Two winners of the 2020 Best Mini-Drama Student Contest capture the devastating effects of our inability to communicate with one another. Both one-act plays offer fresh perspectives on alienation underscored by scathing commentary on systems designed to keep people compliant.
The story of Abigail Henkin’s Personal Speaker follows Leona, a copywriter at a search engine optimization company who is swept up in her coworkers’ excitement about a new technology that promises users an improvement in their love life and job performance. Yet as the technology’s grip on the office tightens, miscommunication reigns, spurring Leona and her coworkers to recover their voices and themselves.
In Cole Kordus’s Connection/less, strangers aboard a halted subway train are obliged to turn off their phones and start communicating with each other. With naturally flowing language and dexterously constructed scenes, the author applies the themes from Vaclav Havel’s plays to depict the estrangement of people in our current reality.
Personal Speaker (2020). Playwright: Abigail Henkin. Director: Celia Krefter. Cast: Angelica Dzodzomenyo (Leona), Joel Meyers (Ashton), Geo Kester (Beck), Marie-Josee Bourelly (Connie, Saleswoman), Surya Buddharaju (Mr. Marker).
Connection/less (2020). Playwright: Cole Kordus. Director: Celia Krefter. Cast: Marie-Josee Bourelly (Sonya), Angelica Dzodzomenyo (Cere), Surya Buddharaju (Anthony), Joel Meyers (Gus).
Sound Designer: Camilla Cox. Costume Designer: Kate Purdum.
For more information about the 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival program, visit www.rehearsalfortruth.org.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. RSVP through Eventbrite is required.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions for indoor events, seating capacity is limited and on first-come first-served basis. Reservations must be made in advance. Wearing a face mask is required. No tickets will be available at the door, and anyone who has not received pre-event confirmation will be turned away. Read about Festival Safety Protocol.
ABOUT THE 2021 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival honoring Vaclav Havel is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association. The program is co-produced by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, GOH Productions, Czech Center New York, Polish Cultural Institute New York, One-Eight/Daniel Irizarry Theater, Slovak Consulate General in New York, Palissimo Company, and Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, Czech Republic.
The 2021 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and Council Member Ben Kallos. Additional support is by the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York, Ceskoslovenska obchodni banka – Member of the KBC Group, PACE.V4 – Performing Arts Central Europe, Visegrad Countries Focus, and International Visegrad Fund.