(Almost) Making Let's Eat Mary
Streaming This Winter - Date Coming Soon!
Streaming Link coming soon!
Access Chart
Digital Program coming soon!
Join Rotate Theatre for the one-night streaming event (Almost) Making Let's Eat Mary, a video featuring the cast and crew of what would have been the world premiere of Brooke Allen's stage play Let's Eat Mary.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered theatres across the country, the collaborators had already experienced months working on this unique production. In the video, the cast and crew offer audiences a window into a rehearsal process designed to center accessibility and sustainability, discuss Allen's delightfully biting feminist comedy, and share clips from remote rehearsals.
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Like many theatres, we're part of the Free Theatre Movement, using alternative ticketing and funding models to offer a significant number of free tickets to our productions, available regardless of demographics.
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This project was made possible through partnerships and generous support from many individuals and organizations, including: UW Theatre & Drama Graduate Student Org (Julie Vogt Open Stages), 4W Initiative, UW South Madison Partnership, UW Department of Theatre & Drama, UW Department of Gender & Women's Studies, Madison Public Library, UW Center for Culture, History, and Environment, UW Center for Research on Gender & Women, UW GLBT Alumni Council (Milo and Virgil's Fabulous Fund), Pivot Sewing Studio, and UW Division of the Arts.
The Play
Let's Eat Mary, a delightfully biting feminist comedy, finds the Pride and Prejudice siblings rowing up to a tiny desolate island on a quest to escape the patriarchy... or at least that's what Lizzie keeps going on about. Without connections to this new place, the sisters struggle to shed old expectations and soon wonder if they've made the right choice leaving everything behind. Perhaps removal and isolation can't provide what they seek... or maybe this whole ordeal is Mary's fault, she's the worst. Fast-paced and brushed with punk-rock, politics, and heart, Let's Eat Mary takes an absurd leap where Pride and Prejudice leaves off, bringing audiences, regardless of their familiarity with Jane Austen's original, on a hilarious ride satirizing our current state of affairs.
The Artists
Written by Brooke Allen, Directed by Richard Paro, Produced by Cyra K. Polizzi
Collaborating Artists: Huan-Hua Chye, Maria Cina, Jessica Dexter, Pamela Grant, Emily Hanson, Quanda Johnson, Mallory Lewis, Cakelin Marquardt, Molly Mattaini, Shaniqua "Nikko" Murphy, Rini Tarafder, Whitney Thompson
Production History
The world premiere of the stage play Let's Eat Mary was to perform at various locations in Madison, WI from May 15-31, 2020. To support the health of our communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, the culmination of Let's Eat Mary was reimagined as the video (Almost) Making Let's Eat Mary, part of Rotate Theatre's fully remote 20/21 season.
Prior to this (almost) world premiere production, the script was workshopped in Chicago, a fitting journey for a script by Allen who is Chicago-based and Wisconsin-raised. A staged reading in Chicago featuring an early draft of the script was directed by Breahan Eve Pautsch and featured Kirstin Franklin, Emjoy Gavino, Carmen Molina, Cyra K. Polizzi, Jillian Rea, Sadieh Rifai, and Bethany Thomas, with music by Allison Hendrix.