PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For Immediate Release

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Cast from Left to Right: Cody Borah, Rita Troxel, Dave Bootle

In a world where war, disease, famine, diversity, equality, AI, and God knows what else is piled on the plate in front of us, there may be one issue in that stew of concerns that trumps them all: Is any of what we’re being told in the media about anything entirely true?

In the final main stage production of their remarkable 44th season, the Red Barn Theatre in Key West takes this controversy head on with “Lifespan of a Fact”, an intriguing and humorous offering that has obvious relevance in this era of alternative facts. The play, written by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell, runs April 9 – 27, and is adapted from a 2012 book by the real men portrayed in the play about a real incident in Nevada.

The play stars top local actors Dave Bootle, Cody Borah, and Rita Troxel. It’s directed by the Barn’s artistic director, Joy Hawkins. And be advised: All curtain times are 7 pm instead of the normal 8 pm.

“It’s a very unique play,” said Hawkins. “I can’t compare it to anything else. It’s not a tie-it-up-in-a-bow kind of theater. You have to figure out for yourself what you think.”

The story starts off innocuously enough – Jim is a fresh-out-of-Harvard, eager beaver fact checker hired by Emily, a struggling magazine’s top editor, to fact-check an article submitted by the well-known and talented writer, John. The piece is centered around an indisputable incident: a 16-year-old boy is dead, having jumped from the observation deck of Las Vegas’ Stratosphere Hotel and Casino. Beyond that is where things get sticky.

Turns out John has inserted unnecessary lies into his work under the guise of “artistic license” – for instance, was the casino deck actually 1100 feet high or far shorter, and did the boy’s death connect with other phenomena that day – like banned lap dances, the world’s oldest Tabasco bottle, or a tic-tac-toe-playing chicken named Ginger?

“I’m not interested in accuracy,” says John. “I’m interested in truth.” And woe to anyone who calls his shattering essay an “article”. He is not cool with anyone tampering with his copy, insisting that 100 percent accuracy in names, dates, and specific incidents is less important than rhythm, music, and beauty in the language.

But Jim – out to prove himself – is not having any of it, and poor Emily is caught in the middle, concerned only with saving her magazine and knowing a sensational piece by the acclaimed John could prop up shrinking ad sales and disappearing subscriptions. What should she do?

The action is brisk, with plenty of sharp and funny repartee, sometimes unfolding like a taut thriller, but always coming back to the main question – do you undermine yourself by fiddling with the facts, or do you allow whatever is necessary to find the “higher truth” – the music of a boy’s tragic death?

Who’s to say which one of them is speaking the kind of truth that really matters? You’ll have to decide for yourself.

The Washington Post called the play “buoyantly literate…briskly entertaining.”  Variety said “…terrifically funny dialogue…the debate at the heart of the play demands serious attention.”

Tickets for “Lifespan of a Fact” are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911. Remember that all curtain times are 7 pm.

The show is sponsored in part by Design Key West, Culture Builds Florida, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

Playwright Larissa FastHorse

The Red Barn Theatre in Key West has had a lot of firsts in its illustrious 45-year history. But with their current main stage offering, they have added a pretty prestigious entry to that long list.

Currently running through March 30, the Barn is presenting “The Thanksgiving Play”, written by Larissa Fasthorse, the first Native American woman to have a hit show produced on Broadway. It has become one of the most-produced plays in America this season.

Fasthorse, who belongs to the Sicangu Lakota Nation, was born in San Francisco, but left there as an infant.

“I grew up in South Dakota,” she said, “where my Lakota people are from, but I was adopted at a young age – an open adoption to a white family who had worked on the reservation for a long time. I was always raised very aware of my Lakota identity and my Lakota culture, and they brought a lot of mentors into my life, as well as tribal elders, to help me stay connected.”

Fasthorse first started a career as a ballet dancer, but an injury forced her to rethink her life track. Returning to an earlier interest in writing proved to be the key to enormous success.

Fasthorse created a trilogy of cultural plays, commissioned and produced by Cornerstone Theater Company, a nationally-recognized company based in Los Angeles. The first was “Urban Rez”. The second was “Native Nation”, which became the largest Indigenous theater production in the history of American theater. That opened all the doors, with productions at prestigious theaters like The Public, Yale Rep, the Guthrie, the Geffen, Kennedy Center, Baltimore’s Center Stage, and Berkeley Rep, among many others.

