Pulitzer-nominated play ‘Dance Nation’ staged in Santa Rosa
“Dance Nation” is a play about dance, but it is not truly a musical.
It is a tale about preteens aiming to enter a national dance competition. But more mature actors are deliberately forged in the roles, so the activities feel like bittersweet memories rather of trivial melodrama.
Prepared by Clare Barron, the enjoy was a finalist in the drama classification for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize. Now it will get a neighborhood production, opening Saturday, June 4, at the Still left Edge Theatre, a resident drama organization at the Luther Burbank Centre for the Arts. Paige Picard, one particular of the theater troupe’s associates, will make her directing debut there.
“I have been wanting forward to doing this show for so extensive,” she said.
The exhibit had been forged and originally was scheduled for the 2020-21 period at the community theater corporation, but it was postponed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Picard has been dwelling in San Diego during the COVID-19 pandemic and working pretty much with Left Edge, but she returned to Santa Rosa to direct this generation.
“Before our initial reading through here in April, all of the work on this exhibit was virtual,” she reported. “Now, in a way, it feels like no time has handed.”
The demonstrate troubles Picard because it’s not conveniently classified, and she hopes audiences will uncover it stimulating, far too.
“It’s not a musical, but it’s not a straight engage in either,” she explained. “The playwright makes feminine figures in a very nuanced, sophisticated way.
“It’s play about a preteen dance group, but the people are all performed by actors that are older,” Picard reported. “The youngest is 18 and the oldest is 60.”
The playwright devised that approach to stay clear of Hollywood stereotypes of youthful people today, commonly played by youthful-searching twentysomethings who are not extremely convincing, Picard discussed.
“There are four dance figures in the display, but the script is written so that it doesn’t get in touch with for expert dancing,” she included. “We do have dancing, and we have a choreographer, Serena Elize Flores, who is also a cast member.”
The solid features Flores, Rosie Frater, Kimberly Kalember, Abbey Lee, Sam Minnifield, Eshani More, Regielyn Padua, Mike Pavone and Caitlin Strom-Martin.
Viewers are forewarned that some of the show’s content will be unpleasant. An advisory for the demonstrate states “Dance Nation” is made up of robust language and grownup cases including simulated masturbation and brief nudity.
“We do have a content advisory for this display,” Picard claimed. “It receives crass in a way, but it is not above the best.”
You can reach Team Author Dan Taylor at [email protected] or 707-521-5243. On Twitter @danarts.