Peppermint Creek Theatre produces Michigan premiere of play addressing rape culture and self-defense: “How To Defend Yourself”
Acclaimed playwright Liliana Padilla is set to captivate audiences with their latest work, How To Defend Yourself. This thought-provoking and timely play promises to delve into the complexities of self-defense, empowerment, and navigating the challenges of the modern world, in Peppermint Creek Theatre (PCT) Company’s fourth production of their 20th season. How To Defend Yourself opens February 1.
I wish girls fought more. Like beat the shit out of each other for fun. I wish that was like a socially acceptable thing to do. Fight club, you know? If it was me and you, I think I’d win.
- from How To Defend Yourself
In a DIY self-defense class, college students learn to use their bodies as weapons. They learn to fend off attackers. They learn “not to be a victim.” Self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire—lots of desire. With sharp humor and brutal honesty, Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself explores what we want, how to ask for it, and the violator and violated inside us all.
“I truly believe the only way to start disrupting rape culture is by addressing it head on and as openly as this play,” said Sally Hecksel, award-winning Lansing actor and first-time PCTC director. “This play offers audiences a lens to better examine the complexities of rape culture and the attitudes that foster it.”
Among these complexities include learning to be comfortable talking about such a sensitive topic.
“I think, for a lot of folks, there are hidden parts of themselves that feel confused or maybe contradictory when addressing this topic, or they believe that to explore it aloud would paint themselves in a bad light,” said Hecksel. “It’s a subject people prefer to look at as black and white because that's a more comfortable way to handle and explore an uncomfortable topic, when it’s a gradient of grays. We believe this is an important aspect of our culture worth exploring and talking about, and hope our audiences will too.”
The cast of How To Defend Yourself features a talented ensemble of seven local Lansing actors.
The production will take place at Stage One Performing Arts Center, 2200 Lake Lansing Road, Lansing MI 48912. The show will run Thursday, February 1 – Sunday, February 4, and Thursday, February 8 – Sunday, February 11, 2024. Show times are Thursday – Saturday at 7pm, and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets can be ordered online at http://www.peppermintcreek.org, and are $15 general admission, and $10 for students/seniors 65+/veterans.
This production of How To Defend Yourself is generously underwritten by Joan and Jerry Mattson.
CONTENT ADVISORY: How to Defend Yourself takes place after a sexual assault. It discusses, but does not depict sexual violence and contains other mature themes.
About Liliana Padilla
Liliana Padilla makes plays about sex, intersectional communities, and what it means to heal in a violent world. Their play, How to Defend Yourself won the 2019 Yale Drama Prize and is a 2018-19 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist. It was produced in the 2019 Humana Festival and will be at Victory Gardens in 2020. Liliana's work has been developed with OSF, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Victory Gardens, INTAR, Hedgebrook, Seattle Rep, the Playwrights' Center and San Diego REP. MFA, UC San Diego, BFA, NYU Tisch. Liliana is currently commissioned to make new plays with NNPN, Colt Coeur, and South Coast Rep. They are also a director, actor and community builder who looks at theatre as a laboratory for how we might be together. www.lilypadilla.com
How To Defend Yourself Peppermint Creek Theatre Company CAST LIST
Mojdeh – Brittany Renee Bell
Diana – Carmen Zavala-Kelly
Brandi – Storm Kopitsch
Kara – Elena Billard
Nikki – Racheal Steffens
Andy – Adrian Wiseman-Rose
Eggo – TJ Kelly Jr.
__________________________
Preview Performances of MAYTAG VIRGIN at Williamston Theatre
The first four performances of any production are previews. That means that we are technically still in rehearsals. Performances are fully fledged, but the tickets are less expensive and each is followed by a talk-back with the director.
Maytag Virgin is a classic second-chance love story featuring WT co-founders and real-life husband and wife John Lepard and Emily Sutton-Smith. When the unflappable Jack Key moves in next door to the endearingly neurotic Lizzy Nash, sparks fly. Over time, neighborly nagging softens, and a deeper connection emerges between the two high school teachers. A timely romantic comedy about moving forward with courage and a ready heart.
Maytag Virgin
By Audrey Cefaly
Directed by Tony Caselli
February 1 - March 10, 2024
Preview performances:
Thurs 2/1 at 8pm: Pay-What-You-Wish
Fri 2/2 at 8pm: $22
Sat 2/3 at 8pm: $22
Sun 2/4 at 2pm: $22
https://tickets.williamstontheatre.org/TheatreManager/1/online?event=0
Acclaimed playwright Liliana Padilla is set to captivate audiences with their latest work, How To Defend Yourself. This thought-provoking and timely play promises to delve into the complexities of self-defense, empowerment, and navigating the challenges of the modern world, in Peppermint Creek Theatre (PCT) Company’s fourth production of their 20th season. How To Defend Yourself opens February 1.
