb: There are two ways to really talk about it. One is the convention of the play which is that it takes place in five different locations at one time, sometimes simultaneously. So that’s really fascinating, that drew my interests. The other thing to look at is that it’s written by one of my youngest playwrights, she just turned 26. She studied under Erik Ehn and she sort of gives permission in this new way to experience theatre.

I feel like when we’re raised with libraries and Dewy Decimal systems for reading novels it’s very different from people of the younger generation who grew up with the internet, who were constantly exposed to information. I think that sort of wires the brain in a different way and it makes you look at things differently if you’re from the newer generation where everything is always happening all at once. That’s the rhythm and tempo of this play; somebody who is thinking of a lot of different things all at once.

It gives you a lot of permission to reinterpret the experience of theatre. For eight years I’ve been in this location, shutting the doors, just wanting to do the work. Sort of like Virginia Woolf, in a room of one’s own. So Daria (playwright Daria Marinelli) has sort of challenged me to fling the doors open and invite everybody in and tell them to leave their cell phones on and have them talk to my actors and break every rule that I’ve fought to maintain. I’m challenged by that.

 

How do you think this show in particular speaks to the mission statement of your company?

Deb: Like I said, the writer is so young and so brave. I feel like we’re giving her an opportunity that she might not otherwise have. Then we’re pulling in two extra women where before there were three and now there are five. The sexuality between the women is really empowering in a way. After the last production here, Light of Night, it was so dark and sexual in a scary way. For me it was these people in isolation desperately needing to make contact and that’s where the sensuality and sexuality was grounded in that show. But I think for these young women it’s empowering to them to stand in who they are in their sensuality and sexuality without being objectified. That this is just an extension of their expression; to me it’s almost like a moving painting. It’s something that’s really beautiful that flows through them.

 

Read the full article here. 

Or go see the show! Tickets here. 

We are Samurai Opens at Venus to Rave Reviews!

We are Samurai has opened at Venus Theater in Laurel, MD. 

Here's what the critics are saying:

The experience is incredible; unlike anything you will experience this season anywhere in Washington. -Amanda Gunther, Theatre Bloom

If it sounds like an Ionesco SUSHI roll stuffed with Kafka and sprinkled with patchouli oil, you’re in the ballpark. The chaos of We Are Samuraiis belied by the tight, well-rehearsed performances of the cast. Director Deborah Randall extracts sincere feelings of love, jealousy, rage, and grief from underneath the stylized staging. - Michael Poandl, DC Metro Theatre Arts 

Between moving among the scenes and the inquisitiveness that the mystery requires, We Are Samurai is not for audience members who want to be ensconced in darkness and enveloped by the play's plot. This play is for gamers, choose-your-own-adventure enthusiasts, and people who never stopped poking things with a stick when they were children. -Alan Katz, Broadway World

But there are fractals of meaning scattered throughout. An eye for an eye and whatnot. How flimsy justifications can provoke rash, unusual actions. INDEED, the meaning loops back around on the experience itself—how a person’s choice of what to witness actually shapes the play she sees. -Jennifer Clements, 

If you're anywhere near Laurel, DC friends, I'm looking at you! Go check it out!
You can buy your tickets here. 

We are Samurai at Venus: Two Weeks Left to Fundraise!

Theater can be spectacular, moving, immersive, awe inspiring, and full out mind blowing. But theater needs money. (As you know.)

Venus Theater, one of the oldest women's theaters in the country, is doing We are Samurai in ways I find truly amazing, thrilling, and exciting. And then need a bit of money. The actors are amazing. (I've never laughed so hard hearing my work.) The director, Deborah Randall, is genius. This show is going to rock. But it needs YOU. 

Anything you can give, I thank you. 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/venus50

Photo courtesy of Adam S. Lowe. His amazing We are Samurai gallery can be found here. 

We are Samurai at Venus Theater!

Took the long drive down to Laurel, MD to meet with Deborah Randall, Artistic Director and Director of We Are Samurai at Venus Theater. Great dinner and chatting, amazing first read-through, fun with photobooth and some great movement work to top it off. Amazing actors. I was laughing so hard I was crying. I can't wait to see the final product in September!

If you're anywhere near anything in Maryland, come check it out!
Tickets here. 

http://www.venustheatre.org/