And she’s recently moved into film and television, writing and working for Universal, Paramount, NBC, and now Apple TV and “Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan’s Taylor Made Productions.

“The Thanksgiving Play” was inspired by the state of Florida’s banning the teaching of anything that might cause a child to feel guilty or be upset…particularly the history of Indigenous Peoples.

“I call it ‘performative wokeness,” Fasthorse said. “These are white folks, liberal folks, trying hard to do everything right, but getting everything wrong.”

Which is the very premise of “The Thanksgiving Play”, a hilarious play infused with looks at tough topics, about a group of well-intentioned white adults trying to create a children’s play about the Pilgrim’s first Thanksgiving while blending it with the viewpoint of the Native Americans they supposedly interacted with on that day. But their terminal wokeness thwarts them at every turn until it all explodes with a hilarious ending that must be seen.”

“The thing that I keep saying,” Fasthorse said, “and that is very important to me in this play, is, first, it’s fun, and you get to have a good time in the theater. And second, I would say that’s the sugar, and then there’s the medicine. It’s satire. It’s a comedy within a satire The satire is the medicine.”

The Red Barn’s production clearly has a large dose of the sugar, with audiences laughing out loud throughout the play. But the message is also crystal clear, which makes the play all the more potent, honoring not only her ancestors but also offering – in a very funny way – a commentary on how far into absurdity wokeness has traveled.

Tickets for “The Thanksgiving Play” are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911.

REVIEW OF THE THANKSGIVING PLAY AT THE RED BARN THEATER

by EB aka Ennid Berger | March 6, 2024

https://konklife.com/the-thanksgiving-play/

I am thankful to have been at the Red Barn Theater for opening night of “The Thanksgiving Play.” Before the play began, I was impressed  by Gary McDonald’s set design -nothing says classroom like institutionally green classroom walls, complete with the ubiquitous wall hung map of the United States.  The drama classroom we were transported to was a nostalgic setting for this contemporary and hilarious comedy.  We are here to observe four adults putting together a theatrical production for elementary school students – the question is, can they come together to produce a contemporary take on Thanksgiving honoring the Native American viewpoint.  This unusual play was written by Larissa Fasthorse, the first Native American playwright whose work was produced on Broadway.  Calling it a comedy of “performative wokeness,” the Broadway version of the play was produced with great success at the Helen Hayes Theater.  The current Key West production was directed by Mimi McDonald, the managing director of the Red Barn., who was “delighted to work on The Thanksgiving Play.”  The Red Barn’s artistic director, Joy Hawkins, added that writer Larissa Fasthorse had presented a one act play, hoping that the second act is one where you go home and talk about the play.

The cast consists of four white people attempting to write a culturally sensitive play for Native American history month.  Local resident, Elena Devers, plays Logan, and glows with excitement, perfectly playing the energetic and anxiety ridden drama teacher, the director of the play within the play.  She calls herself a “sensitive vegan” horrified by the slaughtered flesh of Thanksgiving turkeys, but in charge of rewriting the traditional holiday play to present one of contemporary wokeness and color blindness.  Arthur Crocker, perfectly cast as the yoga practicing Jaxton, is a physical comedian, especially funny in his pretend eating scenes .  Jeremy Zoma, historically accurate Caden, valiantly tries to keep the team on factually track but succumbs to the absurdity of the group.  Nina Pilar is the standout, cast as the beautiful and hot Alicia and drawing the eye with her graceful movements, stillness and comedic timing. She reveals the secret to being content in an overly busy world – “I don’t do anything.”

Try as they might, the inept foursome struggle to come up with a play that reflects the true Thanksgiving story from the Native American viewpoint. In horrifying comparison, we are shown intermittent and real Pinterest animations that are put forth as tools for teachers.  The “Injun” is shot down and other animated inequities are equally horrifying. The cast continuously experiments with numerous attempts to capture the realities of the first Thanksgiving.  Their earnest attempts include eating invisible food and speaking to invisible indigenous people to no avail until finally they realize that the empty stage  best represents the brutal history which can’t be spoken or staged. We are left struggling with the acknowledgement that there is no conclusive story – all remains disturbingly unresolved.  As stated by the Red Barn, as a community, “we recognize the ever-present systemic inequities that stem from past wrongdoings…the land that One Island Family now stands on and the waters surrounding Key west, were the traditional homes under the stewardship of the Mascogo, Seminole, Calusa and Taino Peoples.”

