LAFPI

The Woman Who Went to Space as a Man: a new experimental play with songs about the secret life of writer Alice B. Sheldon,  co-produced by Son of Semele

Written and Directed by Maureen Huskey

Part fact, part fever dream, and part musical, this captivating new work opens with Alice B. Sheldon – better known to sci-fi aficionados as author James Tiptree, Jr. – contemplating suicide. Dodging in and out of reality, the play, with a bold musical score, investigates gender, longing and creativity as self-exploration through one of the Science Fiction world’s greatest literary tricksters. Sheldon was most notable for breaking down the barriers between writing perceived as inherently ‘male’ or ‘female’ and it was not publicly known until 1977 that Tiptree was, in fact, a woman.

Music by Yuval Ron
Music Directed by Richard An
Starring Kamar Elliott, Anneliese Euler, James Ferrero, Emma Zakes Green, Betsy Moore, Nathan Nonhoff, Robert Paterno, Isabella Ramacciotti, Paula Rebelo, Megan Rippey, Ashley Steed, Alex Wells

The Woman Who Went to Space as a Man has universal and topical resonance as it deals directly with the repression of women, of gender/sexual orientation, depression and the search for hope. It also brings science fiction — a form that was long marginalized — to the center stage and shows how Alice B. Sheldon used science fiction to address issues that plague humanity such as genocide, ecocide and racism. The play experiments with form, episodic storytelling, shifting time and vacillating between inner and outer realities. It is interwoven with one of Tiptree’s short stories to frame the telling of Sheldon’s life.

Maureen Huskey writes, adapts and directs for theater and opera. She began her career in New York City collaborating with avant-garde artists in NYC’s thriving downtown experimental theater world. Now based in Pasadena CA, her directed stage works have been presented in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vienna, Austria, and Vancouver. She has received a Princess Grace Honoraria Award, a Bessie Award (NYC), and her shows have received nominations from the NAACP and OVATION AWARDS among other accolades. Huskey has received numerous grant awards and residencies for her work including the Creative Capital Award and the Voice & Vision’s ENVISION grant for women artists (NYC). She co-founded Red Dive, a vanguard company in the site-specific and immersive theater movement in NYC which she directed until 2006. She holds a BA in Theater and Communications from Western State Colorado University, a Diploma in Dramatic Playwriting with Merit from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England as a Rotary Scholar, and a MFA in Theater Direction from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Huskey has taught and guest directed at CalArts, College of the Canyons and Long Beach State University.

PERFORMANCES:
• Tuesday at 7 p.m.: Oct. 30; Nov. 6, 13
• Fridays at 8 p.m.: Nov. 2, 9, 16
• Saturdays at 8 p.m.: Oct. 27 (opening night); Nov. 3, 10, 17
• Sundays at 5 p.m.: Oct. 28; Nov. 4, 11, 18

More Info: www.sonofsemele.org or [email protected]
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