Tag: Cristina Todesco

MRT’s ‘Kween’ Finds Light in a Dark World

Theater Mirror1 Comment
Brittani J. McBride, Ray K. Soeun and Pichanny Som in MRT’s ‘Kween’

‘Kween’ (world premiere), by Vichet Chum; Direction by Pirronne Yousefzadeh; Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco; Costume Design by Yao Chen; Lighting Design by Brian J. Lilienthal; Sound Design by David Remedios; Projection Design by Camilla Tassi; Stage Managed by Brian M. Robillard; Produced by Merrimack Repertory Theater in Lowell, MA. Runs through March 15. 

By Liana Chow

Kween is a gorgeous new one-act play by Vichet Chum, written for Merrimack Repertory Theater and harmoniously directed by Pirronne Yousefzadeh. Set in the present day and focusing on Cambodian American characters in Lowell, “Kween” reflects back to its audience the beauty that can be found in their community. Commissioned a few years ago during a surge of I.C.E. detentions and deportations, the play is premiering during another terrifying moment for immigrants and refugees that mirrors America’s apparent determination to repeat its long history of deportation and detention. Kween is a salve for despair because it makes a case for the everyday strength and wisdom of the younger generations, the millennial and Gen-Z children of diasporas.

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Speakeasy’s Chilling ‘The Children’ Asks the Hard Questions

Julie-Anne WhitneyLeave a comment
(Tyrees Allen, Paula Plum, and Karen MacDonald in Speakeasy Stage’s ‘The Children’ – Photos by Maggie Hall Photography)

By Julie-Anne Whitney

‘The Children’ Written by Lucy Kirkwood; Directed by Bryn Boice; Scenic Design by Cristina Todesco; Costume Design by Rachel Padula-Shufelt; Lighting Design by Jeff Adelberg; Sound Design by David Remedios; Stage managed by Rachel Sturm. Produced by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the BCA Calderwood Pavilion through March 28, 2020.

Inspired by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident in Eastern Japan – started by an earthquake which caused a tsunami that led to the death of 19,000 people – Lucy Kirkwood’s Tony-nominated play The Children is a blistering commentary on the global environmental devastation caused by human progress and development.

Hazel (Paula Plum) and her husband, Robin (Tyrees Allen), are nuclear physicists who have relocated to a dilapidated cottage just outside the exclusion zone of the local nuclear power plant. The recent “disaster” at the plant forced them to abandon their family home and into early retirement. When their former colleague, Rose (Karen MacDonald), shows up unannounced, the lifeless cottage is suddenly filled with tension, jealousy, and intrigue. 

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