by jacob wasson

Directed by Rory Pelsue

 

Scenic Design: josh barilla

Costume Design: Cole McCarty

Sound Design: Kathy Ruvuna

Lighting Design:  nicole lang

Stage Manager: abi rowe

 

 

Cast:

cole doman, jess darrow, jessica litwak,

patric madden, zoe mann, julian sanchez

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press HIGHLIGHTS

A playwright's most important collaborator is their director and it took an extensive process before Rodner and Wasson knew this was a play for Rory Pelsue. Best known for directing the livestream production of the Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Circle Jerk, Wasson calls Pelsue “an encyclopedia of gay liturgy and references who cares deeply about text.”

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Pelsue facilitated the participation of many other collaborators. He brought in Josh Barilla to do the set, where there is no curtain so the audience enters through a drab kitsch mid-western funeral parlor complete with a pastel casket and plenty of evangelical guilt. The casket becomes the prop equivalent of a swiss army knife playing a role in almost every scene. At one point the coffin becomes a bath, lit with ethereal excellence by lighting designer Nicole E. Lang. Another scene ends when Ollie slams the coffin closed with a shattering thud that plays expertly into a kaleidoscope of sounds and samples under the careful direction of sound designer Kathy Ruvuna.

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The director also included his frequent collaborator Cole McCarty to do costume design. McCarty explains that he views his job as designing “clothes not the costumes,” which Peluse calls “a subtle, and apt, distinction; he’s telling a story with clothes instead of dazzling us with his creativity for its own sake.”

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By the end of the night, those clothes, especially Ollie's, are soaked in sweat, fake blood and pink hair dye. Doman is on stage for the majority of the two and a half hour run, bringing his character through various stages of grief, joy, anger and, at times, hallucination. His stamina is matched only by Jessica Litwak, who brilliantly plays four roles across the evening.

-eliel cruz, paper magazine​