Posts Tagged Aimee K. Bryant

“Plotting” out Theatre

By on July 7, 2020   /   Featured, News, News Alert, Press Release  

PLOTTING OUT THEATRE DURING THE CORONAVIRUS INTERMISSION
PARK SQUARE ANNOUNCES NEW INTERACTIVE ONLINE MYSTERY

Media Contact – Connie Shaver shaver@parksquaretheatre.org

Saint Paul, Minn., June 23, 2020 – As theatres in Minnesota and around the country face an ongoing “intermission,” Park Square Theatre continues to create projects that keep audiences and artists connected. The latest is RIDDLE PUZZLE PLOT, an online interactive mystery written by acclaimed playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SUICIDE CLUB; SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ICE PALACE MURDERS), and directed by Warren C. Bowles (A RAISIN IN THE SUN; MY CHILDREN, MY AFRICA). The theatre would have been producing Hatcher’s play HOLMES AND WATSON on stage this summer, but rather than adapt an existing play that relies on stage tricks for a distanced production, this show is written expressly for the video chat medium. The story begins with an all-too-familiar premise: when a pandemic puts the kibosh on their annual summer scavenger hunt (as well as their acting gigs) a close-knit band of thespians take their game online.  But that is where the familiar ends. When someone winds up dead, the actors – and the audience – have to rush find the killer before the next life gets “disconnected.”  Full of secrets, clues and twisting plotlines the play will be a thrill for mystery lovers and theatre fans alike.

In a nod to classic mystery novels which were often serialized in magazines or newspapers, RIDDLE PUZZLE PLOT will be revealed in four episodes released weekly from July 24 –August 14. Audiences have the choice of streaming the episodes on their own schedule, or zooming in on Friday or Saturday nights for live introductions and post-play discussions (including hints to whodunit) with the cast and playwright, the episodes themselves being pre-recorded. One ticket will invite the ticketholder to all four episodes.

“Taking the summer mystery online in just a few weeks is a fun challenge,” notes Park Square’s executive director Michael-jon Pease. “We couldn’t have better partners than Jeffrey and Warren. Our core audience and new patrons around the country have been so engaged with our online productions – they keep pushing us to serve the mission in every way possible as we all endure the current health crisis.”

In May, Park Square released a Zoom-created production of THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK – acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal – as well as a virtual festival of scenes from plays that will eventually be on stage. A monthly online residency with THE MYSTERIOUS OLD RADIO LISTENING SOCIETY easily transitioned from on stage to online.

The cast for RIDDLE PUZZLE PLOT includes local theatrical favorites: Aimee K. Bryant (A RAISIN IN THE SUN; NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN); Alessandra Bongiardina (ROMEO AND JULIET); Sun Mee Chomet (AUBERGINE); Pearce Bunting* (HOLMES AND WATSON); Shanan Custer (2 Sugars, Room for Cream, SOMETIMES THERE’S WINE); Rodolfo Nieto; and E.J. Subkoviak* (THE RED BOX, MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD, OF MICE AND MEN).

The production team includes Aaron Fiskradatz (Zoom Technician) and Lizzie Streif* (Stage Manager) *member, actors’ equity association

MORE ABOUT JEFFREY HATCHER:
Jeffrey Hatcher is a local playwright and screenwriter, beloved for home-grown work like the musical GLENSHEEN, with music by Chan Pohling. He wrote the stage play Compleat Female Stage Beauty, which he later adapted into a screenplay. He also co-wrote the stage adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie with author Mitch Albom, and Three Viewings, a comedy consisting of three monologues – each of which takes place in a funeral home. He wrote the screenplay Casanova for director Lasse Hallström, as well as screenplays for The Duchess (2008); MR HOLMES (2015); and THE GOOD LIAR (2019). 

TICKET PRICES: All tickets $30.

Tickets are on sale at the www.parksquaretheatre.org.  
The ticket office is temporarily closed due to coronavirus. Please email tickets@parkquaretheatre.org with questions.

CALENDAR INFORMATION

Performances:

Friday Night Series: July 24, 31, Aug 7, 14 at 7:30 pm

Saturday Night Series: July 25, Aug 1, 8, 15 at 7:30 pm

Or streaming online through August 16.

