JAN 25 - MAY 15, 2021 25 - MAY JAN THE SECURELY CONFERRED, VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr. & Perf. Co. 7 DAUGHTERS OF EVE THTR. & PERF. CO. THE SECURELY CONFERRED VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Combining literary and dramatic narrative SIBYL KEMPSON JESS BARBAGALLO with eye-witness accounts of Sasquatch MUSIC AND SONGS BY INVOCATIONS encounters from the internet, THE GRAHAM REYNOLDS OCEANA JAMES SECURELY CONFERRED, VOUCHSAFED SOUND DESIGN, ORGINAL AUDIENCE PLANT KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. reinvents as many SCORING, MUSICAL DIRECTION, NATHAN LEMOINE versions of the Frankenstein author Mary AND SONIC STAGING CHRIS GIARMO ADDITIONAL MONSTER SOUNDS Shelley as there are definitions of the word BUDDY BLOBNER “Gothic.” CO-DIRECTED BY BRIAN MENDES PRE-SHOW CHATTER MAURINA LIOCE The second work of a diptych by 7 Daughters of Eve STAGE MANAGER ADRIENNE TRUSCOTT, Thtr. & Perf. Co., THE SECURELY CONFERRED, VOUCHSAFED OLIVIA O’BRIEN ROSEMARY QUINN KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. combines literary and dramatic AMANDA DAVIS & narrative with eye-witness internet reportage following PRODUCED BY NATALIE SMITH upon SASQUATCH RITUALS which premiered at The Kitchen AMANDA DAVIS ELLIOTT & FRANK CENNETOGLU NYC in 2018 and was developed and workshopped at LARYSSA, SHARYN & Abrons. Just as the piece spans several time periods STARRING MILO JACKSON HUSIAK and geographies, this new version sews together motley ANDREEA MINCIC & methods of performance making as conduced by the DEE DORCAS BEASNAEL AS AARON TREAT current limitations of our monstrous global moment. MAERY, CLARIE, AND FANNY BRIAN MENDES AS A string of financial, maternal, and familial misfortunes, THE MONSTER coinciding with the advent of electricity, causes Shelley— referred to in this production as Maery S.—to spawn a CHRIS GIARMO AS THE POET LB, monstrous creative expression, which, as technology will MRS. WILLS (OR “COOK”), do, takes on its own life and violent history. Maery, unable LEFT PEASANT MAID, AND to be an impartial witness to the changes unfolding in her THE DAEMONUS CERAMICI time, can’t help falling in love with her Monster, only to see it “collected” and imprisoned by charitable funding at a SIBYL KEMPSON AS THE LADY JANE WILLIAMS DORIS DUKE, mandatory artists’ residency. THE GHOST OF PERCY SHELLEY, AND RIGHT PEASANT THE SECURELY CONFERRED, VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. is a co-commission by Abrons Arts Center and the VICTOR MORALES & Chocolate Factory Theater. CRYSTAL WEI AS THE WITNESSES ABRONS ARTS CENTER 7 DAUGHTERS OF EVE THTR. & PERF. CO. THE SECURELY CONFERRED VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. ABOUT MAERY S. Jess Barbagallo is an actor/writer/adjunct. He is currently waiting to get through to the NYS Office of Unemployment. It is an honor to speak the words of Sibyl Kempson and to collaborate with his best friend of (almost) twenty years, Chris Giarmo. Dee Beasneal was nominated for Best Actress nominee for the French Syndicate of Theatre Award. Her work spans stage, voice over, and film. A proud member of 7 daughters of eve theatre company, Dee recently performed as Nina Simone in a touring French production, “Le Silence et la Peur.” Her theatre credits include “All Over Everywhere” (The Kitchen), “In the Solitude of The Cotton Fields” (Skirball Center/ Brooklyn Museum), ”12 shouts to the 10 Forgotten Heavens” (Whitney Museum of Art), “Police and Thieves” (Performance Garage); Film “Before the World Set On Fire”, “The Falling World” Voice Over: “Caillou” (French Market), Sorghum and Spear (PepSqually Productions), “Opal Watson Private Eye, (Pinna Originals); Kyle’s World, (Pinna Originals). Dee currently resides Brooklyn, New York where she has been enjoying copious amounts of baked goods and varieties of tea. Chris Giarmo is a performer, composer, and designer based in New Orleans, LA. He is resident composer of Tina Satter’s theater company, Half Straddle, having sound designed/scored most of their shows since 2008, including Ancient Lives, House of Dance, and Ghost Rings (co-composed with Erin Markey). Chris recently starred in David Byrne’s American Utopia, as a backing vocalist, dancer, dance & vocal captain, and choreographer of the marching-band-inspired “Burning Down the House.” The show toured the world in 2018 (with venues including Red Rocks Amphitheater, Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, and the O2 Arena in London), had a limited run on Broadway in 2019/20, and is currently a feature film on HBO, directed by Spike Lee. Chris has worked with American Utopia choreographer Annie-B Parson since 2005, performing with her company, Big Dance Theater, as well as assisting her on various projects, like David Lang’s the public domain, a 1000-person choral piece performed at Lincoln Center in 2016. He has also sound designed and created original compositions for the works of Jackie Sibblies-Drury, Jess Barbagallo, Faye Driscoll, Mac Wellman and Young Jean Lee and was a backing vocalist in Taylor Mac’s A 24-decade History of Popular Music. His solo music project is called Boys Don’t Fight and his alter-ego is anti-consumerist drag queen