Fresh from Edinburgh Festival Fringe, New Play Explores Global Conflict Through the Eyes of Women Warriors
Rebecca Johannsen Returns to Mount New Staging Featuring Collaboration between Professionals and Area Students
November 7-10, 2018, CSU San Marcos Performance Hall
Website for ticket and information
In a unique collaboration with CSU San Marcos, theatre artist and educator Rebecca Johannsen returns to San Diego topresent her moving and powerful exploration of female soldiers. Women at War is devised from Johannsen’s interviews conducted with the US Army’s Female Engagement Team (FET) Unit, deployed to Afghanistan from 2012-2013. The unit’s mission was to engage with the local female Afghan population to build relationships and gather intelligence. They often found themselves in combat zones before women were legally allowed in combat, and received intensive physical training to prepare for the mission. The production runs November 7-10. Talk-backs will follow each production in collaboration with CSUSM Veteran’s Center.
The play uses verbatim interviews, movement, poetry, and visual art to explore the connections between the women in the military and the women of Afghanistan. Conceived seven years ago, the piece has been staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and in London as party of the Women and War: EXODUS Festival. It also received a staged reading in 2017 at San Diego’s Ion Theatre. This is the first full cast production and features 4 area students from CSU San Marcos and Palomar College. Thanks to a grant from CSUSM, these students will have a unique opportunity to train, learn and collaboration with a professional team of theatre artists.
“At CSUSM Theatre, students develop a global perspective of performance, cultural histories and ethnic identities in order to transform the way they think about the world, explained Judy Bauerlein, Associate Professor of Theatre “Project based learning methods encourage students to be active participants in the learning process and provide the conceptual and technological tools for students to create original work.”
“The soldiers I interviewed were all from incredibly diverse backgrounds and experiences. It was important to me to bring together a cast that reflected that diversity. It’s an honor to be working alongside these brilliant student performers, who have a wealth of their own experience to bring to these roles. Playing characters based on real people is never an easy task, but these women are up the challenge,” explained Johannsen.
Johannsen is the former Artistic Director for Stone Soup Theatre Company, which brought notable productions of Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, Sarah Kane’s 4.48 psychosis (Johannsen’s directorial debut), and Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM! to San Diego.
After successfully teaching for 6 years at NYU’s Tisch Drama Department and co-producing playwright Erik Ehn’s epic collection Soulographie: Our Genocides at La MaMa in New York City, Dr. Johannsen decided to pursue this project full time. She now splits her time between San Diego and London, where she is active in the Young Vic’s Director’s Programme and directed intensives at the Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe.
A segment of Women at War was presented for development at the Young Vic Theatre’s Freshworks Programme, an opportunity provided to promising new plays to gain feedback from Young Vic directors. It was also selected as a finalist for the LET Award, a UK-based award to help a promising new play get to Edinburgh. A performance of a segment of the play was performed as part of the award showcase. It was also Longlisted for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award at Fringe.
After successfully teaching for 6 years at NYU’s Tisch Drama Department and co-producing playwright Erik Ehn’s epic collection Soulographie: Our Genocides at La MaMa in New York City, Dr. Johannsen decided to pursue this project full time. She now splits her time between San Diego and London, where she is active in the Young Vic’s Director’s Programme and directed intensives at the Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe.
A segment of Women at War was presented for development at the Young Vic Theatre’s Freshworks Programme, an opportunity provided to promising new plays to gain feedback from Young Vic directors. It was also selected as a finalist for the LET Award, a UK-based award to help a promising new play get to Edinburgh. A performance of a segment of the play was performed as part of the award showcase. It was also Longlisted for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award at Fringe.
Exploring the voices of several soldiers interviewed, the play considers the nature of trauma, conflict, and misogyny both, in the first and third world. It asks questions like: What happens when women engage in combat? Does it change the way we engage in conflict? What does it uncover about expected gender roles? How does it impact men and women deployed to a part of the world where women have no voice?
