Can tiny equal happy? World-premiere comedy TINY HOUSES explores this question beginning May 4 in the Shelterhouse Theatre as four young adults attempt to build a 200-square foot home. With support from The Rosenthal Family Foundation, season sponsor of new work, the play runs through June 2. Opening night is May 9.
Finding meaning through minimalism is easier said than done, as the characters in TINY HOUSES learn through a series of amusingly awkward missteps in their attempt to build a tiny house, which is constructed on stage over the course of the play.
"Whenever possible in the theatre, I like to see actors actually doing a thing instead of making a gesture toward doing the thing," explains award-winning playwright
Chelsea Marcantel. "Live theatre is the one entertainment avenue in which we really have the capacity to still be impressed and awed...to see an unexpected thing happening in real time in the same room we're in, that's truly wonderful."
With witty dialogue, colloquial language and references to digital behaviors and lifestyles, the play centers around Bodhi and Cath, a couple who has recently uprooted their lives, moving from New York to Oregon. They plan to build and move into a tiny house together in the backyard of Bodhi's friend, Ollie, who makes a living selling haunted dolls on eBay. Bodhi's childhood sweetheart, Jeyne, a YouTube star, and Jeremiah, a level-headed construction consultant, round out the millennial cast of characters.
"I think there's a real millennial spirit around what qualifies as work for the characters. They're all disillusioned with white-collar "real" jobs - sitting in an office 40 hours a week pushing paper and not really making or moving anything that feels tangible," said Marcantel. "There's a glorification and yearning for manual labor, for meaningful work, that I think a lot of people of this generation feel. There's also the constant consultation of and comparison to people on social media and the internet that's a brand-new twist for millennials."
In 2018, Marcantel received the M. Elizabeth Osborn New Play Award from the American Theatre Critics Association for her contemporary comedy, Airness. The award recognizes notable, emerging playwrights, and it is presented at the Humana Festival of New Plays. Marcantel was also recently inducted as a member of the Kilroys, a collective of playwrights, performers, producers and directors who advocate for the voices of female, trans and non-binary playwrights.
TINY HOUSES is a co-production with
Cleveland Play House and will be directed by
Cleveland Play House's Artistic Director Laura Kepley, who grew up in Cincinnati.
For more information on TINY HOUSES, click
here.
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