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JOHN DESERVES TO DIE Full Length CAST: 4F, 2M SYNOPSIS: All is calm until theater department favorite Professor Daniel Holmes casts unassuming freshman Laura Vogel as Carol in his Spring production of David Mamet’s Oleanna. No one is less pleased than ambitious, fat sophomore Jen Barnett, who threatens to expose a secret that could turn lives and careers upside down. When fiery student reporter Andy Stark starts to follow leads for an explosive exposé, it is only a matter of time before dangerous truths come out. Art begins to imitate life as secrets unravel, masks come off, and classic texts are challenged. In this decidedly murderous exploration into the devilish intricacies of sex, power, consent, and gender politics in academia, three students take control in asking: If Carol was telling the story, wouldn’t John deserve to die? Production History: Production - Fresh Ink Theatre (Spring 2023) Reading - The Tank / First Kiss Theatre Company (Fall 2022) Workshop/Reading - Fresh Ink Theatre (Summer 2022) Partial Reading - First Kiss Theatre Company (Spring 2022) Development in Artist Residency - First Kiss Theatre Company (2022) |
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Reviews:
The Sleepless Critic: Fresh Ink Theatre’s searing and contemplative ‘JOHN DESERVES TO DIE’
"Gripping from the start, the show is a searing, darkly humorous, and multilayer production delivered with haunting and progressive conviction. It does not just grab attention as the cast occasionally breaks the fourth wall, but it is a careful and thorough analysis of how lines can blur between right and wrong."
Medium: The Bloody Utopia of JOHN DESERVES TO DIE at Fresh Ink Theatre
"Greene’s subject matter and theming already do plenty to bite back against the play within the play, but she deserves just as much props for the way she weaponizes prose against her targets. John Deserves to Die is loud, rich, raw, and detailed in such a way that it becomes an act of defiance against Oleanna’s stiltedness, repetition, and multitude of ellipses."
"John Deserves to Die builds a utopia for femme and fat bodies by mere virtue of existence. It gives both its characters and its audience the keys to an empty room and full clearance to scream as loud as they want."
New Play Exchange (selected)
"This feminist indictment of Oleanna, David Mamet, academic theatre, and fatphobic culture at large crackles with electricity and rage. The world preys on the insecurities of young women; it minimizes them, and more insidiously, makes them desire smallness. Rachel Greene creates a hall of mirrors where Oleanna, John Deserves To Die, and the metatheatrical perspective of audience itself blend in mind bending and dynamic ways. The female characters of JDTD are people, not archetypes. They aren’t written through the perspective of a man, or a woman writing for the male gaze. And that itself is revolutionary"
***
"A wonderful, sharp, ensemble-piece filled with nuanced and complex femme characters. It also contains a spectacular reading of "Oleanna" that everyone who thinks they're familiar with the play or who thinks it's actually "good art" should take a listen to. The constellations of relationships we see--Andy and Jen, Jen and Laura, Andy and Laura, Leah and Andy, and, of course, all of them and their prof--are all very specific and fleshed out. An important examination of male privilege and abuse in academia, rehearsal rooms, and the world at large, and of what it takes to start dismantling it."
***
"A play that interrogates not only David Mamet's work and legacy wonderfully well, but also the intersection of fat liberation and theatrical academia in skewering passion. A rollicking read and expose in and of itself!"
The Sleepless Critic: Fresh Ink Theatre’s searing and contemplative ‘JOHN DESERVES TO DIE’
"Gripping from the start, the show is a searing, darkly humorous, and multilayer production delivered with haunting and progressive conviction. It does not just grab attention as the cast occasionally breaks the fourth wall, but it is a careful and thorough analysis of how lines can blur between right and wrong."
Medium: The Bloody Utopia of JOHN DESERVES TO DIE at Fresh Ink Theatre
"Greene’s subject matter and theming already do plenty to bite back against the play within the play, but she deserves just as much props for the way she weaponizes prose against her targets. John Deserves to Die is loud, rich, raw, and detailed in such a way that it becomes an act of defiance against Oleanna’s stiltedness, repetition, and multitude of ellipses."
"John Deserves to Die builds a utopia for femme and fat bodies by mere virtue of existence. It gives both its characters and its audience the keys to an empty room and full clearance to scream as loud as they want."
New Play Exchange (selected)
"This feminist indictment of Oleanna, David Mamet, academic theatre, and fatphobic culture at large crackles with electricity and rage. The world preys on the insecurities of young women; it minimizes them, and more insidiously, makes them desire smallness. Rachel Greene creates a hall of mirrors where Oleanna, John Deserves To Die, and the metatheatrical perspective of audience itself blend in mind bending and dynamic ways. The female characters of JDTD are people, not archetypes. They aren’t written through the perspective of a man, or a woman writing for the male gaze. And that itself is revolutionary"
***
"A wonderful, sharp, ensemble-piece filled with nuanced and complex femme characters. It also contains a spectacular reading of "Oleanna" that everyone who thinks they're familiar with the play or who thinks it's actually "good art" should take a listen to. The constellations of relationships we see--Andy and Jen, Jen and Laura, Andy and Laura, Leah and Andy, and, of course, all of them and their prof--are all very specific and fleshed out. An important examination of male privilege and abuse in academia, rehearsal rooms, and the world at large, and of what it takes to start dismantling it."
***
"A play that interrogates not only David Mamet's work and legacy wonderfully well, but also the intersection of fat liberation and theatrical academia in skewering passion. A rollicking read and expose in and of itself!"
