season 2: 2021
Blue Eyes by Jacob Menke (he/him)
Season 2 Episode 1 |
Episode 1 of our season is Menke’s Blue Eyes, a post-modern piece about the meaning of love and family. What could be seen as a traditional nuclear family hides dark secrets, torrid love affairs, mental illness, and horrible lies. Menke takes us on a brilliant journey through his piece that challenges traditional theatrical form and tackles sensitive subject matter with sensitivity and courage. Blue Eyes opens with the Mother, the Son, and a man named Blue Eyes establishing their relationship as a traditional family. The Son is just beginning to explore his sexuality, and soon comes to suspect that Blue Eyes too might have something to hide. This episode premiered on March 5th, 2021. It was directed by Lyla Meadows, and features the voice talents of Gray Ashford, and guest stars Alexis Zmuda and Joe Atkinson.
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Sitting Still by Danielle Wirsansky (she/her)
Season 2 Episode 2 |
Episode 2 of our season is Wirsansky’s Sitting Still, which chronicles the accomplishments as well as the professional and romantic entanglements of British women medics in the First World War. The plays focuses primarily on the life of Dr. Elsie Inglis, supported by a cast of women she worked with including Dr. Flora Murray, her former lover, Dr. Louisa Garret Anderson, Flora’s partner, and Dr. Jessie MacGregor. Here at Theatre Viscera, we love a good lesbian period drama, and Wirsansky absolutely delivers in this bold play. Her writing, while rooted in vernacular of the period, never feels stuffy or awkward. She’s made a historical piece sing for modern audiences. This episode premiered on May 6th, 2021. It was directed by Lyla Meadows, and features the voice talents of Avery Kester, Lindsay Partain, Steph Landtiser and guest star Elise Dixon.
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summer shorts
The Way You Made Me by Lindsay Partain (she/her)
Season 2 Summer Shorts 1 |
The first of our “Summer Shorts” will be The Way You Made Me by our resident artist Lindsay Partain. The piece is a one-women show that feels intimate and conversational. Partain completely avoids the tropes of one person theatre as hokey and self-indulgent, her piece gives audiences an inside seat to the inner workings of her character Imogen. Using her trauma as a jumping off point toward creating a better home for herself, Imogen shares her gift of words with an unseen lover. As she unpacks boxes and herself, Imogen recounts through love letters how she discovered happiness despite a life of neglect. A love story told by someone deemed “unlovable.” This piece premiered on June 15th, 2021. It was directed by Avery Kester, and features the voice talents of Lyla Meadows.
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Lesbian Soap by Emma Goldman-Sherman (she/her)
Season 2 Summer Shorts 2 |
The second of our Summer Shorts is Goldman-Sherman’s Lesbian Soap. A political comedy about intersectionality on a group tour to Palestine. Nuala, a bi-racial Jewish lesbian, tries to understand her relationship to the world while also looking for way to be her complex self. Kristen, a white Catholic married to a Palestinian man, tries to discover lesbian secrets while Jean, an older white Lutheran, tries to enjoy the miracles of the holy land. Goldman-Sherman takes on a tongue-in-cheek journey of exploration through religiously and sexually diverse lands. This piece premiered on June 30th, 2021. It was directed by Avery Kester, and features the voice talents of Lyla Meadows, Erin Malone Turner and guest star Rebecca Yeager.
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Stillborn by Avery Kester (they/he)
Season 2 Summer Shorts 3 |
The third of our Summer Shorts comes from our own Avery Kester; Stillborn tells the story of a young lesbian couple on the brink of collapse after the death of their unborn baby. The piece is raw, haunting, and offers up a piece of queer relationships that is often hidden from view. This piece premiered on July 15th, 2021. It was directed by Lyla Meadows, and features the voice talents of Avery Kester and Lindsay Partain.
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Preparedness Status by Ellen Margolis (she/her)
Season 2 Summer Shorts 4 |
The fourth of our Summer Shorts, Ellen Margolis's Preparedness Status takes place in May of 2020, as the members of a threadbare household try out strategies to get through an unprecedented time. Riley doubles down on control and order. Her sibling Lou leans into the chaos, landing on an easy way to feel appreciated. Their dad's checked out altogether. And that's just the humans. What do you do when there's no end in sight--or when you've suddenly realized your days are numbered? This piece premiered on July 31st, 2021. It was directed by Lyla Meadows, and features the voice talents of Avery Kester, Steph Landtiser, Trevor Harter, Calvin Porterfield, Bob Stevens, and guest stars Julia Neuder and Mary Schiermann.
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An Aquarium Play by Grace Hoffman (she/her)
Season 2 Episode 3 |
Full episode 3 is An Aquarium Play by Hoffman, a piece in which we are made to love and cherish an anthropomorphic shark. Her piece tackles the struggles of grief in the aftermath of losing a loved one, and she doesn’t shy away from dark questions like “What if the person I lost did bad things?” and “How do I mourn someone I barely knew?” The story follows Nikki who has come home to attend her brother’s funeral. She finds herself drawn to the aquarium she frequented as a child and there she befriends a broadnose seven gill shark, Malcom, and a teen conservation leader, CJ. With the help of her new friends, Nikki is able to connect to the grief she has been pushing away and better construct the memory of who her brother was and what he meant to her. This piece premiered on September 16th, 2021. It was directed by Avery Kester, and features the voice talents of Lyla Meadows, Steph Landtiser, Bob Stevens, and guest star Leiana Petlewski.
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Impossible Children by Clio Doyle (they/she)
Season 2 Episode 4 |
Episode 4 of our season is Doyle’s Impossible Children, a story about what being alive truly means and what happens when you get a womb shaped piñata stuck to your hand. A new exhibit at a local art museum, Impossible Children, promises to generate a mechanical reproduction of the child you might have had with the celebrity of your choice. Brenda Feeney has enough on her plate as tries to set up this exhibit created by her absent employer without dealing with her friend Alice’s romantic entanglements with Theresa’s fiancé, Theresa’s lack of interest in exhibiting Brenda’s work at her own gallery, Brenda’s sister Octavia’s obsession with badminton, and the Impossible Child of Tom Cruise and Brenda’s mother trying to escape the museum. This piece premiered on December 10th, 2021. It was directed by Lyla Meadows, and features the voice talents of Avery Kester, Jaime McMichael, Steph Landtiser, Bob Stevens, Rebecca Yeager, and guest stars McKenzie Brock, and Abbey Kester.
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Guerilla Sabbath by William Hinz (he/they)
Season 2 Episode 5 |
The fifth and final full episode of this season will be Hinz’s Guerilla Sabbath in which a coven of tea-drinking, time-traveling witches wage war to restore forgotten queer histories. Having recently lost two of their own, the coven seeks their replacements, a privilege given to the two youngest witches. When the eldest witch, V, disapproves of Arson’s choice, the coven starts to fracture, and questions begin to rise about the privilege of power, the power of history, and the morality of their neutrality. Hinz takes us on a journey of queer love and activism in this strange witchy piece. This piece was directed by Avery Kester, and features the voice talents of Jaime McMichael, Lyla Meadows, Steph Landtiser, Bob Stevens, Rebecca Yeager, and Calvin Porterfield. It premiered on February 21st, 2022.
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