Theater
Excerpts from other work by Janet Allard
As a playwright, Allard is used to using highly theatrical means to investigate American cultural signifiers. Her work has a self-aware playfulness that allows her to use seemingly simple words and action to expose great depth and feeling in her characters. The opening moments of her play Untold Crimes of Insomniacs give just a hint of how Allard uses simplicity and repetition to speak volumes:
Scene 1 Awake in the Metropolis
slide: 1:34am Awake in the Metropolis
The lights rise on each character caught in their repetitive nighttime activity. Isolated, in their separate nocturnal worlds, all seven lie awake. They try to sleep, but their wheels are spinning. They address the audience:
THE COP
The Cop practices Karate moves. Hoping one day to save someone.
THE ENTREPRENEUR
The Entrepreneur tap-dances.
THE PRIEST
The Priest shines his shoes
THE ACTRESS
The Actress frees her voice.
GOTH-GIRL
Goth-girl rips holes in her tights, making her clothing her own.
YOUNG WIFE
The Pregnant Young Wife watches late night TV.
GHOST-BOY
Ghost-boy lies awake in bed fighting a battle with himself.
To stay in bed—to make himself sleep. Or to go out there and talk to her. Just for a moment.
The urge is too great.
Finally. He gives in.
Scene 2 Ghost-boy and The Pregnant Young Wife
slide 1:36am The living room. In a suburban townhouse.
During the following scene:
The Cop practices Karate moves.
The Entrepreneur tap-dances.
The Priest shines his shoes.
The Actress frees her voice.
Goth-girl rips holes in her tights, making her clothing her own.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Looking Back, and Forward, as Ma-Yi Celebrates 30 Years of Innovative Work
By Billy McEnteeMAR 2020 | Theater
The Obie and Lucille Lortel award-winning theater company started out in 1989 producing solely the work of Filipino American writers; while that has evolved, so has the theater’s definition of what a “Ma-Yi play” is. And that’s a strength: in a company whose ethos and blessings are fortified by its creators, each new playwright brings with them—to Ma-Yi’s numerous productions and artistic programs—their own world and experiences to expand and delight the company’s evolving landscape of thought-provoking, envelope-pushing American plays.
The American Dream Becomes a Queer, Coming-of-Age Videogame in american (tele)visions
By Alexi ChaconOCT 2022 | Theater
In an absurd world that refuses to treat immigrants as human beings, Victor I. Cazares makes the case in american (tele)visions that it’s time to dream up a world that treats immigrant narratives with dignity.
Faith Ringgold: American People
By Ann C. CollinsMARCH 2022 | ArtSeen
Organized by The New Museum’s artistic director Massimiliano Gioni with curator Gary Carrion-Murayari and curatorial assistant Madeline Weisburg, American People is jam-packed with more than forty years of Faith Ringgold’s most prominent work.
Asian American Art is a Monument
By Related TacticsJUL-AUG 2022 | Critics Page
n our collective, Related Tactics (Michele Carlson, Weston Teruya, and Nathan Watson), we think a lot about the ways power is created through systems of knowledge—some of these systems are very loud and obvious while others are much more subtle, embodied, and insidious. Here we consider the space of Asian American art as a monument and offer a series of speculative interventions pulled from studio brainstorming done in the production of our 2022 project, Memories Breathe and Every Monument Deflates. This project considered themes such as collective memory, systems of knowledge, and monuments within the American landscape. With this list we ask, how might this strategic repositioning offer tools to reimagine our intersecting communities’ collaborative movements towards liberation?
