Sleeping Weazel Lets the Women Speak

April 3, 2019April 6, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

(Veronica Anastasio Wiseman, Graciela Femenia Tully, Judith Nelson Dilday, Raijene Murchison, Alex Casillas, Luz Lopez, Louise Hamill Sleeping Weazel’s ‘The Audacity: Women Speak – Photo:David Marshall)

by James Wilkinson

‘The Audacity: Women Speak’ – Conceived and arranged by Charlotte Meehan. Directed by Tara Brooke Watkins. Video Design by Elliott Mazzola. Scenic Design: Rita Roy. Lighting Design: Bridget K. Doyle. Costume Design: Mirta Tocci. Presented by Sleeping Weazel in Nicholas Martin Hall at the Boston Center for the Arts through April 6.

There are two elements to The Audacity: Women Speak, Sleep Weazel’s new multimedia production, that I think rather perfectly sum up its goals for the audience. The first is a visual motif created by lighting designer Bridget K. Doyle. A patch of light will come up on an empty spot on the stage, one of the seven women who comprise the cast will enter said space and then they begin to speak. Although it may seem like an incidental detail, the order of that sequence is vital to what they’re doing. The second element comes about halfway through the show during a barrage of video clips featuring the current Commander in Chief making sexist remarks as far back as the eighties and as recent as his presidency. As the clips play, the woman on stage begin to groan. First in frustration, then it rises to anger before finally, they’re filling the space with their screams. Something is being released.

Sleeping Weazel Provides an Intimate Winter Escape

February 21, 2018February 21, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Review by James Wilkinson

A Winter Gathering – Production Designer: Mirta Tocci. Lighting Designer: Colin McNamee. Sound Designer: Oliver Seagle. Presented by Sleeping Weazel at the BCA Black Box, 527 Tremont St. Boston, through February 24^th.

When I walked into Sleeping Weazel’s production of A Winter Gathering, I had been awake for thirteen hours and had probably spent about a good third of that time staring at my phone. Not for any sort of emergency purpose, just the regular checking of email, Facebook, text messages and blogs that has slowly grown to be the new normal of daily activity. I went into the theater space with the sort of addled static brain feeling that comes from spending so much time with your eyeballs glued to the glowing screen of a handheld device.

‘Three Fifths Traveling Minstrel Show’ Entertains and Provokes

November 11, 2017November 24, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Evan McKenna

‘Three Fifths Traveling Minstrel Show’ – Created and Written by James Scruggs. Directed by Mark Rayment. Presented by Sleeping Weazel at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont St. Boston, through 11/9

We live in an age when too much political discourse takes place over Facebook and Twitter, where we can safely hide our opinions behind screen names. We can choose to ignore the perspectives of those whom we disagree with and move on. But that liberty is lost when you are confined to an intimate room with a diverse audience, where a play about racial issues is being staged. Such was the case with James Scruggs’ tense and confrontational “Trapped in a Traveling Minstrel Show” which made its debut at the BCA.