Displaying items by tag: Tamsen Glaser

The Story Theatre’s world‑premiere staging of Paul Michael Thomson’s Pot Girls bursts to life in a vivid, full‑throttle production at Raven Theatre. Pot Girls is a sharp, funny, and thought‑provoking new play that fuses feminist history, artistic accountability, and a rainbow haze of 1980s, weed‑soaked poetry and art.

Inspired as a thematic counterpart to Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls, Pot Girls - directed by Ayanna Bria Bakari - leans into humor, theatricality, and a cloud of intoxication to explore how women create, collaborate, and collide both onstage and off. And in a bit of theatrical serendipity, both productions are currently running simultaneously at Raven Theatre. In fact, Raven Theatre and The Story Theatre are even offering special marathon days, giving audiences the chance to catch a matinee of Lucky Stiff’s directed Top Girls, stick around for some conversation with the creative team, then return in the evening for Pot Girls - all at a discounted rate (click here for details).

The story follows Caryl herself, a playwright on the cusp of her first major, Olivier‑eligible production - a show designed to spotlight women in the workplace. The year is 1982 and as she toasts the achievement with friends, her colorful London flat transforms into an impromptu hub where a lively, time‑spanning cohort of feminist writers drop in to drink, smoke, debate, and probe the ideas she’s celebrating.

The haze of a jubilant night eventually clears, and what remains is a sharper truth: this play lays bare the exhausting contortions women are expected to perform just to gain a foothold as authors and playwrights. It highlights not only the uphill battle of competing in a landscape where men still discriminate against women in their productions regarding creative authority, but also the added burden of being scrutinized for perfect political correctness the moment a woman-led production finally reaches the stage.

The many ways that women as authors have been discriminated against and unfairly censored or even hunted over the centuries is thoroughly laid out in a fantastic cast of intelligent expressive women.

The period feels fully realized, aided by Katelyn Montgomery’s evocative scenic work and Racquel Postilgione’s sharp costume design.

As the play unfolds, Caryl is pulled through a tangle of personal and professional upheaval - romantic tension with her partner Edith, pointed accusations about her racial blind spots, and the mounting pressure to tell women’s stories with integrity. Around her, the ensemble slips effortlessly between roles, embodying historical figures, colleagues, and critics who collectively push her toward an uncomfortable, necessary self‑examination.

In Pot Girls, Brenna DiStasio centers the production as Caryl, offering a steady emotional clarity that grounds the play’s wilder turns and quietly establishes her as its moral anchor. Ireon Roach, as Edith, wields her well-rolled blunt with sharp wit and charismatic intelligence, building a lively, charged dynamic with DiStasio that keeps the energy flowing like a river.

Peter Ferneding lends understated but essential texture as he shifts through historical and contemporary figures, his easy timing playing neatly against Tamsen Glaser’s agile, precise turns as multiple feminist icons, which bring warmth, wit, and tonal delicacy.

Vibrant, expressive energy radiates through each of Emily Marso’s roles, elevating every moment and sparking electric interplay with Glaser and Maya Bridgewater. Glaser and Bridgewater, in turn, deliver a fierce yet deep human presence across their characters, adding tension and charge to the ensemble’s debates. One of Bridgewater’s characters delivers a beautifully crafted, cathartic reflection on a young girl’s kidnapping and rape - written with such grace and restraint that it resonates powerfully with the conversations society is having today about trafficking and vulnerability.

Rounding out the cast, Laney Rodriguez displays a great sense of humor and threads emotional nuance through each character she inhabits, serving as a subtle connective force while carving out memorable moments opposite DiStasio and Roach. As a unit, the ensemble stays quick, engaged, and combustible, amplifying the play’s ideas with palpable charge.

Ultimately, Pot Girls crackles with ensemble energy and sharp ideas, offering an engaging, thought‑rich night of theatre for anyone drawn to fresh feminist work.

Highly recommended.

Pot Girls has been extended through March 8^th. For tickets and/or more show information, click here.

This review is proudly shared with our friends at www.TheatreInChicago.com. 

Lisa Sanaye Dring’s play “Kairos,” which just opened at The Edge Off Broadway theater, is one of the most thought-provoking and enjoyable productions I have seen lately. Set in the near future, the 90-minute play (no intermission) is as good anything you might see in streaming shows ("Black Mirror" comes to mind.) Directed by Clare Brennan, “Kairos” is in the midst of its rolling world premiere with the National New Play Network. 

As the play opens, David (Johnard Washington is really good), a somewhat detached and scholarly fellow, and the all-business Gina (Tamsen Glaser) meet one rainy night via a mall parking lot fender bender. David is only lightly concerned about his car's damage, as he’s smitten with Gina, who blames him for the accident. During a practical exchange about insurance, police reports and such, Gina discovers she is charmed by David as well. “Here’s my number,” she says. “Not for the accident. For sex….maybe?”

The scenes cycle rapidly through their evolving romance, and they discover more and more appeal in each other. But this fast-paced affair is only a prelude to the core of the story. A few weeks in, they are lounging around, when arresting news crosses their screens: medical science has discovered a treatment, dubbed “Prometheus,” promising eternal life.

What a remarkable premise for a drama. A developing relationship meets a decision about living everlastingly. Way beyond, “Should we get married?” That’s only until death do us part.

Because of its likely appeal, the Prometheus treatment is offered by lottery, and is restricted to those aged 25 to 34, who are also, once treated, prohibited from bearing children. The playwright has upped the ante with that. Candidates apply online, and once selected, must undergo a psychological screening.

David wants in immediately, while Gina figures she’ll just see if she qualifies, and then decide. Their relationship progresses while they await the news, with the usual ups and downs, and matters like meeting family playing out in the background.

As we await the lottery results, we get a feel for the likelihood of David and Gina's relationship surviving on its own terms. David seems more in touch with his feelings, and a bit more empathic. Gina is more self-centered, seemingly waving away the life challenges her partner encounters. When David’s father leaves his mother suddenly after 40 years, he is distraught. Gina doesn’t quite get it. “I’m sorry about your father,” she says, “but he can’t be where his heart is not.”

At the risk of a spoiler, Gina wins the lottery first. I felt my heart racing as she prepared to open the communication. David still hasn’t heard. And when he too is eligible for Prometheus, there is instant elation. “We’re not going to get old together!” he exclaims.

Soon enough we find out it’s not that simple. These two weren’t quite ready for marriage, let alone eternal life. And David must still undergo a psychological exam, which we gather Gina has passed.

The world around them also shifts as society spins into an upheaval, and protests against Prometheus arise. The world is split between “agers,” and those who, because of Prometheus, won’t age.

We soon see fissures in their relationship. David becomes depressed, partly about his parents’ divorce, and we suspect, also about this massive life change. Gina prods him to pull himself together for his psych exam: “They might not want immortal sad boys running around.” I think the heft of the play would be greater if there had been a little more depth to the emotional dynamics of the relationship. It felt a little too once-over-lightly to be convincing. But the storyline is so interesting, it’s not consequential.

“Kairos,” the Greek term for “the right time,” when an alignment of circumstances presents an opportunity, is a recurrent theme in the play, from their very first encounter in the mall parking lot, to opportunity for Prometheus as their relationship gets rooted. An epilogue to the play, dated 2068 A.D., lets us know how things turned out for Gina and David. Produced by Red Theater “Kairos” runs through May 18 at The Edge Off Broadway in Chicago.

*This review is also featured on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!