The Interrobang Theatre Company announces their return to Baltimore stages with the world premiere Here We Are written by Jen Diamond and directed by Interrobang's new Managing Director, Sean McComas. Amelia was the first female pilot to fly around the world. Now, she's dead. When she wakes up in the Underworld, she is forced by Death himself to confront the worst things about her time on Earth in order to forget them once and for all. Here We Are will feature Mani Yangilmau in the role of Amelia, David Brasington as Death, and Griffin DeLisle as Person Doll. Performances begin November 8 at Fells Point Corner Theatre.
Here We Are is a re-framing of Amelia Earhart's history through a feminist, contemporary lens, exploring how the men in Amelia's life tried their very best to keep Amelia down at every turn just because she was a woman who had big dreams. The story is told from Amelia's perspective and is inspired by real people and events from her life, with a healthy dose of artistic license and magical realism. Central themes exploring the power and destruction of patriarchal fear and Amelia's journey to overcoming that fear are what make the script so incredibly compelling.
Here We Are illustrates how important it is to allow and empower marginalized communities to tell their own stories, and explores what happens when those stories are lost to the narrative of white, male-dominated history and expectations. Amelia Earhart is a timeless symbol of female courage, tenacity, and ingenuity, and it is our hope that our audiences will recognize their own courage through her story of facing off with Death and discovering what it takes to make a place for herself in the world.
The play has a lengthy developmental history in Baltimore. In 2014, Diamond wrote Here We Are while earning her degree at Johns Hopkins University. In 2017, Interrobang produced a reading of Here We Are through Hanging With Interrobang, a monthly reading series featuring new full-length works-in-progress by local playwrights with facilitated feedback sessions to aid the playwright in further developing their work. Throughout the summer of 2019, Interrobang worked with Diamond to further develop and hone Here We Are. In August 2019, a new draft of the script was presented to a full house at the Kennedy Center's 18th Annual Page to Stage New Play Festival. Based on this reading, more edits were made to the script before the production started rehearsals at the end of September 2019. Performances of this latest draft begin November 8, 2019.
Here We Are is the first full production Interrobang has embarked on in nearly two years after a hiatus in 2018. We are excited to be back with a play very dear to our hearts by a phenomenal up-and-coming playwright.
It is Interrobang's mission to develop new, relevant, potent theatre that challenges the Baltimore community to explore new ideas and have new conversations. Interrobang has always been dedicated to the development of new plays since its inception in 2014. The company works to empower playwrights by providing as many resources and helpful eyes, ears, and voices as possible leading up to show time. Interrobang strives to educate themselves and their guest artists to better talk about work-in-development in a way that is supportive, nurturing, and collaborative.
Interrobang believes that Baltimore has the potential to become a vital hub in the contemporary theatre scene, and to do that, more folks need to be able to access the theatre that is happening here.
Here We Are is sponsored in part by Free Fall Baltimore. The first weekend of shows will be free to Baltimore audiences. Through Free Fall, we hope to engage with a new community of theatre-goers, and learn more about how to make our productions more accessible. Free Fall Baltimore is presented by BGE, and is a program of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
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