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XOXOLOLA Full Length CAST: 1F, 2M SYNOPSIS: Everyone has their secrets, including Lauren - a bookish English major by day, fat fetish camgirl by night. These worlds collide as romance sparks between Lauren and fellow classics-lover Simon, who meet studying Titus Andronicus in their Shakespeare class. The two dive into the play and discover the deep, world-altering nature of pain and trauma – even the fictional kind. In an analysis that borders on the supernatural, this decidedly femme horror play explores patriarchy’s morbid fascination with and fetishization of violence, fat bodies, and voiceless women. Production History: Production - LakeHouseRanchDotPng (Upcoming September 2023) |
Reviews:
Theatrical Musings
"A dark, daring, risqué, yet relevant and relatable play… Greene represents a fresh, bold voice in theater, unapologetically sticking up for those society may have cast aside."
"Hopefully, more theater companies will mount productions of XOXOLOLA. Certainly, it’s a meaty and riveting piece of theater with at least one plot twist."
New Play Exchange (selected)
"This play is both heady and visceral... Such a uniquely executed, focused, and powerful exploration of so much: the commodification of women's bodies, old as time expectations about women and how those expectations manifest themselves today, the duality of sex work and the ways it both provides and can inhabit power and agency, the male fixation with the "virgin"/"whore" dichotomy... The ending is particularly potent and poignant and the whole play provides the smartest insights into Titus Andronicus I've encountered!"
***
"With equal parts intellect and viscera, XOXOLOLA confronts our enduring cultural obsession with the virgin/whore trope and the physical and psychological toll it exacts. A primal scream of female rage."
***
"It's ambitious, raw, and a great addition to the pantheon of feminine horror, particularly in terms of how it (literally!) dissects the body as a physical form."
***
"Smart, tragic, brilliant. The twist in the end made my gasp in a coffee shop."
Theatrical Musings
"A dark, daring, risqué, yet relevant and relatable play… Greene represents a fresh, bold voice in theater, unapologetically sticking up for those society may have cast aside."
"Hopefully, more theater companies will mount productions of XOXOLOLA. Certainly, it’s a meaty and riveting piece of theater with at least one plot twist."
New Play Exchange (selected)
"This play is both heady and visceral... Such a uniquely executed, focused, and powerful exploration of so much: the commodification of women's bodies, old as time expectations about women and how those expectations manifest themselves today, the duality of sex work and the ways it both provides and can inhabit power and agency, the male fixation with the "virgin"/"whore" dichotomy... The ending is particularly potent and poignant and the whole play provides the smartest insights into Titus Andronicus I've encountered!"
***
"With equal parts intellect and viscera, XOXOLOLA confronts our enduring cultural obsession with the virgin/whore trope and the physical and psychological toll it exacts. A primal scream of female rage."
***
"It's ambitious, raw, and a great addition to the pantheon of feminine horror, particularly in terms of how it (literally!) dissects the body as a physical form."
***
"Smart, tragic, brilliant. The twist in the end made my gasp in a coffee shop."
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POWER PLAY Full Length CAST: 5F, 2M SYNOPSIS: When overachieving, agreeable, and undeniably fat undergrad Sarah gets cast to play historical sex symbol Helen of Troy in a student production, she and her peers are forced to confront their understandings of beauty, sex, and fatness. To make matters more complicated, a budding tension between Sarah and her on-stage love interest Chris begs the student actors to ask where the characters end and the real bodies begin. With a cast of all-too familiar characters, Power Play puts a magnifying glass to the underbelly of “liberal” and educational theatre-making and the bodies it continues to marginalize. Production History: Staged Reading - Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival (May 2023) Staged Reading - Artists' Theater of Boston (March 2022) Women’s Theatre Festival Finalist (2022) SheNYC Arts Festival Semi-Finalist (2022) |
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Reviews:
New Play Exchange (selected)
"...funny and full of heart and deeply relatable and bold, full of non-normative body virtuosity."
***
"...it's funny and dark and honest, and gives every character so much to do, allowing everyone to examine how we all participate in fatphobia. It's a play I wish had existed when I was in undergrad."
***
"The women's voices centered in this piece are nuanced and complex in their differing relationships with fatphobia and self-image, and Greene examines the ways cis-hetero-patriarchal society pits women against one another so frustratingly as obstacles to their own liberation."
***
"If you work with young actors, you very likely have some who need this play, the opportunities it presents, and what it is saying. Great scenes, great monologues, great moments, great roles for women.... great play."
New Play Exchange (selected)
"...funny and full of heart and deeply relatable and bold, full of non-normative body virtuosity."
***
"...it's funny and dark and honest, and gives every character so much to do, allowing everyone to examine how we all participate in fatphobia. It's a play I wish had existed when I was in undergrad."
***
"The women's voices centered in this piece are nuanced and complex in their differing relationships with fatphobia and self-image, and Greene examines the ways cis-hetero-patriarchal society pits women against one another so frustratingly as obstacles to their own liberation."
***
"If you work with young actors, you very likely have some who need this play, the opportunities it presents, and what it is saying. Great scenes, great monologues, great moments, great roles for women.... great play."
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MARGARET MY NAME
Full Length CAST: 2F, 3-4M SYNOPSIS: Margaret My Name is an explosive adaptation of Shakespeare's first tetralogy retold from the perspective of the oft-neglected and villainized Queen Margaret of Anjou. Most popular scholarship ignores Margaret entirely, or else dismiss her as a villain; scholar Harold Bloom goes as far as to call her “termagant,” “any actress’ nightmare,” and “a ghastly widow, for whom Shakespeare never could compose a decent line.” This adaptation strives to tell the gentle, proud, and ruthless Queen Margaret’s story in its entirety, and to explore the capacity of modern artists to reclaim classical narratives for the women who drive them forward. Read more about the development of Margaret My Name here. Production History: Production with Brandeis University Department of Theatre Arts (2020) Harold and Mimi Steinberg Prize for Best Original Play (2020) Highest Honors from Brandeis University (2020) |
