THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP BY LUCY ALIBAR DIRECTED BY RYAN RILETTE ROUND HOUSE’S LEADERSHIP From NE OF THE KEY IDEAS THAT DRIVES OUR PROGRAMMING CHOICES As you watch Throw Me On the Burnpile and Light Me Up, we encourage you O at Round House is to produce plays written by and about people who have to consider the ways that we as a society discard those who have the least. Daddy been historically underrepresented or misrepresented on American stages. Throw Me asks Lamby where all the educated people were when things were being turned into on the Burnpile and Light Me Up is no different. White people from the South may not trash. It’s a question we should all grapple with. We hope that this production helps seem to fit that description, but rarely have white rural poverty and the violence and you to do so. fear that accompany it been seen on American stages with the clarity depicted here. At the same time, this is a frequently hilarious play that also underlines the joy This is a play about “Southern white trash.” We use the word “trash” here, despite its that Lamby’s finds in herself, her family, and her friends. It’s a theme that carries racist and classist derogatory meaning, because it’s a word that playwright Lucy Alibar over into our next show, which wraps up our spring virtual season. While it may uses throughout this semi-autobiographical, one-woman play. In the world of this play, seem counterintuitive to present a play titled We’re Gonna Die in the midst of a global the trash of history is literally seeping up through the ground, and, together with the pandemic, Young Jean Lee’s musical play is a perfect antidote for our time. We hope trash of lives lost to the criminal justice system, is collected in a giant trash pile in the you will join us for this one-woman show, performed with a four-person band, which playwright’s yard. “Trash” is also the term given to the criminals Daddy represents, to finds joy and comfort in life’s inanities and inevitabilities. Daddy himself as well as his family for consorting with them, and to the poorest and Stay tuned for information about our return to live performance this fall. As always, most vulnerable students in Lamby’s school. It’s an all-purpose word that’s used to the safety of our audiences, artists, and staff will remain paramount. Thank you for describe anyone and anything we throw away in our society. being a part of keeping Round House thriving through the pandemic. We remain In describing to Lamby why he represents killers on death row, Daddy tells the story of extraordinarily grateful. one of his clients who was treated like trash his whole life—too poor to get the mental help he needed, never educated, given drugs at an early age. Daddy says, “They just leave him out there, hoping he’ll run off to the woods and die. Well, surprise! They do run off to the woods and die, eventually, but not before taking a hell of a lot more RYAN RILETTE | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ED ZAKRESKI | MANAGING DIRECTOR people with them.” It’s partly our fault as a society that this man has turned into a killer, Daddy is saying. If the system was set up to take care of those most in need instead of discarding them, then perhaps he wouldn’t have committed the horrible atrocities that he did. 1 ROUND HOUSE THEATRE EXTENDS ITS ROUND HOUSE THEATRE DEEP GRATITUDE TO ALL OF OUR RYAN RILETTE, Artistic Director, and SPONSORS FOR THE 2020-2021 VIRTUAL SEASON ED ZAKRESKI , Managing Director PRESENT Round House Theatre’s 2020-2021 Reimagined Virtual Season is sponsored by THROW ME ON THE MITCH & HEIDI DUPLER LINDA RAVDIN & DON SHAPERO BURNPILE THE ZICKLER FAMILY AND LIGHT ME UP BY LUCY ALIBAR DIRECTED BY RYAN RILETTE It is my great pleasure to sponsor Round House Theatre’s production of Throw Me on the Burnpile and Light Me Up. I first experienced Lucy Alibar’s distinctive voice and powerful storytelling through her Oscar-nominated screenplay for Beasts of the Southern Wild, and was moved by her ability to tell complex stories with the clarity of a child’s mind. I am CREATIVE TEAM honored to help bring this remarkable talent to Scenic Designer . PAIGE HATHAWAY the Round House stage.” Costume Designer . IVANIA STACK Lighting Designer . HAROLD F. BURGESS II —NAN BECKLEY Sound Design & Original Music . MATTHEW M. NIELSON Dialect Coach . MELISSA FLAIM Dramaturg . NAYSAN MOJGANI During a year in which our ‘normal’ Assistant Scenic Designer . ANDREW COHEN interactions were upended, Throw Me