birds

birds

June 30 – July 29, 2007
  • By Jennifer Maisel
  • Directed by Wendy McClellan
  • World Premiere
  • THE SANCTUARY THEATRE at Casa Del Pueblo Calvary Methodist Church

A wealthy woman with a past falls into the city’s urban underbelly when she gives a homeless man her lover’s coat. Brothers Grimm meet modern-day New York in a dark circus of lost lives and magic charms where the lives of the homeless man, the prostitute and the stockbroker are inextricably intertwined.

BIRDS was developed in part by Rorschach Theatre’s MAGIC IN ROUGH SPACES new-play program. The play also received a developmental workshop through the generous support of the FirstLook@NewPlays program in the Department of Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

This production was made possible thanks to generous support from an anonymous donor, J. Chris Babb and the Durfee Foundation.

Season 7 was sponsored in part by the Dobranski Foundation.

“It’s imaginative work from a playwright who builds a fascinating premise… carefully balances hardcore New York with the familiar magic of sensationalist cinema, marking real time events with a background fantasia of blurry dreams and melodramatic humor.”

The Examiner

FEATURING

Tim Getman
Brian Hemmingsen
Nanna Ingvarsson
Marissa Molnar
Jjana Valentiner

Designers

Costumes Debra Kim Sivigny (Costumes)
Set Jacob S. Muehlhausen
Lights Deb Sullivan
Sound Matthew Nielson
Asst. Lighting Design Andrew F. Griffin
Asst. Set Design Veronica Lancaster

STAFF

Stage Manager Viv Woodland
ASMs Alex Aaron & Jake Melville

PRODUCERS

Randy Baker
Jenny McConnell Frederick

MEDIA

PRESS

"t’s imaginative work from a playwright who builds a fascinating premise that’s heavily thematic without being heavily stylized. And that’s partly due to the work of director Wendy McClellan, who carefully balances hardcore New York with the familiar magic of sensationalist cinema, marking real time events with a background fantasia of blurry dreams and melodramatic humor."
The Examiner
"The Rorschach company consistently invokes a feeling of uneasiness throughout the work — we’re never quite sure about the reliability of our narrator, Jorie (Jjanna Valentiner), or whether to fully trust the charming but creepy Gus (a wry, winning Brian Hemmingsen), who may or may not be a mere homeless man. Its actors also warm us to less than endearing characters — prime examples include Nanna Ingvarsson, who plays Rhea as self-aware Norma Desmond with a touch of the sardonic, and Tim Getman, who makes us feel for snobby, superficial James even at his most offensive moments."
DCist
"Every actor steps up. Valentiner’s Jorie is believably steely, intelligent, and in control until exactly the moment when she’s not anymore, and she makes that transition work. As Gus, the bear of a homeless man who knows more than he’s telling, Brian Hemmingsen exudes warmth but lets us see something dangerous behind his eyes. Marissa Molnar’s portrayal of a young prostitute known only as “A” is affecting and unsentimental. And as the evil, cackling witch Rhea, whose mysterious hold over Jorie’s mind and memory drives the narrative, Nanna Ingvarsson is having a ball. She’s doing a full-tilt Norma Desmond, lifting her grimacing face to the sky while her arms undulate slowly, menacingly, like charmed snakes. She switches from seething malice to annoyed distraction in the blink of an eye, and it gets a laugh every time."
Washington City Paper
"Every actor steps up. Valentiner’s Jorie is believably steely, intelligent, and in control until exactly the moment when she’s not anymore, and she makes that transition work. As Gus, the bear of a homeless man who knows more than he’s telling, Brian Hemmingsen exudes warmth but lets us see something dangerous behind his eyes. Marissa Molnar’s portrayal of a young prostitute known only as “A” is affecting and unsentimental. And as the evil, cackling witch Rhea, whose mysterious hold over Jorie’s mind and memory drives the narrative, Nanna Ingvarsson is having a ball. She’s doing a full-tilt Norma Desmond, lifting her grimacing face to the sky while her arms undulate slowly, menacingly, like charmed snakes. She switches from seething malice to annoyed distraction in the blink of an eye, and it gets a laugh every time."
Washington City Paper
"The production’s hero is its set designer, Jacob S. Muehlhausen, who has ingeniously loaded into the church sanctuary an abstracted Manhattan streetscape of newsprint and what look like Xerox images of office buildings. The evening’s cleverest surprise is the manner in which Muehlhausen shifts the action to James and Jorie’s inner sanctum."
The Washington Post
"Enter a menacing but friendly ogre, in the form of a homeless man, Gus, (Brian Hemmingsen). Along with the prostitute, A, (Marissa Molnar), who hustles a stranger in the audience, these two street characters seem to have a better grip on the real world than do our hero and heroine, living in a high-rise dream. Maybe all four characters are one and the same? Jorie tells us she feels dislocated and bought, just as A does. James is jobless; Gus is homeless. Aware of their sameness, Jorie and James throw a cocktail party, invite and share their lives with A and Gus, who allows his hair to be cut and dresses up in a business suit. In the play’s best moments, the four characters swap roles and interact as if they accept their oneness as a family and the city as home."
DC Theatre Scene