PRESS RELEASE
For further information, call: Bob Bowersox at 302-540-6102

For Immediate Release

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From Left to Right: Elena Devers, Arthur Crocker, Director Mimi McDonald, Jeremy Zoma, Nina Pilar

We hear a lot about “wokeness” in the heady world of national politics these days. It’s usually pretty serious stuff, with each side slamming the other for either having too much of it, or not having enough. But what happens when you bring that thorny issue down to the common earth of everyday people?

Well, we’re about to find out in a very funny way when Key West’s Red Barn Theatre stages “The Thanksgiving Play” as the third mainstage production of their remarkable 44th season. The show opens March 5 and will run Tuesdays to Saturdays through the 30th.

The play was written by Larissa Fasthorse, a member of the Sicangu Lakota Nation, and the first female Native American playwright to have a show on Broadway when it premiered at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York. It won a Drama League Award in 2023.

It’s a simple premise: a group of white theater nerds meet in an elementary school classroom to put together a dramatic rendition of the Thanksgiving story for their young students – the one we’ve always been told about the Pilgrims and the “Indians” and the turkey and the corn. But when the supposed Indigenous professional actress they hire turns out to be anything but, everything plunges headlong into hilarious absurdity as the hopelessly woke whites try to fashion a play that ultimately has nothing to do with the actual unsavory history of that occasion, and is completely devoid of any insight into a Native American perspective on it.

“It’s very funny,” said director Mimi McDonald. “It brings home how we really don’t know what to do with what actual history – as opposed to the glossed-up stories – tells us really happened. The takeaway is that we’re all just trying to figure things out, and it can get really funny and absurd as we do.”

Fasthorse herself has said she hopes the audience – while entertained by the laughter – will walk away with more questions than answers. But the main point she wants to cut through the laughter is this: “Doing nothing is not adequate anymore,” she says. “Stepping away because it’s too complicated can no longer be considered a part of any kind of solution.” This sentiment is brought to side-splitting life in her show’s audacious climax, which, for the sake of not spoiling the hilarity of it, will not be revealed here.

Entertainment Weekly said the play is “…a good dark comedy that makes you laugh, makes you think, makes you mad, makes your brain explode.” The Hollywood Reporter called it “Very, very funny…”.

Tickets are available at redbarntheatre.com or by calling 305-296-9911 and are already selling quickly. Ticketholders for the March 5 Opening Night will be invited to a catered Opening Night reception with the cast and crew.

“The Thanksgiving Play” is sponsored in part by Key West Compass Realty – Keller Williams, Culture Builds Florida, and the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

REVIEW OF POTUS AT THE RED BARN THEATER

by EB aka Ennid Berger | January 31, 2024

https://konklife.com/review-of-potus-at-the-red-barn.../

Photo by Roberta DePiero

POTUS or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive takes the stage at Key West’s historic Red Barn Theater from January 30 – February 24, 2024. First debuting with great reviews on Broadway in 2022, POTUS is an entertaining farce with an excellent ensemble cast including some of Key West’s best actors.

POTUS unfolds in a simple set of an unknown room in the White House (period wallpaper and wainscotting establish the scene). The show revolves around the inept, unnamed and philandering President of the US,. He remains an unseen presence whose unadmirable character and personality are implied by the ongoing chaotic farce.

The comedy sketches that structure the show are hilariously funny interactions among and between the seven women in the excellent cast. Outstanding performances all around, with extra kudos to Susannah Wells, playing Dusty the Dalliance with charm and pizzaz, to Annie Miners, cast as Bernadette, POTUS’ outrageous drug dealing sister, and to Lynn Casamayor as Margaret, POTUS’ first lady., who exudes a powerful presence. POTUS is LOL funny with one liners and comedic interactions from the outstanding cast that also includes George DiBroud as Harriet the chief of staff, Lauren Thompson as Jean the press secretary, Jessicca Kruel as Stephanie the secretary, and Fritzie Estimond as Chris the breast pumping journalist.

The Red Barn’s theatrical presentation of POTUS was directed with great timing and sensitivity by the Red Barn’s Joy Hawkins. It is fast and funny with a sprinkling of obscenity. The show was written by Serena Fillinger, a writer for TV’s The Morning Show. According to Fillinger,. “It’s a story that you could put in any institution, any office, many homes. It’s about systems of oppression and systems of injustice.” POTUS is political, to be sure, but also an absurdist look at a very insular, patriarchal, workplace run, in reality, by the women in the office who try to offset the fumbling and bumbling of the incompetent man who never appears.