THE 2021 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL: Embracing the Inexplicable
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival, honoring playwright and human rights activist Vaclav Havel, was conceived as an occasion for our international community of artists and audiences to reconvene in order to heal collectively and embrace the uncertainties amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. (Read the press release.)
PERSONAL SPEAKER, CONNECTION/LESS (us)
STAGE READINGS | Two one-act plays captured the devastating effects of our inability to communicate with one another, offering fresh perspectives on alienation underscored by scathing commentary on systems designed to keep people compliant.
Personal Speaker (2020). Playwright: Abigail Henkin. Connection/less (2020). Playwright: Cole Kordus. Director: Celia Krefter. Cast: Marie-Josee Bourelly, Surya Buddharaju, Emefa Dzodzomenyo, Geo Kester, Joel Meyers. Sound Designer: Camilla Cox. Costume Designer: Kate Purdum.
AUDIENCE (czech republic)
The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre performed a new production of Vaclav Havel’s classic autobiographical play. Featuring live actors and traditional marionettes, the one-act play follows Ferdinand Vanek, a distinguished playwright forced to work in a brewery because his writings have been banned by the Communist regime.
Audience (1975). Playwright: Vaclav Havel. Director: Vit Horejs. Performed by: Vit Horejs (Vanek), Theresa Linnihan (Brew master). Production design: Alan Barnes Netherton. Production stage management: Hjordis Linn-Blanford. Marionettes: Milos Kasal, Jakub "Kuba" Krejci. Costumes and Vanek marionette: Theresa Linnihan. Pre-show video: Suzanna Halsey.
THE TENT (SOUTH AFRICA)
STAGE READING | Set in a tiny rural town somewhere in South Africa. A mixed couple—Ruth is white and Samson is black—pitch their tent alongside the local gas station and store in the middle of the night. Their appearance rocks the town and splits it down the middle, with fear, racism, hatred, and violence at odds with kindness and healing.
Playwright: Megan Furniss. Director: Zane Gillion. Stage directions: Namisa Mdlalose. Cast: Hamilton Clancy, Timothy Covington, Zane Gillion, Pierre Louise le Grange, Megan Metrikin, James Scruggs, Caren Skibell.
THE MADMAN AND THE NUN
The Madman and the Nun explores the tyranny of society over the individual as well as the boundaries of sanity. Sound familiar? The play can be seen as an absurdist comedy in which science, religion, and the state form a totalitarian alliance to bring about enforced happiness and social tranquility by means of psychiatric confinement. It is “dedicated to all the madmen of the world.”
The Madman and the Nun (1923). Playwright: Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. Direction and choreography: Daniel Irizarry. Cast: Nicole Betancourt, Ishani Das, Michael Leonard , Axh Marie, Folami Williams (Sister Anna), Daniel Irizarry. Set designer: Ozlem Gezgin. Set builder: Zilvinas Jonusas. Lighting design: Christina Tang. Music director: Desmar Guevara. Music: Troy “Mobius” Simms. Costume design: James Terrell. Translation: Daniel. C. Gerould and C.S. Durer.
CZECH & SLOVAK TALES WITH STRINGS
Puppeteer, storyteller, and author Vit Horejs performed Czech & Slovak Tales with Strings, a one-man marionette show of fairy tales replete with kings, clever village maidens, witches, and spirits. Horejs’s century-old, hand-carved puppets speak in a dozen voices, dance, play violin, swim, and fly. The program consists of beloved Czech and Slovak fables such as Salt over Gold, The Stingy Tailor, and Kacha and the Devil.
Director: Vit Horejs. Performed by: Vit Horejs. Presented by: GOH Productions, Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre, Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York.