The internationally renowned creative team includes co-director John Moletress, artistic director of force/collision in Washington D.C., whose work has been seen at The Kennedy Center, La MaMa ETC, Arena Stage, New Dramatists, and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; choreographer Verónica Santiago Moniello (MFA, UCSD), who has danced and choreographed for major companies in Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, and in Germany for Pina Bausch; Mayou Trikerioti (sets and costume) has designed for the National Theatre of Greece and the Young Vic, as well as for film and TV, including True Detective, Homeland, and Dark Crimes starring Jim Carrey; and projection designer Ela Boyd (MFA, UCSD), an installation and light artist whose work has been exhibited throughout California, New York, Italy, and Quebec. They will collaborate with local sound designer Matt Warburton and lighting designer Hannah Beerfas.
Women at War is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Women at War must be made payable to Fractured Atlas only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. For more information visit www.fracturedatlas.org
This production is supported by the CSUSM Instructionally Related Activities (IRA) Grant and CSUSM Theatre.
ARTIST BIOS
Dr. Rebecca Johannsen (Playwright and Director) holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of California Irvine. Founder and artistic director of the San Diego based, Stone Soup Theatre Company for 10 years before moving to New York City. She has taught at NYU’s Tisch Drama, Fordham University, Mercy College, UC Irvine, US San Diego, and California State University Northridge. Member of the Young Vic Director’s Network.
John Moletress (Co-Director) John is a multi-disciplined artist, educator and Founding Director of force/collision, an interdisciplinary performance ensemble. Their work has been seen within the US at The Kennedy Center, The Broad, Abrons Art Center, La MaMa ETC, Highways Performance Space, Intersections Festival, Fusebox Festival, Arena Stage, New Dramatists, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, FUNDarte/Out In The Tropics, OUTsider Festival, George Washington University, and EMP Collective. Internationally, their work has been seen at Shout Festival (UK), King’s College London, Homotopia/unity theatre (UK), Warehouse 9 (DK), The Gulbenkian (UK) and The House at Plymouth University (UK).
Joy Cooper (Soldier 2) Joy Cooper is an actress studying theatre, film, television, and radio production at Palomar College. She is a military veteran having served four years active duty in the United States Air Force as a civil engineer. This is Joy’s second theatrical performance with Cal State San Marcos. She portrayed the role of Desiree Thompson Sisters in the System. Joy’s other recent productions at Palomar College are Clybourne Park (directed by Annie Hinton), Ten Acrobats and an Amazing Leap of Faith, and Facing Our Truth, Six 10-minute Plays on Trayvon, Race, and Privilege.
Brittany Escobedo (Soldier 3) Brittany is a theatre major currently in her third year at CSU San Marcos and she has been acting since she was in middle school. During her time at Trabuco Hills High School, a local pioneer in theater and film, she participated in many different musicals, her favorite being Cinderella, and plays that were mainly student written. She was also a part of her school’s film class where she took part in two very different student film. At San Marcos she appeared in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (directed by Jason Heil) and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (directed by Hans Vermy). As the daughter of a Marine Corps Retiree, Brittany is extremely happy to be a part of this production and she hopes to make the amazing women of the armed forces, including her own mother, proud.
Sheradyn Luro (Soldier 1)
Sheradyn has been attending Cal State San Marcos for three years as a theatre major. She has been acting since she was in 4th grade and did shows all throughout high school. Some of her favorites include: Winnifred in Once Upon a Mattress, Joy in Cinderella, and Ursula in Bye-Bye Birdie. She has done 5 shows at CSUSM including: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Waiting for my Summer which was a new work that traveled to other schools to raise awareness about privilege, and Juste: Red Nose.
Nina Watts (The Captain) Nina has been dancing for about five years. During her senior year of high school she was a member of a dance crew called “Unofficial” – a hip-hop competitive dance crew. She has danced in about 7 dance productions combined between Murrieta High School and CSUSM. She is currently a student at CSUSM with a major in Visual & Performing Arts with an emphasis in Arts & Technology and a minor in Dance Studies. She is the president of the Cultural Dance Club at CSUSM.
FACT SHEET
WHAT: Women at War (production runs one hour)
Performance Dates: November 7-10, Talk-backs to follow each production
Performance Time: 7:00 pm
Venue:
CSUSM Performance Hall (Arts Building 111)
California State University, San Marcos
333 S Twin Oaks Valley Rd
San Marcos, CA 92096
WEBSITE: www.womenatwartheplay.com
TICKETS: Students, Faculty, Staff, and Military (active duty or veteran) free General Public, $10
