While choosing our 2023 Season, I began with a question: “Why this story, here, now, today?” This question propelled me to create NECESSARY theater. Theater that grapples with the big, messy human questions of our time and our inherited histories. We may not have answers, and in fact, that’s ok. I believe that theater should not deliver sermons or
answers but instead invite us to ruminate and act on new sets of questions and ideas. It should not only look like the world we live in but dream forward the world that we want to live in. I sought stories that empower women, challenge simplistic narratives, and make the everyday, unfamiliar once again.
I wanted to create a season that reflected on the complexity of the human condition, in all of its profundity, horror, beauty, and weirdness. But also made us laugh... together. It’s a declaration of love to the absurd vulnerability that is being human, to being imperfect. NECESSARY theater is not possible without the courage of vulnerability.
This is the heart of what drama is-- imperfect human beings under pressure, trying to do things that they find
difficult. ❤
Looking forward to a creative and collaborative year ahead!
Jessi May Stevenon
Artistic Director
Santa Paula Theater Center
answers but instead invite us to ruminate and act on new sets of questions and ideas. It should not only look like the world we live in but dream forward the world that we want to live in. I sought stories that empower women, challenge simplistic narratives, and make the everyday, unfamiliar once again.
I wanted to create a season that reflected on the complexity of the human condition, in all of its profundity, horror, beauty, and weirdness. But also made us laugh... together. It’s a declaration of love to the absurd vulnerability that is being human, to being imperfect. NECESSARY theater is not possible without the courage of vulnerability.
This is the heart of what drama is-- imperfect human beings under pressure, trying to do things that they find
difficult. ❤
Looking forward to a creative and collaborative year ahead!
Jessi May Stevenon
Artistic Director
Santa Paula Theater Center
Click the images below for more information
Rabbit Hole, by David Lindsay-Abaire
|
Circle Mirror Transformation,
|
The 39 Steps, by Patrick Barlow
|