Test Flight Week #3: How to Live in a House on Fire
Written, Directed and Produced by Kari Barclay
March 21, 2024 - March 23, 2024
7:00pm, Thu/Fri/Sat, James Levin Theatre.
EVERY TICKET is “Choose What You Pay” and will be offered online, over the phone, and at the Box Office. (Advanced online e-ticket purchases are recommended to avoid long lines at the box office window the day of the show.)
It’s 2020 in Berkeley, California, and wildfires are raging. As a gay couple prepares to evacuate, they decide what from the 50 years of their relationship to take with them and what to leave behind. Their preparations take them back to the night they met in a queer commune in Berkeley in radical 1970, when other fires raged through the community and they dared to dream of a better future.
With sincerity and hope, this new play looks to queer history as a lens through which to understand our current moment of climate grief. How do we care for each other in times of crisis? In the words of Tennessee Williams: "We live in a perpetually burning building, and what we must save from it, all the time, is love."
Featuring: Angel Valenzuela, Assad Khaishgi, Keith Kornajcik, Lil Craig of 2Reel, Nick Eaton, and Robert Masseria
Content Warning: This play contains sexually explicit language, workplace homophobia, alcohol and marijuana use, discussions of police violence, and depictions of wildfire destruction. These allow us to show joy and grief side-by-side in the characters' lives.
COVID-CONSCIOUS THURSDAYS: Masks are required for these performances. Click here for more info.
Content Warning: This production contains sexually explicit language, workplace homophobia, alcohol and marijuana use, discussions of police violence, and depictions of wildfire destruction. These allow us to show joy and grief side-by-side in the characters’ lives.
The James Levin Theatre is ADA-compliant featuring a patron elevator and an all-gender, wheelchair-accessible restroom.
The Creative Production Team Includes:
Rehearsal Stage Manager: Kate Smith
Sound and Scenic Designer: Alejandro Martinez
Dramaturg and Research Assistant: Paulette Maher
Intimacy Director: Julia Fisher
Intimacy Assistant: Nicole Sumlin
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Kari Barclay (they/them) is a writer, director, and researcher who serves as Assistant Professor of Theater at Oberlin College. They are glad to be back at Cleveland Public Theatre after directing Tania Benites’s Alter in February 2023. They have staged productions regionally and in New York with Ars Nova, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, MirrorBox Theater, and Stanford University. Their original play Can I Hold You? was one of the first full-length pieces about asexual identity performed in the U.S. and enjoyed a sold-out run in San Francisco and workshop in New York. Their play Stonewallin’ was winner of the So.Queer Playwriting Festival and premiered in Richmond, VA in winter 2022. As a scholar and educator, Kari writes about consent-based and trauma-informed approaches to performance, known as intimacy choreography. Their book Directing Desire was published through Palgrave Macmillan in October 2023. kari-barclay.com.
ABOUT TEST FLIGHT
Test Flight is a multi-week series that showcases new work on its way to full production. This popular event provides local and national artists with the keys to the theatre and opportunity to co-produce original works-in-progress. The series encourages risk-taking and entrepreneurial spirit towards creating. New Play Development.
Recent successes include Our Lady of Common Sorrows (fall 2023), Alter by Tania Benites (produced in early 2024). Each of these were developed in Test Flight 2023.
