Motherstruck

9/28/16 – 10/23/16

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY STACEYANN CHIN
DIRECTED BY MATT TORNEY

As a teenager in Jamaica, Staceyann Chin lived in fear of an unwanted pregnancy. As a lesbian performance poet in Brooklyn in her ever-later 30s, she craves nothing more than a child…only to face twists of love, biology, and health insurance. A hilarious, intimate, and heart-shaking story of the best-laid plans and hairpin turns with a magnetic performance from Staceyann Chin (Def Poetry Jam).

Play Name

Show Information

Runtime: 90 minutes with no intermission.

Multimedia

The Artists

Production Team

SET DESIGNER

Kristen Robinson

Kristen Robinson is a New York City-based designer, whose work ranges from site-specific installations to outdoor Shakespeare. Her design for Westport Country Playhouse’s Nora was featured in Chance Magazine Issue 4, and her design for Rapture Blister Burn won the 2015 Barrymore Award for Best Set Design. Other recent credits include MotherStruck (Studio Theatre), Chasing Rainbows (Goodspeed Musicals), Ethel (Alliance Theater), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Great Lakes Theatre), Heart of Darkness (Baryshnikov Arts Center), and Minor Character (The Invisible Dog). Ms. Robinson received her MFA from Yale and is a Princess Grace Fellow.

(As of September 2016)

LIGHTING DESIGNER

Dante Olivia Smith

Dante Olivia Smith’s New York credits include Tonight With Donny Stixx, Dark Vanilla Jungle and Tender Napalm at The Shop; MotherStruck (Culture Project and Studio Theatre); Professor Brenner and Carcass at HERE Arts; Waiting for Waiting for Godot at The Collective; Suicide?! and Romeo & Juliet at Empirical Rogue as Resident Designer; Stabat Mater Fabulosa at Morningside Opera; In the Company of Jane Doe and Modern Dance for Beginners at Cake Productions. Other national credits include Warren (or) Those People at Boise Contemporary Theater, Monopoly and How Theatre Failed America with Mike Daisey, Final Broadcast at Umo Ensemble. Ms. Smith is also the creator of The Pandora’s Box Project, a multi-discipline artistic conversation exploring the issues of reproductive justice and gender parity in our culture.

(As of September 2016)

SOUND DESIGNER

Matthew M. Nielson

Matthew M. Nielson recently designed and composed original music for Occupied Territories at 59E59 and Where Words Once Were at Lincoln Center. Other recent designs include the world premiere of Astoria, Parts I and II with Portland Center Stage; The Magic Play at Olney Theatre Center, Portland Center Stage, and Actor’s Theatre of Louisville; The Book of Will at Round House Theatre; Nina Simone: Four Women at Arena Stage; Shakespeare In Love at Baltimore Center Stage; and Treasure Island at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Film and television credits include The Magicians, Stranger Things, Those Who Wait, NBC Sports, UFC on FOX, The Hero Effect, Epic Drive-In, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and Delivery.com. Mr. Nielson has received several Helen Hayes and film festival awards.

(As of April 2018)

STAGE MANAGER

C. Renee Alexander

C. Renee Alexander is the Production Stage Manager for MotherStruck by Staceyann Chin. Ms. Alexander has also stage-managed Dear Elizabeth at The Women’s Project directed by Kate Whoriskey, The Apollo Theater Presents: Get on the Good Foot A Celebration of Dance 2015 Germany Tour, The Glass Menagerie and A Midsummer’s Night Dream at Masterworks Theatre Company, as well as being the Production Supervisor for those two works. Stage management credits include works for the Shakespeare Theatre Company, like The Oedipus Plays starring Avery Brooks and Earle Hyman, directed by Michael Kahn. International credits include stage managing Oedeon Herod Atticus in Athens, Greece, and being the Production Stage Manager for Cultural Center of the Philippines for the Mai-Yi Theatre Company’s Flipsoid performed during the Philippine Centennial Celebration.

(As of September 2016)

Press

Motherstruck is an astonishing work
Theatermania
funny, down-to-earth a bit heartbreaking
Broadway World
I have never seen a solo performer who blew me away the way Staceyann Chin did
DC Metro Theater Arts

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