Two Birds
Two Birds & A Stone
Written by Amy Wheeler
Directed by Christine Young
Produced by Capitol Hill Arts Center (Seattle)
February 5 – 28, 2004 – World Premiere
A
fantastical world of magic realism reveals the stark reality of women and
children surviving in a world devastated by ethnic cleansing.
Cast: Kalan Sherrard (Boy); Marie Broderick* (Woman); Nathan Breskin-Auer (Interrogator); Rachel Hao Abramson (Girl/Bird); Susan McIntyre (Moon/Cook); Connor Toms (Dead Soldier/Soldier 1); Jose Gonzales* (King Carp/Soldier 2); John Farrage (Sun/Soldier 3)
* Members, Actors' Equity
Artistic Team: Matthew
Kwatinetz (Set Design); Patti West (Lighting Designer); NiiLartey DeOsu (Costume Design); Nathan
Anderson (Sound Design); Gary
Zinter (Choreography); Audrey
Murra (Stage Manager); Deron
Sedy (Line Producer); Michael
White (Technical Operator); Mickey Sacks (Master Electrician/Scenic Painter); Sky
Darwin (Master Builder); Kevin
Homes (Graphic Design)
Director's Note
I was sitting in the kitchen of our grad school flat one morning when Amy came bounding in with a gleam in her eye. “I’m going to write something new today!” she announced.
Six weeks later, we staged a workshop of a four-character play about an imaginative Boy and his encounter with a mysterious Woman – a play that had largely come to Amy through dreams, like a prophecy. Seven years later, after working on many other projects both together and separately, we have returned to the play to discover that the stories it manifests are even more vital for us to hear now. I have always loved this play and been inspired by the beauty of its poetic language and rich theatrical imagery. But what I find most compelling now is how the play asks us to engage in a deep and personal way with the impact of war on human life. The stories penetrate us in ways that no newspaper statistic or “live” newscast ever could. Through this experience, we become carriers of the stories. And once we have truly seen and heard, we cannot turn away.
We leave the theater as witnesses, knowing that we must take action to change the world.