Friday, February 25, 2011

Some Mother's Son on Craigslist

Not sure who posted this, but it was found today on Craigslist and contains some neat quotes from Darren Harned, the playwright.

Smith College Theatre Presents Some Mother’s Son, a Premiere of a New Play by Darren Harned

Ticket Information: www.smith.edu/smitharts and Tel. 413.585.ARTS (2787), or visit facebook.com/smithcollegeperformingarts

Northampton: Was it suicide? Or murder? In the spring of 1963, a high school boy is found drowned in a local lake. An eyewitness accuses the boy’s best friend, a star varsity player named Richie Kvichak, of killing him. As the investigation heats up and the evidence piles up against Richie, his mother Masha (Susanna Apgar) must choose to stand by and hope for the best or to protect her son at all costs–and keep a lid on the secrets and lies that threaten to tear her family apart. Darren Harned is an MFA Playwriting candidate at Smith College and a graduate of Hampshire College. His short play Board of Review was produced as part of Smith College’s One Acts Play Festival in 2010. Another short play, Ephemera, was accepted into the 2007 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival and was performed as part of Smith College’s Festival of One-Act Plays in 2008. He has also been the recipient of two Five College Denis Johnson Playwriting Prizes.

When asked why he set the play in 1963 Harned replied, “Because the mood of that year fit the mood of the play. The rapidly mounting tensions in American society were right there on the surface, but they hadn’t yet boiled over into conflict: the Cuban missile crisis had just happened, we saw the onset of the Civil Rights and Women’s movements, the JFK assassination, the beginning of the Vietnam era…that social backdrop provides the play with a certain thematic weight it wouldn't have had in any other year.” We asked Darren how he conceived of the complex character of Masha and he said, “I had the idea of a mother trying to advocate for her child in wrongheaded ways–she’s trying to protect their way of life for her son’s sake, while that way of life may be the root of their problems. That’s why it’s set in 1963.”

Director Kendra Arimoto has assembled a stellar cast of actors with extensive and varied acting backgrounds: Susanna Apgar (Masha), Emily Brown (Constance North), Johnny Donaldson (Nelson), Hannah Vasconcellos Hastings (Christopher), Rory Alexander Farrell Madden (Officer Partridge), Kevin Maroney (Detective), Alex Techeira (Carl). Visit the play’s Web site for actor and designer biographies, interviews, and behind-the-scenes updates and videos. http://kvichak.blogspot.com/

“For most audiences it is easy to imagine the Monster, while at the same time it is almost impossible to imagine the Monster’s Mother.” To purchase tickets online visit:http://smith.tix.com/Schedule.asp?OrganizationNumber=2720 or call the box office: 413.585.ARTS (2787).

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