Page 133 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

REBECCA: Stars.

(Uncle appears. Stars come out. )

UNCLE: Attend. I have given you everything. You, too, shall be blessed by those

who sparkle and shine, by those who cry in the dark.

(End of Play)

The young of all species come into this world already able to feel delight and

terror. By halting the forward action in Extreme Whether with scenes that call our

attention to the exuberance of shared contemplation in nature, I am leading the

audience to re-experience those moments of absolute wonder, utter peace, and

sudden insight we have all experienced alone in the natural world. Through the

oracular voices of Uncle and Annie and the juxtaposition of lyric and realist

stylistic modes, I try to create a poetry of the theater that frees the imagination

and allows us quite literally to come to our senses.

*Much of this essay as well as the excerpts from scenes from the plays is

originally published in Plays in Time: The Beekeeper’s Daughter, Prophecy,

Another Life, Extreme Whether, Intellect Press, September 2017.

Bio

Karen Malpede is the co-artistic director of Theater Three Collaborative, with her

partner, actor/producer George Bartenieff. The late Lee Nagrin was a co-founder.

The Beekeeper’s Daughter was TTC’s first production in 1994-5. The play was

revived in June, 2016, at Theater for the New City in New York City. Extreme

Whether premiered in October 2014 at Theater for the New City, and was

performed in Paris in December 2015 as part of ArtCop21. Extreme Whether is

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