Theater Department to stage "Polaroid Stories"
The cast of Polaroid Stories: Woodrow Proctor
’16, (left), Matt Beckstrom ’16, Connor Gleason
’14, Callan Suozzi-Rearic ’14, Clara Moser ’17,
Xavier Hatten ’14, Kat Rodriguez ’15, Alison
Schaufler ’14, Daniella Deutsch ’17, Jomack
Miranda ’16. (Photo by Emma Mohrmann ’14)
The Skidmore Department of Theater will present Polaroid Stories by Naomi Iizuka as its fall black box production.
Directed by Eunice Ferreira, the production is scheduled from Thursday, Oct. 24, to
Thursday, Oct. 30. Show time is 8 p.m., except for a Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.
A visceral blend of classical mythology and real-life stories told by street kids,
Polaroid Stories journeys into a dangerous world where myth-making fulfills a fierce need for transcendence,
where storytelling has the power to transform a reality in which characters' lives
are continually threatened, devalued and effaced. Inspired in part by Ovid's Metamorphoses and informed, as well, by interviews with young prostitutes and street kids, Polaroid Stories conveys a whirlwind of psychic disturbance, confusion and longing. Like their mythic
counterparts, these modern-day mortals are engulfed by needs that burn and consume.
Their language mixes poetry and profanity, imbuing the play with lyricism and great
theatrical force.
In a 2003 review, Peter Marks wrote in The Washington Post: “The notion of author Naomi Iizuka in her mid-1990s work was to adapt Ovid's Metamorphoses to the mean-streets lingo of throwaway American teenagers, linking their tales of
abandonment, love and hedonism in a loose string of profanity-laden vignettes….
Iizuka's characters were inspired by portraits of homeless teens taken by a photographer in California, and by the fantasies the kids were prone to spin, which struck the playwright as being akin to Greek and Roman myth. "Polaroid Stories" assigns to the characters the traits of mythological figures, and some of Iizuka's inventions are deft. Her Narcissus, for example, is now a self-infatuated gay hustler; her Echo an insecure young groupie who parrots anyone she gloms onto.”
This production is for mature audiences due to extreme profanity and violence.
Seating is very limited, so reservations are a must. Contact the Skidmore Theater Box Office at (518) 580-5439 or via email. Tickets are $12 general admission and $8 for students and senior citizens.
