A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY

A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY

April 22- May 21, 2006
  • By Tony Kushner
  • Directed By Rahaleh Nassri
  • THE SANCTUARY THEATRE at Casa Del Pueblo Calvary Methodist Church

Set in the last days of Germany’s Weimar Republic, Kushner’s first published play follows a group of artists and activists as they watch their country gradually descend into the Third Reich. By turns both magical and rhetorical, Bright Room charts the ascension of the Nazi Party through the seemingly-insulated life in middle-class living rooms.

A BRIGHT ROOM CALLED DAY was sponsored in part by a generous gift from Unique USA Inc.

Rorschach Theatre’s SEASON 6 was sponsored in part by a generous gift from The Dobranski Foundation

“Kushner being Kushner — that is, burning with ideological fire, thoroughly grounded in history and theory, and preposterously gifted with literary agility — that wild swing of a thesis gains surprising traction onstage… Rorschach Theatre is the right company to embrace the overstatement, and director Rahaleh Nassri’s production is tough-minded and, in its way, beautiful.”

The Washington Post

FEATURING

Lindsay Allen
Elizabeth Chomko
Grady Weatherford
Katie Atkinson
Matt Dunphy
Lauren Krizner
Cam Magee
Alexander Strain
Ellen Young

Designers

Costumes Frank Labovitz
Set Jacob Muehlhausen
Sound Matt Nielson
Lights Nathaniel John Sebastian Sinnott
Props Becky Trotter
Multimedia Grady Weatherford

STAFF

Stage Manager Vivian Woodland
ASM Ryan Taylor 
Dramaturg Hannah Hessel 
Technical Director Amy Kleist

PRODUCERS

Randy Baker
Jenny McConnell Frederick

MEDIA

PRESS

“There aren’t enough plays that deliver world history with a startling realization that catches in your throat, but Rahaleh Nassri’s refined production captures the essence of Kushner’s despair with a canny melding of romantic realism and an uncommonly clear vision of German politics. Kushner’s eloquence is relayed by an intrepid cast that imbues his story with the kind of rare intelligence and focused energy one would expect from the Broadway stage. Here, on a tiny set with only a few feet dividing actors from audience, theirs are acutely-drawn performances that singe on such a small playing space.”
Metro Weekly
“Under Rahaleh Nassri’s deft direction, Allen, a recent Helen Hayes nominee for Journeymen Theater Ensemble’s An Experiment With an Air Pump, ably and sympathetically carries the play, and Alexander Strain’s foppish Baz, who tells a tale of rescue from suicidal despair via sex in the shrubbery, epitomizes the hunger for happiness and pleasure that both informs the struggle against fascism and leads to Agnes’ surrender to it. ”
Washington City Paper
“While the work is two decades old, it retains its particular currency. That adventurous, modest Rorschach Theatre does this work justice is no surprise. Even on a shoestring and in an unusual location, the former worship space in the original Calvary Methodist Church, now Casa Del Pueblo’s Sanctuary Theatre. Rorschach’s first-time director Rahaleh Nassri works wonders with a complex script. Aided by a strong cast, helmed particularly by Allen’s restrained and confused Agnes, the ensemble speaks truth to the powerful words Kushner penned.”
Washington Jewish Week
“It is a play of thoughtful character studies and intriguing moral conflicts, and above all an impressive bit of staging and performance on Rorschach’s part.”
DCist
“The performance of this cast hits every strength of the play…”
Potomac Stages