Kerrmoor

WILL THE CHILLING RITE OF KERRMOOR BE REPEATED?

KERRMOOR

WRITTEN BY SUSAN MCCULLY

OCTOBER 29-NOVEMBER 15

THE INTERROBANG THEATRE COMPANY and THE STRAND THEATRE COMPANY present

KERRMOOR WRITTEN BY SUSAN MCCULLY

FEATURING

ERIN HANRATTY KATIE HILEMAN SUSAN MCCULLY KYLIE LORNA AGATHA DIRECTED BY EVE MUSON SET DESIGN GREGG SCHRAVEN

LIGHTING DESIGN ADAM MENDELSON

COSTUME DESIGN ERIC ABELE

SOUND DESIGN MUSIC COMPOSITION JEFFREY DORFMAN LINDA DUSMAN

FIGHT DIRECTION CRISTIAN BELL

STAGE MANAGER BRADY WHEALTON

This production is a proud participant in The 14th Annual Page to Stage Festival 2015, Women’s Voices Theater Festival and Charm City Fringe.

PRODUCTION STAFF ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR ELECTRICIANS DRAPER STITCHERS

MASK CREATION GUITAR, MANDOLIN, BODHRAN ACCORDIANS RECORDING ENGINEER RECORDING ASSISTANCE SINGERS

MOVEMENT CONSULTATION BOARD OPERATOR MARKETING DIRECTOR MEDIA RELATIONS FRONT OF HOUSE

ERIKA WILLIAMS SERAFINA DONAHUE SERAFINA DONAHUE, ALEC LAWSON SHELLEY JOYCE ADAM CIOTTA, KERI EASTRIDGE, DESTINY HARRIS, BENJAMIN NABINGER, NICKI NELSON, ISABELLE TABET KERRY CHIPMAN ZAN MCLEOD NANCY PUCKETT ALAN WONNEBERGER SARAH BAUGHER, RHETT REPKO DAVID BRASINGTON, SERAFINA DONAHUE, STEPHEN M. GONDRE-LEWIS, ERIN HANRATTY, KATIE HILEMAN, KIIRSTN PAGAN, JESSIE POOLE, ZACHARIAH THOMAS, SAMUEL WINNIE, DAVIS WOOTTON-KLEBANOFF WENDY SALKIND BRADY WHEALTON KIIRSTN PAGAN ELENA KOSTAKIS DAVID BRASINGTON, ELENA KOSTAKIS, KIIRSTN PAGAN, JESSIE POOLE

SPECIAL THANKS Charm City Fringe Commonvision Eggspectation Emmanuel Episcopal Church Peace A Pizza

Rep Stage Laura Schraven Single Carrot Theatre St. Mark’s Lutheran Church UMBC Department of Music

UMBC Recording Studios UMBC Department of Theatre Venus Theatre Women’s Voices Theatre Festival

Kerrmoor is made possible with the generous support of the UMBC College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (Scott Casper, Dean) and an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council.

This performance will run approximately 60 minutes with no intermission.

Please turn off all cell phones and mobile devices.

The video and/or audio recording of this performance is strictly prohibited.

The Costume Designer appears courtesy of United Scenic Artists Local 829

A NOTE FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

BY SUSAN MCCULLY

A photo from playwright Susan McCully’s grandmother’s yard in Pennsylvania.

For more than 25 years I have struggled to write some version of the play now titled Kerrmoor. It’s born of a conflict deep in my heart. How I can both adore and abhor my ancestral home?

I was raised in rural, Appalachian Pennsylvania feeling an enormous pride of place, character and family. My Scots-Irish soul revels in our history of rugged individualism; our warrior’s pride in never backing down; and our willingness to sacrifice in order to protect our loved ones and our land. These qualities harken to the American mythos. It’s the stuff of tragic heroes.

I have spent years trying to tell the awful truth about this racist and sexist culture that shaped me—the twisted fearful thinking born of prideful insularity. The easy and comfortable path is to disavow these ugly traits. By writing Kerrmoor, I’ve attempted to embrace my people, not to celebrate them, but to explore the cost of glorifying a certain kind of rural American mythology.

Kerrmoor is an Appalachian Greek tragedy.

It is highly fictional. None of it is real. It is my attempt to write something completely true.

At the heart of the play is a fictional town, Kerrmoor, whose foundational myth is told through song...

