SPRING ’25

MARK CASERTA
LAUREN EDSON
OLIVIER WEVERS

 

May 9 – 17, 2025
CORNISH PLAYHOUSE

Founder & Artistic Director: Olivier Wevers
Interim Executive Director: Mink Boyce
Company Manager/Director of Education: Karl Watson
Production Stage Manager: Becca Blackwell
Lighting Designer: Michael Mazzola
Operations Manager: Amanda Eaker
Audience Services Manager: Hedy Davis

Rituals for the Mother

Choreography: Olivier Wevers
Dancers: Jacob Beasley, Owen Fulton, Stella Jacobs, Aliya Janov, Daeyana Moss, Ashley Rivette, Kyle Sangil
Original Composition: Philip Daniel
Costumes: Olivier Wevers

CHAMP

Choreography: Mark Caserta
Dancers: Jacob Beasley, Owen Fulton, Stella Jacobs, Aliya Janov, Daeyana Moss, Ashley Rivette, Kyle Sangil
Sound: slowdanger
Set & Costumes: Mark Caserta

Content advisory: contains depictions of sexual intimacy and violence.

My Strange Darling

Choreography: Lauren Edson
Dancers: Jacob Beasley, Owen Fulton, Stella Jacobs, Aliya Janov, Daeyana Moss, Ashley Rivette, Kyle Sangil
Puppet: Jessica Nebeker
Music: Andrew Stensaas
Additional musics: Boudleaux Bryant, Bobby Vinton
Costumes: Lauren Edson

RUNNING TIMES

(in minutes)

Program 103 min

Rituals for the Mother

 22 min
INTERMISSION 15 min

CHAMP

 23 min
INTERMISSION 15 min

My Strange Darling

 28 min
Program 103

Rituals for the Mother

 22
INTERMISSION 15

CHAMP

 23
INTERMISSION 15

My Strange Darling

 

 28

CHOREOGRAPHER’S NOTES

Rituals for the Mother

“Rituals for the Mother” looks to the quiet choices that shape a life, the recurring gestures of devotion, care, and endurance which transform us. In our ego-centered world we shy away from contemplating the divine. But the everyday choices we make can become rituals of continuing discovery. Through these ordinary life rituals, through community, through moments of reckoning and grace, we can find a way forward—not by escaping, but by truly facing ourselves, taking responsibility for the marks we leave behind and stepping fully into who we are and the divine within us.

Notes by Victoria Farr Brown

CHAMP

“CHAMP” is a commentary on society’s stagnant view of gender, identity, sexuality, and the hatred towards anything and anyone “different.” Using themes of sports culture and (toxic) masculine energy, Mark holds a mirror to the ways, often invisible from the outside, that sexual repression, internalized homophobia and the desire to be a part of something affect us. The sports “team” mirror also reflects how we realize our collectiveness and unity despite our individuality. At its core, it is an outcry for empathy, compassion and a yearning to love and be loved in return.
 
Notes by Victoria Farr Brown
 

My Strange Darling

“My Strange Darling” emerged from my contemplation of the technological frontier we now inhabit: a landscape that is as thrilling as it is unsettling. In creating this piece, I was drawn to the space between signal and silence: the internal pause where the longing for connection quietly lives. “My Strange Darling” explores the hollow hum beneath this rapid advancement, asking: What do we reach for when the world feels both close and distant at once?
 
Notes by Lauren Edson
 

POST SHOW
Q & A

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Stay after the performance for a Q&A session with the artists of Whim W’Him!

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