and YouTube beauty guru, Kimberly Clark. More info: chrisgiarmo.com ABRONS ARTS CENTER 7 DAUGHTERS OF EVE THTR. & PERF. CO. THE SECURELY CONFERRED VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. ABOUT MAERY S. Oceana James (b. St. Croix, USVI) is an interdisciplinary artist. Her work retells and re-imagines her Caribbean roots and American experiences. It comments on the socio-political, cultural & economic realities of people of African descent. Her research is centered on epigenetics, the biology and mythology of trees, the intersection of science and religion; and the use of the body to embody and then exorcise traumas of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Oceana has a MFA in theatre from Sarah Lawrence College (Bronxville, NY) and a Bachelor of Arts (BA, magna cum laude) in English Literature from the University of the Virgin Islands (St. Croix, USVI). Her recent solo piece For Gowie: The Deceitful Fellow was performed at Dixon Place (New York). Additionally, James is performing and serving as a consultant for Sibyl Kempson’s project 12 Shouts to the Ten Forgotten Heavens at The Whitney Museum (New York). James has worked with The Caribbean Community Theatre; Moving Women Ensemble Theatre; Per Ankh Inc.; St. Croix Sankofa for the Cultural Arts to name a few. She lives and works in Long Island, New York. Sibyl Kempson began making performances at Little Theater and Dixon Place at the turn of the millennium. She launched the 7 Daughters of Eve Thtr. & Perf. Co. in 2015 at the Martin E. Segal Center at the City University of New York. The company’s inaugural production, Let Us Now Praise Susan Sontag, premiered at Abrons Arts Center in NYC the same year. Big Dance Theater’s production of Kempson’s play, Ich, KürbisGeist, premiered at the Chocolate Factory Theater in 2012. Other works have been presented by the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, The Kitchen NYC, New York Live Arts, the Walker Art Center, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Performance Space 122 and New York Theatre Workshop. Kempson was a resident of New Dramatists class of ‘17. Kempson is the recipient of a 2018 PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for an American Playwright at Mid-Career. She is a four-time Mondo Cane! commissionee at Dixon Place in NYC. She is a 2014 USA Artists Rockefeller Fellow, a NYFA fellow, and a MacDowell Fellow. As a performer Kempson toured internationally with Nature Theater of Oklahoma, New York City Players and Elevator Repair Service from 2000 – 2011. Her plays are published by 53rd State Press, PLAY: Journal of Plays, and Performance & Art Journal (PAJ). Ugly Duckling Presse has just published “Invisible Horizon: A Religious Pamphlet.” Kempson teaches experimental performance writing at Sarah Lawrence College, Victoria College of the Arts/University of Melbourne, and through 7 Daughters of Eve. www.7daughtersofeve.com ABRONS ARTS CENTER 7 DAUGHTERS OF EVE THTR. & PERF. CO. THE SECURELY CONFERRED VOUCHSAFED KEEPSAKES OF MAERY S. ABOUT MAERY S. Brian Mendes: with Richard Maxwell and NYC Players-Police and Thieves, The Evening, Isolde, Saxophone (dir.) People without History (dir.) Ode to the Man Who Kneels, The Darkness of this Reading, Das Maedchen, The Frame, End of Reality, Joe, Henry IV. With Adam Rapp-Through the Yellow Hour and Animals and Plants. With Annie Baker-The Last of the Little Hours (at Sundance Theater Lab). With Tania Bruguerra-Endgame. With James Tyson and Gekidan Kaitaisha (Tokyo)-Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. With Sibyl Kempson -Crime or Emergency. Victor Morales, born in Venezuela, is a theater maker whose work includes video design, animation and digital puppetry. Since 2003, Victor has been obsessed with video game engines’ possibilities as an expressive tool for creating performance, film and interactive media. Most recently Olivia O’Brien served as Production Supervisor at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Select credits include Porgy and Bess at Spoleto Festival USA, Liz Lerman’s Healing Wars (Arena Stage, La Jolla Playhouse), White Plains Performing Arts Center, The Asolo Theater Company, Barrington Stage Co., PICT; Select NY credits: The Women’s Project, New Dramatists, The Water Dream (NYMF), Target Margin Theater Co.’s Mourning Becomes Electra, Uriel Acosta, and The Dinner Party, Jennifer Muller’s The White Room (Cedar Lake), Monte Muller Move! (New York Live Arts), Parallel Exit’s TimeStep (New Victory Theater). Olivia is an Associated Artist of Target Margin Theater Company. www.oliviaobrien.com Called “the quintessential modern composer” by the London Independent, Austin-based composer- bandleader-improviser Graham Reynolds creates, performs, and records music for film, tv, theater, dance, rock clubs, and concert halls, with collaborators ranging from Richard Linklater and Jack Black to DJ Spooky and Jeffrey Zeigler. His Creative Capital Award winning project, Pancho Villa from a Safe Distance, a bilingual cross-border opera created with librettists Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (Mexico City) and director Shawn Sides (Rude Mechs), has been staged in over a dozen cities in North America.