THE BALLAD OF MONA KERR Old man Kerr took a wife Name a Mona McCauley They come over from Ulster Walked to mountains from the sea Mona Kerr and her husband Took a hatchet to the land Cleared this whole hillside Down to the moor by hand Sent for their kin Scots in Ireland T’make the hollow all their own For three hundred years Kerrmoor has been our home Then one night in darkness Savage bears come on a raid The bears come a scalpin Men was gutted and splayed Mona Kerr had one daughter that the savage bear bit She was full ripe with a black bear from a bite to the hip As the bear growed dark inside her Kerrmoor’s cares they growed too Till Mona cut the bear out Makin all pure and true

ABOUT INTERROBANG The Interrobang Theatre Company is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to producing high quality, new and contemporary plays that are challenging and exciting for the young actor and director. Through our work, we want to make the unfamiliar familiar and accessible to our audiences by exploring universal stories of the human experience. It is part of our mission to attract and retain theatre artists to Baltimore by offering professional opportunities, and to establish Baltimore as a vital city in the contemporary theatre scene. Interrobang is David Brasington, Katie Hileman (Artistic Director), Kiirstn Pagan (Managing Director), Jessie Poole, and Brady Whealton.

WWW.INTERROBANGBALTIMORE.ORG

/INTERROBANGBALTIMORE

@INTERROBMORE

ABOUT STRAND The Strand Theater Company champions challenging and provocative theater that especially celebrates women’s diverse voices and perspectives while bringing together the creative talents of both women and men as artists, technicians, and administrators. We invite patrons to experience some of the region’s best contemporary and reinterpreted works for the stage in our intimate midtown theater in Baltimore. Strand is currently overseen by Managing Director Elena Kostakis.

WWW.STRAND-THEATER.ORG

STRAND THEATER COMPANY

@STRANDTHEATER

ABOUT GRRL PARTS Baltimore’s Grrl Parts Annual Festival of New Plays for New Actresses has established a substantial record of producing high-quality short plays where female characters drive the action and their private struggles are realized as iconic and epic. Originally conceived at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, to address the dearth of published works available for college-aged actresses, the project's success has naturally grown into a commissioning program supporting and promoting women playwrights. Grrl Parts is Susan McCully (Artistic Director) and Eve Muson (Principal Director).

From L to R: Elena Kostakis, Katie Hileman, Susan McCully, Kiirstn Pagan, Eve Muson, Brady Whealton, David Brasington, Erin Hanratty at the Women’s Voices Theater Festival Launch Party (Photo by Margot Schulman)

VENUS THEATRE'S

FERAL 15: FEMINIST FABLES NO STRINGS ATTACHED

RAW

BY AMY BERNSTEIN October 22 - November 15, 2015

Thursday, Friday and Saturdays @ 8:00PM Saturday and Sundays @ 3PM VENUS THEATRE, 21 C ST, LAUREL, MD, 20707 Box Office: 1.866.811.4111 | venusthatre.org

Eric Dufault s

Year oF The RooSter DEC 9 - JAN 10 SINGLECARROT.COM

UMBC Theatre presen

VO RA C I

UMBC Theatre presents

VO RA C I O U S

by Susan M cCully directed by Nyalls Hartman

Obsessed with getting a 4-star review for his restaurant, Chez Rachel, Chef Jean-Jacques spies Suzanne Falmagne, the impossible-to-please restaurant critic, ordering in the dining room and snaps the staff into action. Mistakenly, the woman is actually Joanie, an amateur critic pretending to be the infamous Suzanne. Meanwhile, at the bar sits Ceely a “vegetarian” with a troubling, voracious appetite for JeanJacques and his blood sausage. As Joanie’s long-suffering boyfriend, Lawrence, begs for her attention, the real Suzanne storms in. Intrigue and chaos ensue while the stalwart waitress, Louise, and the rest of the quirky staff, struggle to keep the pace and the peace. All ends happily in this farce about the quest for perfection and Ɠnding one’s own pleasure as Suzanne falls for Joanie, Lawrence for Louise and Ceely joyfully discovers Jean-Jacques’ true identity.

PERFORMANCES Thursday, November 19 – 8 p.m.

Friday, November 20 – 8 p.m.

Saturday, November 21– 8 p.m.

Sunday, November 22 – 2 p.m.* $15 GENERAL ADMISSION $10 STUDENTS AND SENIORS

*Matinee performances are free for UMBC students with ID. Student tickets may be claimed in Theatre ofƓce: 3A+% 22.

Limit one ticket per student.

Proscenium Theatre UMBC Performing Arts and Humanities Building

theatre.umbc.edu

No fee ticketing at:

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PERFORMANCES Thursday, November 19 Friday, November 20 – 8 Saturday, November 21 Sunday, November 22 –

$15 GENERAL ADMISS $10 STUDENTS AND S

*Matinee performances ar Student tickets may be cla Limit one ticket per studen

Proscenium Theatre UMBC Performing Arts an

theatre.umbc.edu

No fee

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