Curious Theatre Branch presents

Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready

Written by Jenny Magnus

Directed by Stefan Brun

Featuring the Curious Theatre Branch Ensemble and music by The Crooked Mouth

An examination and homage to sustained attention, Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready  is the story of a troupe that is really a tribe struggling to be an ensemble.  A group of actors come together to prepare for a show, and in their attentions to themselves and each other, they weave the fabric of their determination to make something happen on the stage.  Taking place in the 60 minutes before the performance, the actors inhabit the space in ways that become evidently theatrical, moving from individual actions to group actions, and revealing the conflicted eros of collaboration. Written by Jenny Magnus, and performed by members of the wider Curious Theatre Branch Ensemble, Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready is an insiders view of theater making, both in its’ vision and it’s heartache. 

            The stage is the arena for a theater company; all their struggles are won and lost there.  The struggle for dominance, for attention, for a cooperative body,both individual and group, the struggle to just continue in the face of overwhelming reasons to quit.  As the Curious actors enter and get ready for their show, they enact the rituals they have created over years, rituals that both provokes and shields them from a perpetual re-examination of their status and motivations.  Some actors are born ready; they come in with all the energy and focus they are ever going to have.  Others have to slowly put on their decided bodies, a step-by-step transformation from person in the world to person on the stage.  In Still in Play: A Performance of Getting Ready, whether they play ductball, mutter into a camera, rehearse a monologue, enact a song, groan, or simply sit and wait, the actors all seek the moments of heightened awareness that emerge when someone participates in their chosen art form. 

Actors:

Jayita Bhattacharya, Jeff Bivens, Colm O’Reilly, Nia Amandes, Sidonie Greenberg, Matt Test, Judith Harding,

Jenny Magnus, Beau O’Reilly, Vicki Walden, John Starrs, Troy Martin, Cat Jarboe, Matt Reiger, Briana Finegan

The Crooked Mouth:

Beau O’Reilly-vocals and cane

Troy Martin- guitar, ukelele, vocals

Matt Test- banjo, accordian, piano, vocals

Vicki Walden- bass, vocals

Jenny Mangus -drums, vocals

Video composition by Jeffrey Bivens

Costumes by Diane Hamm

Sound design by Joseph Fosco

Stage Manager Jen Moniz