Sitting Shotgun Presents DAUGHTERS OF SOLOMON

Sitting Shotgun will close out the Fall 2018 Mainstage Season with daughters of Solomon, a new play by Mark Thomas Johnson, directed by Allie Marotta. Performances will take place November 26th - December 1st at SQUARE1 (885 Park Ave, Brooklyn, NY). The cast includes Alec Kirazian (Monk), Salomé Egas (Muse), Caroline Festa (Daughter 1), and Lesley Young (Daughter 2). Creative team includes Alex Church-Gonzales (Assistant Director, Costume Design), Jack McManus (Dramaturg), Stephanie Orta-Vazquez (Fight Choreography), Linnea Sumner (Makeup/FX Design), Joe Scardino (Light Design), TETRA (Graphic Design).

daughters of Solomon is a contemporary play, blending comedy and horror to create a surreal world of half-reality in which we find history creating itself. Musing on ideas of creation, destruction, and responsibility, Daughters of Solomon is a quick-paced jaunt leaving the audience wondering if that actually did just happen. Taking inspiration from Christian theology and chapter 119 of Moby-Dick, this piece asks the question, "How can we be responsible for the things we create?"

Director Allie Marotta's approach to the play seeks to highlight the cyclical nature of the world and the question at hand, using different methods of time keeping, with special focus on the hourglass, throughout the play. "The idea of creating things and then failing them happens all the time. We spoke a lot about parents always wanting a better life for their children than they had and how that becomes a cycle - always wanting to do better for your children than your parents did for you - we get stuck in that over and over again. It's like history repeating itself." This is not unlike the current socio-political climate, how can we be asked to fix something or to 'do better' in a system that is designed for us to fail? The same idea exists in the play, Marotta states, "The characters in this world are so desperate to do better than what was done to them, not realizing that they're all stuck in the same cycle, That's where the idea for the hourglass came from - time is running out and we still haven't fixed it. But that's because they can't, no matter what they do, they're stuck in this loop because that's the system in play." Although the play doesn't feature any additions to the world to allude to the systemic oppression of Trump's America, the feeling of trying to succeed while stuck in a system much larger than yourself is palpable.

Playwright Mark Thomas Johnson began the process of writing daughters of Solomon looking to explore mythos, or stories that hold significant truth or meaning for particular societies. These often include myths, legends, folklore, and arguably, the Bible. Specifically, Johnson sought to investigate "who creates it and how stories transition from fiction into something much larger." This quest led to a discovery and development of the play today, which Johnson describes as, "a story of parents and children, storytellers and characters, constantly at war with each other, doomed to an impossibly unbalanced relationship of power, all through the lens of the myths and legends that shape our collective consciousness." In light of the current propagandistic state of America, this focus on who tells the story and what aspects of it they choose to tell feels a little too real, evoking recollections of "fake news" and a certain presidential Twitter account. The struggle for ultimate truth and free thought in a society struggling with power and control is a story as old as time itself.

daughters of Solomon opens to preview November 26th and will perform at 8pm November 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, and at 8pm and 3pm on December 1st. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased online at https://solomon.brownpapertickets.com/ or at the door with cash or Venmo; purchasing tickets ahead of time is recommended as seating is limited. Please note the venue is not wheelchair accessible.

Sitting Shotgun is a theatre Production Company that aims to foster a diverse community of emerging artists, prioritizing equitable and intersectional theatre-making. With the intention of making space for artists to collaborate, create, share their practice, and expand their network, Sitting Shotgun seeks to fill a void in the emerging artist community, providing support and affordable opportunities for artists to pursue their craft and produce new work.

To post a comment, you must register and login.