2008 Woodie Awards
Special Presentation: Lisa Kron's 101 Humiliating Stories
Stacie Maclaughlin
Issue date: 2/1/08 Section: Arts and Leisure
|
With a large cast that graced the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts Director's Lab Wednesday night, the special Plays in Process presentation featured a staged reading of playwright Lisa Kron's "101 Humiliating Stories." Directed by Associate Professor of Theatre Arts Rosemary McLaughlin and stage managed by Abby Hoke-Brady ('11), the cast of characters regale the audience with Kron's autobiographical stories of hysterical and sometimes horrifically embarrassing bouts with self-reflection, self-dissection and self-redemption.
Kron takes some of her most wonderfully humiliating experiences, including but not limited to coming out in an apathetic workplace, getting sucked into the black hole that is the Woolworth's makeup counter, putting Golden Globe-winning actress Sigourney Weaver firmly in her place and accidentally introducing an office of people to her nether regions, and spins them into both comedic and dramatic gold with the help of a capable Drew cast. Throughout the dialogues, each of the 10 players deftly represents a facet of Kron's personality, complete with ruminations about her sexuality, periods of fierce self-loathing and irreverent spells of rebellion.
The most inspiring performances were Addie Horan's ('10) enthusiastic Southern makeup saleswoman, Lara Saponara's ('10) stable and forgiving narrator, Katie Chambers' ('09) awkward celebrity encounter, and Becca Schlossberg's ('09) and Michelle Ovalle's ('08) shared encounter of the author's very public junior high school experience with sanitary pad physics.
Kron, who has been commissioned to pen a play for Drew theatre, will be on campus 5 p.m. Sunday to answer students' questions and perform select readings of her work.
Be the first to comment on this story