SYNOPSIS
A figure in the wall paper. A floating door. A bowl of eels. Wings.
These and other images have been left behind in the haunting, black and white photography of Francesca Woodman, a prolific prodigy who died by suicide in 1981 at the age of 22. Decades later, her work, her life, and her death captured the imagination of Playwright George Brant, author of Dark Room. In the play, eleven scenes unfold, each inspired by a different photograph from Woodman's canon. A single, silent protagonist -- a simple girl in a polka dot dress -- navigates the journey. At once humorous, dark, eerie, and poetic, Dark Room will play this summer in the stunning Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge, MA, as the grand finale of Bridge Repertory’s inaugural year in residence. PHOTO | Dark Room Workshop
PHOTO CREDIT | Esme Allen |
DEVELOPMENT
PROCESS
To develop Dark Room, we first held five workshops, each three days in length, looking specifically at scene study, movement, framing device, and design elements. At our final workshop, George Brant visited to hear and make changes to the script. As a group, we studied some of Woodman’s images with museum curator Dabney Hailey of the Hailey Group, who uses a methodology called Visual Thinking Strategies. Each workshop culminated with a public viewing, where we shared our process with audience members, and also took in their feedback. Like the workshops, our upcoming four weeks of rehearsal and previews will take place in our stunning performance space at the Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge.
|
PHOTO | George Brant engages the public at a Dark Room sneak peek.
PHOTO CREDIT | Andrew Brilliant
PHOTO CREDIT | Andrew Brilliant
ARTISTIC VISION |
DIRECTOR BIO |
Rather than double-cast the actors in Dark Room, director Olivia D’Ambrosio has made the bold decision to give each role in this vignette-style script its own, individual performer. As such, the total cast will include 24 women of all ages, body types, and skin colors.
The show’s protagonist, known as the Girl in the Polka Dot Dress, will be inhabited by Juilliard dance alumna, Jenna Pollack. Together with D’Ambrosio, Shura Baryshnikov and Danielle Davidson of Doppelgänger Dance Collective will devise movement for Pollack and the ensemble at large. A talented design team including Ryan Bates (Scenic), Chelsea Kerl (Costumes), Stephen Petrilli (Lighting), Elizabeth Cahill (Sound) and Esme Allen (Properties), will draw upon Woodman’s imagery and aesthetic to activate every nook of our unique space. PHOTO | Shura Baryshnikov + Danielle Davidson
PHOTO CREDIT | Marc Pilaro |
Olivia D’Ambrosio is a Cambridge, MA-based producer, director, actor and teaching artist. She founded Bridge Repertory Theater with only $10,000 for its first show in 2013. In five years, she has grown the organization into a resident company producing Dark Room on a budget of over $100,000. She has directed and / or performed at Bridge Rep, Nora Theater, Trinity Rep, Asolo Rep, Paper Mill Playhouse and Hartford Stage, among others. She teaches in the Department of Theater Arts at MIT, where she received a 2018 Levitan Teaching Award, and at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. After running for the Cambridge City Council in 2017, she was appointed by the City Manager to the Cambridge Arts Advisory Board, and also serves on the Board of greater-Boston’s Theater Community Benevolent Fund. Olivia received a 2018 IRNE Award for Best Actress, holds an MFA in Acting from Brown University / Trinity Rep, and is a proud member of AEA.
PHOTO | Olivia D'Ambrosio
PHOTO CREDIT | Jordan Matter |
CAST
THE GIRL IN THE POLKA DOT DRESS
Jenna Pollack
ENSEMBLE
Lourdes Martinez, Julie Nelson*, Jennifer Rohn*, Elaine Vaan Hogue, Liz Adams, Jade Wheeler*, Celeste Oliva*, Laura Payne, Sara Burd, Meghan Leathers*, Cheryl McMahon*, Deniz Khateri, Meredith Gosselin*, Meghan Hornblower, Cailin Doran, Kelly Chick, Anya Edwards, Siobhan Carroll, Korinne Ritchey, Vijaya Sundaram, Gillian Mariner Gordon*
Jenna Pollack
ENSEMBLE
Lourdes Martinez, Julie Nelson*, Jennifer Rohn*, Elaine Vaan Hogue, Liz Adams, Jade Wheeler*, Celeste Oliva*, Laura Payne, Sara Burd, Meghan Leathers*, Cheryl McMahon*, Deniz Khateri, Meredith Gosselin*, Meghan Hornblower, Cailin Doran, Kelly Chick, Anya Edwards, Siobhan Carroll, Korinne Ritchey, Vijaya Sundaram, Gillian Mariner Gordon*
*Member, Actors' Equity Association
COMPANY HISTORY |
KIND WORDS |
Bridge Repertory Theater was founded in 2012 by six theatre artists, all under age 30 at the time. The team committed itself to: creating intimately staged productions from a variety of genres; generating job opportunities for early-to-mid-career artists; including underrepresented populations in its creative teams; and cultivating an audience diverse across demographics.
Now in its fifth year, Bridge Repertory has been honored as the first-ever company in residence at the stunning Multicultural Arts Center in East Cambridge, MA. In addition to serving close to 15,000 audience members, it has garnered more than 30 awards and nominations from the Independent Reviewers of New England and the Boston Theater Critics Association, and been featured through The Boston Globe, WGBH / WBUR, Boston Voyager, The Improper Bostonian, digBoston, Boston Magazine, and other media outlets. PHOTO | Multicultural Arts Center Historic Theater Ceiling
PHOTO CREDIT | Lisa Rigby |
AFTER A PERFORMANCE OF BRIDGE REP’S 2017 PRODUCTION OF MRS. PACKARD:
“This is a night I will never forget. It was an extraordinary production. Moment to moment, I learned something new about the play I thought I knew really well.”
____________________________________________
ON OLIVIA’S LEADERSHIP:
“It was her articulation of vision as an arts leader and thinker that first demanded my attention. Upon graduating from her own MFA program, she passed on New York and L.A. to instead show up in Boston with the intention of establishing a professional theater – and has tenaciously succeeded.”
|