I wish girls fought more. Like beat the shit out of each other for fun. I wish that was like a socially acceptable thing to do. Fight club, you know? If it was me and you, I think I’d win.
- from How To Defend Yourself
In a DIY self-defense class, college students learn to use their bodies as weapons. They learn to fend off attackers. They learn “not to be a victim.” Self-defense becomes a channel for their rage, anxiety, confusion, trauma and desire—lots of desire. With sharp humor and brutal honesty, Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself explores what we want, how to ask for it, and the violator and violated inside us all.
“I truly believe the only way to start disrupting rape culture is by addressing it head on and as openly as this play,” said Sally Hecksel, award-winning Lansing actor and first-time PCTC director. “This play offers audiences a lens to better examine the complexities of rape culture and the attitudes that foster it.”
Among these complexities include learning to be comfortable talking about such a sensitive topic.
“I think, for a lot of folks, there are hidden parts of themselves that feel confused or maybe contradictory when addressing this topic, or they believe that to explore it aloud would paint themselves in a bad light,” said Hecksel. “It’s a subject people prefer to look at as black and white because that's a more comfortable way to handle and explore an uncomfortable topic, when it’s a gradient of grays. We believe this is an important aspect of our culture worth exploring and talking about, and hope our audiences will too.”
The cast of How To Defend Yourself features a talented ensemble of seven local Lansing actors.
The production will take place at Stage One Performing Arts Center, 2200 Lake Lansing Road, Lansing MI 48912. The show will run Thursday, February 1 – Sunday, February 4, and Thursday, February 8 – Sunday, February 11, 2024. Show times are Thursday – Saturday at 7pm, and Sunday at 2pm. Tickets can be ordered online at http://www.peppermintcreek.org, and are $15 general admission, and $10 for students/seniors 65+/veterans.
This production of How To Defend Yourself is generously underwritten by Joan and Jerry Mattson.
CONTENT ADVISORY: How to Defend Yourself takes place after a sexual assault. It discusses, but does not depict sexual violence and contains other mature themes.
About Liliana Padilla
Liliana Padilla makes plays about sex, intersectional communities, and what it means to heal in a violent world. Their play, How to Defend Yourself won the 2019 Yale Drama Prize and is a 2018-19 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist. It was produced in the 2019 Humana Festival and will be at Victory Gardens in 2020. Liliana's work has been developed with OSF, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Victory Gardens, INTAR, Hedgebrook, Seattle Rep, the Playwrights' Center and San Diego REP. MFA, UC San Diego, BFA, NYU Tisch. Liliana is currently commissioned to make new plays with NNPN, Colt Coeur, and South Coast Rep. They are also a director, actor and community builder who looks at theatre as a laboratory for how we might be together. www.lilypadilla.com
How To Defend Yourself Peppermint Creek Theatre Company CAST LIST
Mojdeh – Brittany Renee Bell
Diana – Carmen Zavala-Kelly
Brandi – Storm Kopitsch
Kara – Elena Billard
Nikki – Racheal Steffens
Andy – Adrian Wiseman-Rose
Eggo – TJ Kelly Jr.
__________________________
Preview Performances of MAYTAG VIRGIN at Williamston Theatre
The first four performances of any production are previews. That means that we are technically still in rehearsals. Performances are fully fledged, but the tickets are less expensive and each is followed by a talk-back with the director.
Maytag Virgin is a classic second-chance love story featuring WT co-founders and real-life husband and wife John Lepard and Emily Sutton-Smith. When the unflappable Jack Key moves in next door to the endearingly neurotic Lizzy Nash, sparks fly. Over time, neighborly nagging softens, and a deeper connection emerges between the two high school teachers. A timely romantic comedy about moving forward with courage and a ready heart.
Maytag Virgin
By Audrey Cefaly
Directed by Tony Caselli
February 1 - March 10, 2024
Preview performances:
Thurs 2/1 at 8pm: Pay-What-You-Wish
Fri 2/2 at 8pm: $22
Sat 2/3 at 8pm: $22
Sun 2/4 at 2pm: $22
https://tickets.williamstontheatre.org/TheatreManager/1/online?event=0
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