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ART MAGAZINEVolume 38 Issue 6 MercuryHg Company II ART MISSION Artists Repertory Theatre’s mission is to produce intimate, provocative theatre and provide a home for a diverse community of artists and audiences to take creative risks. ANTI-RACIST STATEMENT Artists Repertory Theatre recognizes that we are a predominately white organization and operate within systemic racism and oppression, and that silence and neutrality are actions of complicity. We recognize the critical role the arts play in our culture and national conversation, and accept our responsibility to make positive change through our work, our practices, and our policies. We commit ourselves to the work of becoming an anti-racism and anti-oppression organization, and will work with urgency to end racial inequities in our industry and our culture. ARTISTS REP gratefully acknowledges our theatre rests on the traditional lands of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River. ARTISTSREP.ORG 2 TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY AUDIO by SUSAN SOON HE STANTON Mercury Company Dámaso Rodríguez, Executive Artistic Director J.S. May, Executive Director Kisha Jarrett, Managing Director CAST DJ Loki ................................................................................................ Andrés Alcalá Mrs. Asuncion (Landon’s Mom) ............................................................. Lava Alapai^~ Sebastian ............................................................................................. Fajer Al-Kaisi*@ Hostess ............................................................................................... Naiya Amilcar%+ Joyce .................................................................................................. Ayanna Berkshire^*@ Self Help Phone Menu ......................................................................... Diana Burbano*@ Landon ................................................................................................ Charles Grant@ Mom .................................................................................................... Emily Kuroda*@ Answering Machine Voice ..................................................................... Treasure Lunan@ Amazingpresence83 ............................................................................ Lauren Modica@ Various Voices ..................................................................................... Kristen Mun@ Richard ................................................................................................ John San Nicolas^*@ Hawaii Public Radio Voice/Shower Dude .............................................. Sharath Patel^# Bill Tapia .............................................................................................. William (Bill) Earl Ray*@~ Kurt ..................................................................................................... Dámaso Rodríguez~ Halima ................................................................................................. Zeina Salame Marcus ................................................................................................ Vin Shambry^*@ Alyssa .................................................................................................. Susan Soon He Stanton Emily ................................................................................................... Christina Uyeno DJ Solange ........................................................................................... Andrea Vernae^ Dad ..................................................................................................... Greg Watanabe*@ Mrs. Kobayashi ..................................................................................... Barbie Wu^+ Keoni/Jonathan/Franklin ..................................................................... Ken Yoshikawa@ CREATIVE TEAM AND CREW Playwright ............................................................................................ Susan Soon He Stanton Director................................................................................................ Dámaso Rodríguez~ Sound Designer ................................................................................... Sharath Patel^# Associate Director ............................................................................... Barbie Wu^+ Line Producer ...................................................................................... Kristen Mun^# Assistant Sound Designer ..................................................................... Leslie Crandell Dawes TIME: CURRENT RUN TIME: APPROXIMATELY 1 HOUR 46 MINUTES WITHOUT INTERMISSION The video and/or audio recording of this performance by any means is strictly prohibited. * Member of SAG/AFTRA % Member of SAG-E @ Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. Actors’ Equity Association, founded in 1913, represents mre than 49,000 actors and stage managers in the U.S. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions, providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. www.actorsequity.org Hg Member of ART Mercury Company + Actors’ Equity Association Candidate ~ Stage Directors & Choreographers Society ^ Artists Repertory Theatre Resident Artist # The scenic, costume, lighting, projections, and sound designers are represented by United Scenic Artists. This theatre operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatre and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. ARTISTSREP.ORG 3 “COULD THE FACT THAT THE ACTORS WERE AS DISCONNECTED FROM ONE ANOTHER AS THEIR CHARACTERS ACTUALLY REVEAL SOMETHING UNIQUE IN THE AUDIO-ONLY VERSION? ” ARTISTSREP.ORG 4 Alapai Lava by Photo DIRECTOR’S Note “Susan’s funny, honest, quirky, messy, and open-hearted play feels like a perfect note from which to look ahead toward a hope-filled summer” Today Is My Birthday by Susan Soon He Stanton video meeting platform created the environment for is the seventh and final release from this season’s communication, the audio you hear was captured on AudioART, Artists Repertory Theatre’s venture into each actor’s headset microphone and digital device. audio-only productions. Prompted to explore digital Following each take, the actors would label the files mediums by the shutdown of theatres across the and upload them to the online server. I offer immense world due to the Covid-19 pandemic, AudioART gratitude and appreciation to actor Christina Uyeno, features the work of Artists Rep’s Portland, Oregon- who appears in the play’s more than 50 scenes and based artistic company in collaboration with writers became an expert at the recording process while and performers from around the U.S. This production bringing the leading character of Emily to vivid features a cast of 23 actors from all over the country, life. I marvel at Sharath Patel’s work as sound who recorded their scenes from home during the designer—consider that he had to construct each most isolated winter months of the pandemic. scene as if the recordings were happening on one recording device. He creates the illusion of scenes While this disconnected recording process might “paced” in real time, when in reality there was likely be a diminishing factor on most plays, Today Is a “Zoom delay” during the actual recording session. My Birthday (which was originally produced Off- And I mustn’t forget the invisible work of Associate Broadway in 2017 at Page 73…“on stage” in a Director Barbie Wu, Line Producer Kristen Munn traditional theatre performance) utilizes the conceit and Producer Kristeen Willis who managed the, that every line of dialogue is a digital transmission: logistical matrix of the getting 23 actors in and cell phones, land lines, radio broadcasts, intercoms, out of the revolving door of the virtual recording Facetimes, etc.. The piece itself is about displacement studio from their computers in New York, Florida, and the search to find a location to connect. In the Oregon, California, and Hawaii—sometimes on original stage production, a cast of six played all the same day. 23 characters, which is thrilling in its own way! However, playwright Susan Soon He Stanton and I Thanks for listening in on this epic conference call! agreed in an early pandemic phone conversation of I hope you sense some of the joy and community we our own, that Today Is My Birthday might actually be felt while recording Today Is My Birthday during the well served by the chance to tell the story via a series anxious final months of 2020. As we can now envision of recordings. Could the fact that the actors were as an end to the pandemic and a return to in person disconnected from one another as their characters connection, Susan’s funny, honest, quirky, messy, and actually reveal something unique in the audio- open-hearted play feels like perfect note from which only version? Plus, in this age of budget-mandated to look ahead toward a hope-filled summer. small-cast theatre, Artists Rep’s audio version could create the piece with 23 distinct voices and provide Warmly, a rare opportunity to involve as many performers as possible in a way that would not be possible under non-pandemic production conditions. While seemingly simple, the production itself Dámaso represents