on the Production Stage Manager . CHE WERNSMAN* Burnpile and Light Me Up offers an opportunity Director of Photography . MABOUD EBRAHIMZADEH to examine how we perceive of and connect with others. We are honored to help bring this comedic yet moving story to the Round House stage, and we offer our heartfelt thanks to all Running Time approximately 95 minutes with no intermission. of those who have supported Round House, the theatrical jewel of Bethesda, throughout this challenging time. We look forward to gathering Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre, Michael Ritchie, Artistic Director, produced the World Premiere of Throw Me on the at the theatre again as soon as we are able." Burnpile and Light Me Up in Los Angeles, CA in 2016. —PATTI AND JERRY SOWALSKY Produced by LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater, New York City in 2018. 2 A CAST CONVERSATION Lamby . BETH HYLTON* WITH PRODUCTION Production Technical Director . JOSE ABRAHAM LUCY ALIBAR, Props Coordinator . MATT SAXTON Location Audio . MATTHEW M. NIELSON PLAYWRIGHT Camera Operators . JOHN GROVE, NATE PESCE Electrician / Light NAYSAN MOJGANI: I know that this play is Board Programmer . CASSANDRA SAULSKI a work of fiction, but is it fair to say that it’s inspired Production Assistant . NIEW BHARYAGUNTRA by your own childhood? LUCY ALIBAR: I drew on experiences from POST PRODUCTION my own life, which I think many writers do. Russel T. Editor . MABOUD EBRAHIMZADEH Davies wrote this incredible show, It’s a Sin, and for Sound Editing & Mix . MATTHEW M. NIELSON me this play lives in that same sphere. Drawn from memory, trying to work from the perspective that a very young person had at a turbulent time without trying too hard to comment on it. Full staff listing on page 12 N: And then there are some parallels between you and Lamby in the play, as well as between your father and hers, yes? L: There’s definitely similarities between myself and Lamby. I was very lonely, very desperate for friends, The Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designers of this production and I was just so weird. And in this play, I tried to are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE. focus on my perception of my father that I had at nine years old. The father in the play certainly has some of mine’s better aspects. Their senses of humor are very similar. N: And they’re both rural defense lawyers. L: Yeah. With my dad’s work, I saw up close the *Actors’ Equity Association (“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. failings of the criminal justice system, the healthcare labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential system… I saw how they let people down. component of society and advances the careers of its members by N: Thinking about your work in general—Beasts of negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity the Southern Wild, Troop Zero—that father-daughter is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international relationship seems like a story you keep coming back organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks to, as does the relationship to the South. Why is that? What do you find so compelling in those stories? L: The simplest answer is, I’m from the South, so 3 IN DEFENSE OF DEFENSE BY NAYSAN MOJGANI N THROW ME ON THE BURNPILE AND LIGHT ME UP, LAMBY’S FATHER IS a lawyer whom we mostly see defending the people nobody else wants to defend: I those who have committed heinous crimes and don’t have the money to hire anybody else. Others in town scorn both Lamby and her father as a result, asking how he could defend such actions. After Lamby sees the crime scene photos from one of these cases, she asks her father the same question. “I’m defending Gary Dwayne Atkins. I’m not defending A vindictive voice what he did. I’m not trying to prove he’s innocent. inside us whispers He doesn’t have anybody else, Boss. And I took an “that they’re just that’s very familiar territory and tends to be my default. But I also think you write oath to defend this guy when I took an oath to defend as bad as their about the things that you can’t understand, the things that keep you up at night. the United States Constitution. And we have a good There’s not a clear road map for father-daughter stories. In every generation, the Constitution that says no matter how sorry a piece of clients, that they’re role of the father is remarkably different. The expectations are different. And family trash you are, you deserve a defender.