Mia Katigbak, co-founder and actor-manager of NAATCO, today announced that NAATCO will present remote live performances of the US Premiere of a new play by Caryl Churchill, What If If Only, realized by Les Waters and Jared Mezzocchi. The performances will stream Monday June 7th through Saturday June 12th nightly at 7:00 pm EST.
Ms Katigbak says that the play is a gift from
Les Waters who brought the play to her after asking
Caryl Churchill to allow NAATCO to present it with an all-Asian American cast. "Ms. Churchill, once again, has brilliantly written a short play that contains harrowing insights, big heartbreaks, oceans of loneliness and grief, stillness and transmutation. Not knowing when we could go back to live theatre again, I thought Les and
Jared Mezzocchi, with whom I worked on Russian Troll Farm, would make a perfect partnership to bring this incredible play to fruition."
Les Waters spoke of the opportunity to work with NAATCO after last year's project with the company, two Pinter one-acts he was to have directed, was cancelled due to the pandemic: "With every play, Caryl reinvents the question: what is a play? This play asks us what do we do when our loved one/partner dies? What could we have done that's different? What if What if What if. This is my opportunity to work with Caryl again. It's been 25 years since we did The Skriker at
The National Theatre. It is my opportunity to work with Jared and all the great artists at NAATCO."
Jared Mezzocchi adds: "This text is such a robust landscape of the mind that it lends itself so incredibly to this form and I'm inspired to witness it unlocking new universes for the virtual performance space. To share this rehearsal room with Les and the incredible team of artists through NAATCO, is truly a dream come true. I'm excited to grow as an artist and an experimenter with such a virtuosic team, unpacking a meticulously written piece of dream text."
What If If Only features
Paul Juhn (NAATCO's Henry VI, Richard II -
Classic Stage Company/Oregon Shakespeare, Good Person of Szechwan -
Foundry Theatre/Public Theater, Takarazuka!!! -
Clubbed Thumb),
Mia Katigbak (2019 Drama Desk Award winner; most recently: Russian Troll Farm, Human Resources - world premieres; The Headlands - LCT3, The Plot - Yale Rep, A Doll's House, Part 2 - Long Wharf Theatre),
Kylie Kuioka (Meet Me In St. Louis - Irish Rep, The King and I - National Tour),
Jon Norman Schneider (Vietgone - Alley Theatre, A Christmas Carol -
McCarter Theatre, NAATCO's Henry VI, The Oldest Boy -
Lincoln Center Theater), and
Bernard White (Nassim - Barrow Street Theatre, The Tempest - Public Theater, The Who & The What - LCT3, Blood and Gifts -
Lincoln Center Theater).
Alyssa K. Howard will be production stage manager; Jonathan Castanien will be assistant stage manager.
http://www.naatco.org/WIIO/
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