Tickets: $30

Ticket office:  www.parksquaretheatre.org

PHOTOS available at https://www.parksquaretheatre.org/media/photos/

PARK SQUARE THEATRE. 20 W. Seventh Place, Saint Paul. Ticket Office: 651.291.7005. www.parksquaretheatre.org

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“Four Women” by Nina Simone

By on February 8, 2017   /   News  

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Written by Nina Simone, “Four Women” was released in 1966 on her album Wild is the Wind. The song has four verses to describe four African American women with different backgrounds and personalities.

In the play Nina Simone: Four Women by Christina Ham, which had its world premiere at Park Square Theatre last season to sold out crowds, the four women are played by Aimee K. Bryant as Sarah, Jamila Anderson as Saffronia, Traci Allen Shannon as Sweet Thing and Regina Williams as Nina Simone/Peaches. Don’t miss their powerful performance of “Four Women” and other Simone classics!  Don’t miss it this year, The run has just been extended through Sunday, March 5!

—

My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is woolly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
inflicted again and again
What do they call me
My name is AUNT SARAH
My name is Aunt Sarah

My skin is yellow
My hair is long
Between two worlds
I do belong
My father was rich and white
He forced my mother late one night
What do they call me
My name is SAFFRONIA
My name is Saffronia

My skin is tan
My hair is fine
My hips invite you
my mouth like wine
Whose little girl am I?
Anyone who has money to buy
What do they call me
My name is SWEET THING
My name is Sweet Thing

My skin is brown
my manner is tough
I’ll kill the first mother I see
my life has been too rough
I’m awfully bitter these days
because my parents were slaves
What do they call me
My name is PEACHES

—

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Back by popular demand, with added music!

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What’s Realistic?

By on September 12, 2016   /   News  

The Liar Rehearsal

All fabrications?

For the past weeks, I’ve been writing about a play in which everything seems fabricated. The title character is a compulsive liar, but just about every other character is also duping someone else. Of course, I’m referring to the comedy, The Liar, which is on Park Square Theatre’s Proscenium Stage until October 2. Yet, the fact that the play is a farce and, hence, a critique of real-life societal mores, begs the question: To what extent is the play not realistic?

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What will Jennifer and Bob Jones do?

In juxtaposition, on Park Square’s Boss Thrust Stage from September 23 to October 16 will be the play The Realistic Joneses, a comedy/drama in which we watch two couples, both with the last name of Jones and both neighbors to each other, cope with a progressively debilitating illness. Mortality is certainly a sobering notion throughout the production, and how the characters choose to face it is reflected in the play’s title. The term “realistic” suggests a no-nonsense, pragmatic approach to life; but how does this actually play out for those who must face a terminal illness? Well, by relying on a sense of humor, of course; but what more? I’ll let you find out for yourself!

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The talented cast of A Raisin in the Sun

Then from October 28 to November 20 on the Boss Stage, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun will make us ponder: How possible–how realistic–will it be for each member of the Youngers, a poor African-American family, to obtain his/her dream in a racially oppressive society?

Is the world the way Beneatha Younger claims it is to her beau Asagai: “Don’t you see there isn’t any real progress, Asagai, there is only one large circle that we march in, around and around, each of us with our own little picture in front of us–our own little mirage that we think is the future?”

Or is she mistaken, as Asagi counters: “What you just said–about the circle. It isn’t a circle….it is simply a long line–as in geometry, you know–one that curves into infinity. And because we cannot see the end, we also cannot see how it–changes. And it is very odd, but those who see the changes–who dream, who will not give up–are called idealists… and those who see only the circle–they call each other the ‘realists!'”

What an irony that theatre so often has the power to bring us closer to what is true to life–and that make believe opens the door to real self-discoveries.

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Plus Season Package Pricing:

Any 3 or more shows starting at $25 each

Any 6 shows starting at $142 total

All 13 shows starting at $294 total

(All “starting at” prices based on preview prices, standard seats.  Programs, dates and artists subject to change.)

NOTE:  All photographs in this blog were taken by Petronella J. Ystma.

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Tickets

The box office is currently closed. Please email tickets@parksquaretheatre.org with any questions.

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