- How did this project come to you? RIDE was selected by Jobsite’s artistic associates for this season before I joined them. I do know that it was presented by an actor who felt strongly about the themes and relationships depicted in the play. I have spoken with this actor and she and I have very similar takes on the work.
- With this show, do you feel like there are any new and interesting hurdles for you?The show is set in 1983, St. Louis. So, for me, I had to go back to that time in my memory. It’s interesting, because I would have been quite a bit younger than the characters in the show, I was old enough to be cognizant of the world situations of the time and yet can remember the hopefulness of youth that I can also see in these characters. The precipice of possibility and the very real chance of failure existed in the 1980’s. And I have a great partner in the project- our dramaturg, Tatiana Baccari.
- Tell us about the selection of this, all female cast, play? And woman playwright! Because of its strong female identifying base, the play can truly go in a direction of an intimacy- a sacred feminine-ness. An unspoken bond and a personal power for each character is able to be let out in a safe, true place. It’s very visible in this piece.
- How do you feel about the characters portrayed in the play?I love what they have to teach me about my own relationships, what/who is important and the risk of being genuinely oneself. The alternate freedom and fear that is true for all of us.
- What would you say are some of the challenges in bringing this show, set in 1983, to the stage?Recalling the world stage of the late 1980’s, the realities of women’s lives vis-a-vis social mores, the era’s progression in the strive for equality, and the “new” idea that women could live fulfilling, self- realized lives, and where we were in the evolution of queer life in the USA, particularly for queer women- and, because of the setting of St. Louis, how all the above elements translated themselves in the Midwest at that time.
"Dr. Ride's American Beach House" By Liza Birkenmeier plays Oct. 1 – 10, 2021 Preview Performances: Sep. 29 – 30 Jaeb Theater, Straz Center for the Performing Arts
