Are We Freaks?

Produced by Comedy Period

Author: Bricken Sparacino

Are We Freaks is a science fiction comedy about what makes people normal. It will be funny and strange and even a little creepy.  The audience will meet four groups of women who all have something in common, at least one of them is "abnormal": a lobster girl, strangely connected twins, psychic co-ed, and a man who used to be a woman. All these people search for the same thing, companionship. But it's funny too, I don't want to get carried away with the deep inner meaning of the piece. I hope you will laugh, have a good scare, and go home talking about the ending.

I think we are bombarded with images of what we should be, how we should act, what we should look like by  commercials, film, and television. Images that no one can live up to. Even the celebrities themselves have face lifts and weird diets to look the way they do.   This play shows that the abnormal is normal, we are all ok just the way we are. The price is high to make your self "Normal". But there is happiness in accepting the strangeness that is you.

Why are we freaks? Good question! I wrote three short plays last year for Groove MaMa Ink's plays in a day festivals. I loved each of  these stories but they were only about 10 minutes each.  I thought long and hard about what I could do with them, could they be combined? They definitely all had a science fiction feel. But I just couldn't think of anything. Then one night I dreamed about these twins who run a side show, woke myself up from the dream and jotted it down. These characters were the missing pieces. I am thrilled they have come together and in the way they did. Also, I have a personal mission to work with women artists and bring them to the forefront. This play has  seven terrific actresses in it, a female lighting designer, stage manager and co-directors. I am so excited to present this play and all these talented ladies at this year's Frigid Festival.

Bricken Sparacino, writer/co-director/actress

Live!...at the Cockpit

Produced by Loose Moon Productions

Author: Kobun Kaluza and T. D. White

Live! … at the Cockpit … is a look at what back stage, the “tiring house,” might have been like one day in 1599 at the newly built Globe Theatre when Shakespeare was working with his actors, then The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, on new plays such as Henry V and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, and rehearsing certain scenes for upcoming performances such as Henry IV, Part One, a particular favorite of the Queen’s. It’s Shakespeare alright, but this time from behind. Our new, original work for theatre opens back stage in what we now would call a dressing room as we hear a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream ending with the “…lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisby” (Act V). Shakespeare plays The Lion but is often seen scribbling feverishly between entrances and exits and “directing” those remaining back stage in a physical imitation of what’s being said on stage — after all, he understands what his words really meant better than anybody! Will will then introduce his actors to new scenes from his new play, Henry V, one of which he will compose right before our audience’s eyes. Then it’s some after show entertainment and a trip to The Mermaid Tavern where Shakespeare will seek out the former boy actor “Joseph” and direct a scene from Hamlet about “… country matters.” For an uproarious conclusion, it’s all about sack and saloon as Shakespeare puts the actors playing Prince Hal and Falstaff through their paces. Where there’s a Will, there’s a way!

Today, curiosity about actors and their processes approaches adoration. We feel that people are fascinated by the craft and art of acting and would appreciate a journey into a most iconic past for acting, the Elizabethan Era, to see how Shakespeare and his ensemble might have worked together, what Shakespeare’s particular role might have been “back stage;” what his relationships with his fellows might have been like; what the acting “styles” or methods might have been like. Modern people seem more fascinated in what goes on “back stage” than in the production being presented! People can come to this show and really enjoy watching actors work with new material, somewhat familiar to them perhaps, but not to the actors. Are actors any different today than they were 350 years ago? We explore that question!

The primary reason for presenting this show at this time is that it’s fun and funny. And people need to laugh. It’s healthy. People respect Shakespeare and his work, of course, but we feel much of the richness is lost on contemporary audiences — quite naturally — because of archaic language and constructions, and lack of knowledge of customs and history easily familiar to Elizabethans. Today’s audience for Shakespeare loses a lot due to some natural self-consciousness when sitting through a two or three hour even well-made production. Our production is meant to reduce this strain and give a contemporary audience the full delightful flavor of Shakespearean theatre in just short of an hour in a modern, most digestible way.

Thomas D. White, co-director/co-playwright

The Question House

Produced by Breadbasket Productions

The Question House is the story of a little consulting firm with a big secret: the people who work there must speak only in questions or risk being struck dead by the hand of God. Or, at least, that's what owner and operator Harvey Krytz and his loyal secretary Margaret want everyone to think. Is Krytz crazy? What will happen if someone ends a sentence with a period? Audiences should prepare to laugh and squirm as they're sucked into a world in which the stakes are alarmingly high every time any character opens his mouth.

The Question House is the perfect farce for today's economic climate. It's about a boss who can't quite reconcile some unorthodox business practices with Jewish law (à la Bernie Madoff?), a secretary trying desperately to limit the damage, an agent of the law who doesn't know which end is up, and underlings who will do just about anything to hang onto a job. With the recession in full swing out there, getting to know the employees of The Question House may just make you feel a little better about your own job…or see the upside of unemployment.

I wrote The Question House when I was a college student, apparently filled with anxiety about what the corporate world might hold in store for me after graduation. Now, almost 10 years later, with corporate budgets being slashed right and left, anxiety about employment is a lot more commonplace. It may be a bad time to be a consultant, but it's a great time to revive this play. I am very glad that Catherine Siracusa and the members of the HB ensemble — especially Cam Kornman, who hung onto this script for eight years, waiting for a full production — were up for doing exactly that.

Tara Dairman, playwright