The Village Playwrights, Reading March 2019
Fresh Ink Theatre, WorkshopSeptember 2019.
MADIEN VOYAGE
(7 F)
Maiden Voyage takes place aboard a U.S. Submarine and charts the first mission undertaken by an all female crew: Ricky Martin, Twinkle Toes, Sledge, Ace, Scooby, Dot.Com and Esmeralda. The time is the future or the distant past… to a time no one can remember. The form of the play is that of a puzzle: Small moments that live inside other moments and are chiseled together to create the story. The moments of the play have two distinct qualities. At times scenes are built around executing the mission of the ship: Short, percussive, and hard, rhythmic, perhaps even musical depending on the treatment. In moments of downtime the play takes on a different quality. These moments are soft, lyrical vignettes perhaps even magical in tone: Segments of the crew speak of family back home, of loss and longing, of the calls of whales aching in the night. There are also moments of levity as the more seasoned crew indoctrinates rookie sailors in acts of playful hazing.We are spectators in these women’s lives, that is, until something goes wrong… The ship encounters a foreign object, which sets off the instrumentation of the ship. Captain Ricky Martin doesn't alert to ground control, or the rest of the crew, and rather tries to fix the ship on her own, only the problem continues to worsen. When the crew discovers this, they rebel against her and signal to the above world for guidance, only it’s too late. In moments the ship sinks, the lights go out, and all the life that was onboard is crushed under the weight of water. All that remains are the sounds of whales echoing in the distance. This play explores how a member of a historically marginalized group might respond under pressure when given an opportunity that was previously unavailable to them. What happens when, technically you are given the opportunity, but you don’t feel validated in being a member of the mainstream and therefore over compensate in order to justify your place as equals in society? What happens when the very thing you’re resisting, in this case the patriarch, becomes the motivating factor behind your unconscious decisions? The Captain believes herself to be the one in charge but really its still ‘the man’ driving the ship.
Development History
Workshop, Fresh Ink Theatre Company, dir. Liz Festermaker September, 2010
Reading, The Village Playwrights March 2019
Workshop, ESPA Primary Stages dir. Alex Keegan August 2018