Photo by: Mark Rutkowski
Written by Steven Dietz
Directed by Wendy Bable
Produced by special arrangement with DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois.
STILL LIFE WITH IRIS was originally commissioned and produced by Seattle Children's Theatre. It was inspired by the Image Influenced Illusions of Steffan Soule and Cooper Edens from their book, Dreams, Magic, and Miracles. Its development was supported by a major grant from the John F. Kennedy Center's Fund for New American Plays, the first play for young audiences to receive such an award.
Performances: October 31* & November 1, 5, 6, 7 at 8:00 PM
November 1, 2**, 9 at 2:00 PM
B. Iden Payne Theatre
Tickets: $20 adults, $17 UT faculty & staff, $15 students available online at www.utpac.org or by phone at 477–6060.
*Join us October 31st for an Opening Night Reception immediatley following the performance. Guests will be able to mingle with the cast, crew, and director of Still Life with Iris while enjoying an assortment of light snacks and desserts.
**Stay in your seats after the matinee performance on November 2nd for a post-performance talkback with members of the Still Life with Iris cast and production team!
Media and Resources:
- Cast List
- Director Information
- Playwright Information
- Costume renderings by Ariana Schwartz
- Synopsis
- