written and directed by Nancy Keystone
created in collaboration with Critical Mass Performance Group
Mariology
October 27 – November 12, 2023
Alan Page Auditorium | Mixed Blood Firehouse
In a mythical 5th grade classroom, lessons give way to fantasy and rebellion in a rambunctious spectacle of music, text, movement, and image.
Mariology deconstructs deep-seeded learning to inspire imagination about the Virgin Mary’s roles in systems of gender, power, and faith, opening the many possibilities for liberation.
The performance runs about 90 minutes, without an intermission.
Content Advisory: Please be advised the performance includes use of sudden loud sounds. Thematic elements include religious and medical trauma, self-harm, and sexual assault.
- Captioning provided at every performance
- Assisted Listening Devices available upon request at every performance
- ASL interpretation | November 11
- Recorded Audio Description | November 1-12
- Live Audio Description | November 10
- Masks required | October 28, November 3, and November 12
If you need assistance with transportation to and from the theatre,
Email boxoffice@mixedblood.com with this or any other any access requests.
Join us for Salons and Post-show Discussions to further unpack the themes of Mariology after select performances
- Post-show discussions | Nov 3, 10, & 11
- Salons | Oct 29 & Nov 5
Mixed Blood is a social justice organization catalyzing action and change through art. Our work is guided by deep community engagement and rooted in Radical Hospitality. We eliminate barriers that prevent people from participating due to lack of resources, racism, physical accessibility, gender discrimination, or other barriers.
Mixed Blood provides tickets at no cost. Donations are welcomed to ensure continued programming.
Credits
MARIOLOGY
written and directed by Nancy Keystone
created in collaboration with Critical Mass Performance Group
Music and sound design by Randy Tico
PERFORMERS
Gabriela Bonet
Fran De Leon*
Russel Edge
Amir Levi*
Paul Outlaw
Valerie Spencer*
*denotes a member of the Actor’s Equity Association
PRODUCTION
Writer/Director/Scenic Designer: Nancy Keystone
Production Stage Manager: Stacy McIntosh
Los Angeles Stage Manager: MJ Adamson
Costume Designer: Lena Sands
Lighting Designer: Elizabeth Harper
Composer/Sound Designer: Randall Tico
Properties Designers: Atria Pirouzmand, Ali Roustaei
Scenic Chalk Drawings/Lobby Installation Construction:
Lobby Installation Designers: Efren Delgadillo, Jr. and Jess Kiel-Wornson
Lobby Installation Curator: Lindsay Jenkins
Producer: Cece Tio
Associate Producers: Turner Munch, Cheryl Rizzo
Dramaturg: Tom Bryant
Intern: Yuval Zehavi
Production Manager: Raúl Ramos
Head Electrician: Scott Edwards
Technical Directors: MJ Luna, Donald Birttnen
Light Board Operator: Devon Hard
Sound Board Operator: Jamal Aiken
Assistant Stage Manager/Run Crew: Jorge Rodriguez Sosa
Run Crew Swing: Vince Kenobbie
Costume Support and Maintenance: Rane Oganowski
Costume Patterning and Stitching: Francesca Palizzi
Costume Crafts Artists: On Shiu, Ashphord Jacoway
Costume Build Assistance: Courtney Scrabeck, Hartwell Pollard, Zora Arceneaux, Carole Sands, Sylvie Sands Bookman
Original Uniform Designer: Jenny Pila
Box Office Manager: Jo French
Caption Designer Operator: Laila Sahir
Caption Support: Nick Sacco
Audio Describer: Laurie Pape Hadley
ASL Interpreters: Minnesota Deaf Muslim Community
CRITICAL MASS PARTNERS
CMPG is immensely grateful for the support of our development partners, without whom it would not be: Boston Court Pasadena, Center Theatre Group with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and CTG/FWD initiative, David Lee Foundation, Doris Duke Artist Award, New England Foundation for the Arts, Outside In Theatre, Pennington Dance Group.
Mountains of gratitude to CMPG’s Magnificent Donors (as of October 2022): Anonymous, Theresa Chavez, Paula Cizmar, Shannon Clark, Fran de Leon, Allison Engel, Michele DeRosa & Mark Strunin, John & Pamela Flax, Michael John Garcés, Patricia Garza, John Goodman, Aaron Henne, Mark Ivanir, Tom Jacobson, Jeffrey Johnson, Jessica Kubzansky, Will Leet, David Olsen, Lucas Reiner & Maud Winchester, Cheryl Rizzo, Sharon Robinson, Ryan Rowe in memory of Norma Verducci, Carol Sands, Christopher Shaw, Eileen T’Kaye, Mark Valdez, William H. Waxman
CRITICAL MASS SPECIAL THANKS:
Mark Valdez and the fabulous Mixed Blood staff & crew, Luis Alfaro, Lindsay Allbaugh, Tom Buderwitz, Lisa de Los Angeles, Snehal Desai, Patricia Garza, Chuma Gault, Lindsay Jenkins, Jeffrey Johnson, Hannah Joyce, Jessica Kubzansky, Natalie Nicholas, Noam Murro, John Pennington, Diane Rodriguez (who is dearly missed), Peter Wylie, Michael Schlitt, Alexa Rose, The Teenies. Tom Mays and the Guthrie Theatre. Bethany Reinfeld and Theater Latté Da.
We are profoundly grateful to Ray Ford, Lorne Green, and Daisy Posadas who have been part of earlier iterations of “Mariology,” and whose spirits continue to inspire us and infuse the project.
ABOUT CRITICAL MASS PERFORMANCE GROUP:
Critical Mass Performance Group is a Los Angeles-based, collaborative ensemble founded in 1985 by writer-director Nancy Keystone. Known for category-busting new works, exuberant theatricality, and electrifying collisions of ideas, CMPG was named 2013’s Best Theatre Company by the LA Weekly. We believe that by sharing stories we can sow the seeds of empathy, in order to imagine and manifest a just, equitable, and peaceful future.
In 2016 CMPG premiered our latest work, Ameryka, which was honored with awards for Production of the Year and Best Ensemble by Stage Raw, nominated for 7 Ovation Awards, including Best New Play, Production, and Ensemble, and nominated for Best Ensemble by LA Drama Critics Circle. Ameryka was remounted in 2018 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre as part of Center Theatre Group’s Block Party. Alcestis (2013) was developed at the Getty Villa Theatre Lab and premiered at Boston Court Pasadena. Named one of 10 Best Plays by LA Weekly, the production won a Best Adaptation Award from the LA Drama Critics Circle, the LA Weekly, and Arts In LA, and was nominated for best direction, sound/score, production design, choreography. Apollo (2005/2009), an epic trilogy exploring the US space program, its relationship with Nazi rocket scientists, and the surprising intersection with the Civil Rights Movement, premiered Parts 1 & 2 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2005, won a Garland Award for Best New Play, and was named in the Top 10 Plays by LA Alternative Press. Part 3 premiered with the full trilogy at Portland Center Stage (Oregon) in 2009. The Akhmatova Project (2000), a movement-theatre piece inspired by the life and work of Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, was named one of the 10 Best Productions by the LA Times, received four LA Weekly Award nominations including Best Production, and won for Best Choreography.
Other CMPG productions: Bad Medicine (2014), commissioned by Heretick Theatre Lab, live-streamed with the Noir Project; Parataxes From the Near Side of the Heart (2015), commissioned by Stage Raw Digital Play Festival/Polish Edition; Bread (2017 & 2011), site specific interactive performance-salon commissioned by Cornerstone Theater Company; 365 Days/365 Plays #47 by Suzan-Lori Parks (2007), site specific production performed at Angels Gate Cultural Center; adaptation of ANTIGONE (2001) premiered at Portland Center Stage; Sun Song & Stories Of The Sun (1990 & 1991) community-based, multi-media festival performances, performed in association with the Santa Barbara Summer Solstice Celebration; Shakespeare’s Measure For Measure (1991), named one of 10 Best Productions by LA Reader, performed in alternative spaces; Aphra Behn’s THE ROVER; Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus (1988, site specific, performed at Joseppi’s Bar, Santa Barbara); Brecht’s Baal (1985), the inciting incident for CMPG.
Mixed Blood is grateful for all our funders and donors that make programming like Mariology possible.
~
For a full list of contributors to the 23/24 season, click here.
ENSEMBLE BIOS
GABRIELA BONET
Gabriela Bonet is an actor, dancer and singer born and raised in Bayamón, Puerto Rico. Some of her theater credits include The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Antaeus Theater LA ñ) Homeward LA 2019 (The Boston Court LA) Bright Room Called Day- Revisited (USC) Middletown (USC) Mariology (Critical Mass Performance Group) Platero and I (The Kennedy Center in Washington DC and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland). Film credits include The Babymoon, Renacer, Trapo Sucio & the Puerto Rican TV Series Incognita 2. Gabriela holds a B.A. in Acting from the University of Puerto Rico and an MFA in Acting from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.
FRAN DE LEON*
LA Native Fran de Leon is an actor, writer, director, and educator born in Downtown Los Angeles, raised in Hollywood and Manila. Her one person show, Faces of America, toured to over 500 venues across 49 states, including keynote performances for the United Nations Associations, California and New York. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Will & Company, Director of New Talent for Playfair, a Core Ensemble Member of Critical Mass Performance Group, and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Southern California.
Most recently, Fran helmed Into the Woods for Pasadena Playhouse’s Tony Award winning season, in a landmark partnership with Pasadena Unified involving 200+ student performers, pit musicians, stage crew, costume and set designers to work alongside industry professionals. Fran’s work is also featured on Center Theater Group’s Digital Stage with her video short “Valor,” a documentary short of her research and process in writing a play about the Filipino-American veterans of World War II. She is currently working on her second short play commission from CTG which led her to spend two months researching in the Philippines.
Other companies with whom she has worked include: the Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Playmakers’ Rep, The Music Center of Los Angeles, Artists at Play, Playwrights’ Arena, and the Garry Marshall Theater. Additional writer/director credits include commissioned work for Segerstrom Center’s Arts Teach, TreePeople, and Twelfth Night Rep. TV credits include recurring roles on For All Mankind and For All the People, as well as guest stars on Criminal Minds, Speechless, and the upcoming Michelle Yeoh led Netflix series, The Brothers Sun.
Fran would like to credit the Rebel Nuns of Immaculate Heart who instilled and inspired her drive to use art as a means for social change.
www.frandeleon.com
RUSSELL EDGE
Russell Edge is thrilled to be visiting Minneapolis for the first time and working with Mixed Blood. He has worked with Critical Mass Performance Group since 1991, appearing in Measure for Measure, The Akhmatova Project, Apollo, Alcestis, Iphigenia, and 365 plays/365 days. Other regional theater includes Macbeth, Mr. Roberts, The Taming of the Shrew, Henry IV, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Love’s Labour’s Lost at The Old Globe in San Diego; A Comedy of Errors, Richard III, and The Rivals at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wisconsin. TV and film: Charlie Wilson’s War, The Changeling, ER, Agent Carter, Castle, Private Practice, CSI Miami, Cold Case, The West Wing, Charmed, Numbers, and Boomtown, among others. He also does voiceover and can do your taxes.
AMIR LEVI*
Amir Levi (he/she/they). Non-Binary Activist & Performer. Los Angeles based. Credits there include Tales of the Transcestors (Celebration Theater and Greenway Court), Beheading Columbus & Beneath the Bowtie (Geffen Playhouse Writers Room), Waiting (Playwrights Arena), MARCH (LGBT Center & Playwrights Arena), Nathan C. Jones: A Love Story? (theblank YouTube Channel), Señor Plummer’s Final Fiesta (Rogue Artists Ensemble), Wood Boy Dog Fish (RogueAE& Garry Marshall), Kaidan Project: Walls Grow Thin (RogueAE & EWP), Something Truly Monstrous (the blank), The Behavior of Broadus (Sacred Fools & Burglars of Hamm), Robin Hood (South Coast Rep.). TV: “Grand Crew,” “911,” “Side Hustle,” “Fresh Off the Boat,” “Speechless,” “Brooklyn99,” “New Girl,” “The Middle,” “Casual”, “Transparent,” “Game Shakers,” “2 Broke Girls.” Film: “Head-Tie,” “Courting Chaos,” “Special Needs.” Amir also plays with Shakespearean burlesque company Toil & Trouble Burlesque, and has done several shows with them. Represented by Smith & Hervey/Grimes, and Debra Manners Talent. theamirlevi.com. IG: @theamirlevi
PAUL OUTLAW
Paul Outlaw is a Los Angeles and Berlin-based multidisciplinary performing artist. The central themes of his artistic practice are the constructs of race and sexual identity, and the ways in which violence—both physical and psychological—has haunted them throughout Euro-American history. Under the banner of OutlawPlay, Paul has created an evolving series of solo theater works and performances including Berserker (published by Duke University Press in the anthology Blacktino Queer Performance); What Did I Do to Be So Black and…; The Late, Late Show; BIRTHDAY SUITe; Shine; Reading Ventriloquist Scripts: The Talking at Money; and the upcoming BBC (Big Black Cockroach). Paul played the title role in Pepe Danquart’s Schwarzfahrer, winner of the 1994 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Paul’s award-winning solo projects have been presented across the United States and in Europe. Recent collaborations and solo projects have been presented in Los Angeles by LACMA, MOCA, REDCAT, the Getty, Boston Court Pasadena and Los Angeles Performance Practice; nationally by The Lab (San Francisco), Yale Union (Portland, OR); and internationally by the Maxim Gorki Theater (Berlin) and GES-2/V-A-C Foundation (Moscow), among others. Paul is the recipient of various grants, fellowships and residencies, including a COLA (City of Los Angeles) Individual Artist Fellowship and a Los Angeles County Performing Arts Recovery Grant. He was one of the changemakers highlighted in ONE Archive Foundation’s Pride Publics: Words and Actions exhibition in 2021.
VALERIE SPENCER*
Valerie Spencer is a longtime member of Critical Mass Performance Group, and has devised and performed in AMERYKA, APOLLO, ALCESTIS, THE AKHMATOVA PROJECT and UNTITLED COMMUNION among many other works by the company. Other theatre: INDECENT at DCPA, HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY AND NEVER BE FOUND at Boston Court, OUT OF OUR FATHER’S HOUSE, Edinburgh Fringe. TV: “Veep,” “The Jury.” FILM: “Blink,” “Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey,” “A One Time Thing,” “The Moment I Was Alone,” “Grams.” POCDAST: The dramatic thriller “Blackout,” opposite Rami Malek. Valerie has a long-standing career as a voice actor. She has also appeared in multiple works by renowned video artist Bill Viola.
*denotes a member of the Actor’s Equity Association
DESIGNER BIOS
MJ ADAMSON (Los Angeles stage manager)
MJ ADAMSON (They/He/Her) is a current student of the University of Southern California and is expected to graduate in May 2024. Working towards a BFA in Stage Management, they have devoted the last five years of their life to performance arts. In these five years MJ has also costume-designed, worked as a producer for ONYX LLC, production-managed, and has been credited as a screenwriter. As MJ’s work continues forward, their personal mission statement is to work on productions that amplify the voices of marginalized communities. MJ has strived to do this by working for nonprofits such as The Los Angeles Women’s Theatre Festival, The Braid, and Hero Theatre.
TOM BRYANT (dramaturg)
Tom Bryant is known for his work as a dramaturg in the development of new plays on Broadway and in America’s regional theaters. He is probably best known for his work with Robert Schenkkan as dramaturg on All the Way which premiered at Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2012 and then went on to Broadway where it won the Tony award for best play in 2014. Other work with Robert Schenkkan includes The Kentucky Cycle which won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1992 and The Great Society which premiered at Oregon Shakespeare festival in 2014.
From 2014-17 he worked with playwright Lisa Loomer on Roe, on productions at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Arena Stage and Berkeley Repertory Theater. He has a long association with Nancy Keystone and Critical Mass Performance Group as dramaturg on productions of Apollo, Ameryka and Mariology. He currently serves on the faculty in the Department of Theater and New Dance at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. His book The Dramaturgy of History is currently being published by Routledge.
EFREN DELGADILLO, JR. (lobby installation design)
Efren Delgadillo, Jr., is a Mexican-American Scenic Designer born and raised in East Los Angeles. Recipient of Henry awards for Denver Center productions of In The Upper Room and Quixote Nuevo. Recipient of a LA weekly award for both Production Design and Lighting design for Poor Dog Group’s Brewsie and Willie. Nominated for an Ovation Award in Best Scenic Design for Culture Clash’s Bordertown Now as well as a Barrymore Award in Outstanding Scenic Design for Bienvenidos Blancos with Team Sunshine Corporation. MFA in Scenic Design from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Studio Arts from University of California, Irvine. Head of Scenic Design at UC Irvine.
ELIZABETH HARPER (lighting designer)
(She/Her/Hers) Between Two Knees (Oregon Shakespeare Festival,Yale Rep) Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Blues for an Alabama Sky. (Mark Taper Forum) Indecent and Rattlesnake Kate (Denver Center for the Performing Arts) Office Hour starring Sandra Oh (South Coast Repertory Theatre); When Playwrights Kill (Signature Theatre) The Cake (La Jolla Playhouse); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf starring Calista Flockhart and Zachary Quinto, Play Dead directed by Teller and Sell/Buy/Date (The Geffen Playhouse), Rock of Ages (5th Avenue Theatre). World premieres include works by Academy Award Winner Lucy Alibar, Kemp Powers, Julia Cho and Michael Mitnick. Elizabeth is the assistant professor of lighting design at the University of Southern California.
NANCY KEYSTONE (writer/director/scenic designer)
Nancy Keystone is a Los Angeles-based theatre and visual artist, filmmaker, and educator. Best known as the artistic director of Critical Mass Performance Group (CMPG), she’s the company’s chief investigator, playwright, director, scenic designer and producer.
She is driven by big questions that explore individuals and their place in history and within systems, peeling back mythologies to expose uncomfortable truths. Most recently, AMERYKA, an illumination of the promises and betrayals of the U.S., was named Production of the Year and Best Ensemble by Stage Raw. A JORDAN DOWNS ILLUMINATION, a community-based, multi-modal performance installation with Cornerstone Theater Company and residents of Jordan Downs housing project in Watts was named Best of 2019 by KCRW. Her production of APOLLO, prominently featured in the book The Creative Spirit: An Introduction to Theatre by Stephanie Arnold, explores the intersections of Nazi rocket engineers, the Apollo space program, and American Civil Rights Movement. Her work makes surprising connections, sparking new ideas and ways of seeing, and centers the complexity of human existence: messy, humorous, vulnerable, sad, joyous, enraging, ironic, unknowable.
Honors include: a Doris Duke Artist Award, a United States Artists Fellowship, MacDowell Fellowship, TCG’s Alan Schneider Director Award. Other support: NEA, Mellon Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, MacDowell, Pew Charitable Trusts.
JESS KIEL-WORNSON (scenic chalk drawings, lobby installation design and construction)
Jess Kiel-Wornson is a multi-disciplinary artist, set-designer, and educator based in the Twin Cities. Her work uses cultural artifacts, low-brow narratives, and devalued materials to examine and challenge the oppressive power structures built into our bodies, buildings, and stories. She loves gossip, feminist science fiction, performance theory, and Andes mints.
STACY MCINTOSH (production stage manager)
Stacy is a Twin Cities based stage manager and theater artist. She has spent the last 25 years creating and collaborating with amazing artists on countless projects. Stacy is a Resident Stage Manager at Children’s Theatre Company (Minneapolis). Other credits include productions at Cort Theatre (Broadway), New Victory Theater (New York), The Old Globe (San Diego), Guthrie Theater and Illusion Theaters (Minneapolis) and Marin Theatre Company (San Francisco). In addition to theater, Stacy has managed sporting events including The Super Bowl, NHL Stadium Series and the NHL Winter Classic. Stacy is the recipient of the Minnesota Theater Award for Stage Management and a proud member of Actors Equity.
ATRIA PIROUZMAND (properties designer)
Atria Pirouzmand is a MFA student in her second year, majoring in Design and Technology with a focus on scenic and production design at SDSU. She earned her BA in Drama and Film and Media Studies from the University of California, Irvine in 2022. Throughout her experience in the theater industry, she has held roles as a scenic designer, scenic assistant, prop master/artisan, and scenic artist. Some of her scenic design works include “Ziggy, Stardust, & Me” (SDSU) “Love’s Labor’s Lost” (SDSU), “Into The Woods” (UCI), and “I and You” (UCI). She is honored to be a part of the production of “Mariology” and to collaborate with a talented and amazing team of colleagues.
ALI ROUSTAEI (properties designer)
Ali Roustaei is currently in his second year of MFA at SDSU majoring in Design and Technology. He received his BA in Drama and Film and Media Studies from the University of California, Irvine. This is his first collaboration with Critical Mass Performance Group, and he is thrilled to be working on “Mariology.” He has been working as a scenic designer, assistant, and props artisan for several productions. Some of his previous scenic design credits include “Ziggy, Stardust, & Me” (SDSU), “Love’s Labor’s Lost” (SDSU), “Into The Woods” (UCI), and “Future Tripping” (LOFT Ensemble).
LENA SANDS (costume designer)
Lena Sands is an award-winning costume designer for live performance, installation and film. Using a variety of materials and methods to create bold and distinctive visuals, Lena collaborates with ensembles and communities to investigate bodies, histories, and the divine. Last in Minneapolis with SITI company’s Bacchae (BAM, Guthrie, Getty Villa). Work with CMPG includes Ameryka (Kirk Douglas), Untitled Communion (REDCAT), After Iphegenia (Getty Villa). Lena’s other notable costume designs include Pat Benetar’s Invincible: The Musical (The Wallis); and Jennifer Koh and Davóne Tines’s Everything Rises (Royce Hall, BAM).
Her work in devised theater, with Los Angeles companies Four Larks and Critical Mass Performance Group including her process and renderings, is highlighted in Routledge’s book Creating Costumes for Devised Theatre by Kyla Kazuschyk (2023). Her work was also displayed at the State Historical Museum in Moscow as part of the exhibition “Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: The Next Generation.” Lena was a 2021 CTG Sherwood Award finalist. MFA CalArts. www.lenasands.com
RANDALL TICO (composer/sound designer)
Selected works with Critical Mass Performance Group: Apollo (Garland Award), Ameryka, Alcestis, The America Play, Antigone (Drammy Award) and The Akhmatova Project. With Denver Center of the Performing Arts: Anna Karenina. With Portland Center Stage: Astoria, Othello, Snow Falling on Cedars. With Theater @ Boston Court: Mother Courage. With Ensemble Theatre Company: Macbeth, Everything is Illuminated, and Selling Kabul. With director Jenny Sullivan: Jackie Unveiled for the Wallis; The Baby Dance: Mixed for Rubicon Theatre; Baby Doll, and The Children for ETC @ The New Vic. Tico is also known for his work as a bassist with a diverse range of artists, such as the critically acclaimed jazz nonet Matrix; Jeff Bridges & the Abiders; Strunz & Farah; Airto & Flora Purim; Kenny Loggins; John McEuen and Jose Feliciano.
CECE TIO (producer)
(she/her) Selected in Los Angeles: World premiere Song of Extinction by E.M. Lewis at [Inside] the Ford; World premiere BURNERS by Terence Anthony; World premiere Blood and Thunder by Terence Anthony; West coast premiere The Gun Show by E.M. Lewis; Workshop production of A Lesson In Swimming by Michael Shutt; NNPN Rolling World premiere of Apple Season by E.M. Lewis; World premiere of Early Birds by Dana Schwartz; The Car Plays at La Jolla Playhouse’s WoW Series/WoW Festival, RADAR L.A., Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ Off Center Festival; West Coast premiere VIRAL by Mac Rogers; Rolling World premiere/Los Angeles I Carry Your Heart by Georgette Kelly; World premiere S.O.E. by Jami Brandli. Resident Artist of Moving Arts Theatre Company, Los Angeles. Producer of Playwrights Union, Los Angeles.
