Dragon Theatre Kicks Off It's New 2019 Season With A Comedy By Lauren Gunderson

The Revolutionists is a comedic play about four women who lived boldly in France during the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. Playwright Olympe De Gouge, assassin Charlotte Corday, former queen Marie Antoinette, and Haitian rebel Marianne Angelle hang out, murder Marat, loose their heads and try to beat back the extremist insanity in 1793's Paris. What began as a hopeful revolution for the people of France and her colonies to address social and economic inequality is now sinking into hyper-violent extremist insanity. Part of the Main Stage Series.

Dragon's Main Stage Season kicks off with this fierce, funny look at some women who were written out of France's history. Managing Director Kimberly Wadycki says Meredith Hagedorn programmed this entire season as one of her last major responsibilities as our founder and Executive Artistic Director and she left us with one heck of a season. Meredith actually showed this script to me in 2017 when it was an early draft and I read it and immediately responded When can we do this play? We actually tried to secure the rights for her last season as artistic director and were denied, but given the recent political situation it feels incredibly timely to present it in this moment. Lauren's script is darkly funny and sheds some light on some very misunderstood or deliberately ignored women. And more importantly, the story is intersectional. Ms. Gunderson created the character of Marianne to represent the many women in Saint-Domingue, now called Haiti, who fought to abolish slavery on the island and gain the freedom they so richly deserved. It's a history I wasn't familiar with until I started doing research this play and it's a fascinating story of rebellion that's worth a read. But Ms. Gunderson's character is an excellent reminder that feminism isn't feminism unless it's intersectional and includes ALL women. Marie-Antoinette might be the most recognizable woman, but Marianne is the most pragmatic character in the whole play and watching these four different women you realize that these women are all flawed, struggle, hilarious, and fierce. They are stronger together than apart. As the ladies say, Liberte, Egalite, Sororite!

Director Caitlin Papp asks What would your brain be doing if it knew it had little time left? What thoughts would be running through it? What fantasy world would it create? Lauren Gunderson's play, The Revolutionists, shows what Olympe De Gouges, a French feminist playwright during the French Revolution, might have been creating in her mind as she faced Madame Guillotine. During the "Reign Of Terror," tens of thousands of men and women were confronted with a similar fate as hers. Their minds racing through their last moments before being quieted forever. This includes two other women in our play, Charlotte Corday, the assassin of radical French journalist Jean Paul Marat, and Marie Antoinette, the historically misunderstood queen of France. After their murders, Marat was made a martyr and Marie Antoinette was made the butt of many jokes (that cake thing was a lie brought up by those who hated her). And the reality is that it was quite easy to erase and malign these women from history.

The French National motto, that started during The Revolution, was "Libert , Egalit , Fraternit ." Just as the United States Thomas Jefferson was stating in the Declaration of Independence, That all Men are created Equal." Both of these nations at the birth of their Democracies had already forgotten their women in their pursuit for liberty and freedom. As I read the play, I was struck how history almost erased these women had it not been for a modern female playwright, Lauren Gunderson, writing these women back into our present conversation. Furthermore, Lauren includes a fictitious Freewoman named Marianne Angell, fighting for the abolition of slavery in what is today known as the country of Haiti. It is this voice that really makes clear for the audience the voice of women of color where few stories were physically written down, was purposely erased from history.

This is why I am so excited as a Director to shed light on these forgotten voices. The production team working behind the scenes created a world where these women could finally find their light, and show how universal their story still is. The design elements from the set design showing the guillotine always letting its presence known, never far away from her thoughts. And the sound of the clock ticking away her mortal hours. These elements are all to bring you into the mind of Olympe as she faces her mortality and her fear of being forgotten.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT: Lauren Gunderson is the 2016 winner of the Lanford Wilson Award, the 2014 winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play award and was a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for I and You. She is also one of the most produced playwrights in America (American Theatre Magazine, 2015). She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), The O'Neill, Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Geva and more. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, and Toil And Trouble) and Samuel French (Emilie). She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, and a proud Dramatists Guild member. She is from Atlanta, GA and lives in San Francisco. LaurenGunderson.com and @LalaTellsAStory on Twitter.

Featuring the talents of: Meredith Hagedorn (Marie Antoinette), Melissa Jones (Charlotte Corday), Maria Marquis (Olympe de Gouge), Jenafer Thompson (Marianne Angell)

Designers & Production Team: Caitlin Papp (Director), Chrissie Schwanhausser (Stage Manager), Karl Haller (Technical Director), Nathanael Card (Scenic Designer), Nathanael Card (Lighting Designer), Jacob Vorperian (Sound Designer), Kathleen Jenny-Spencer (Costume Designer), Beth Covey-Snedegar (Properties Designer), Maggie Ziomek (Graphic Designer)

Leave a voicemail at 650-493-2006 x 2 and your call will be returned within 2 business days. If you'd rather email, contact Ellie at tickets@dragonproductions.net. The Dragon Box Office is not staffed 7 days a week so there might be a delay in response. Buying tickets online at http://www.dragonproductions.net is the very best way to reserve a ticket in advance, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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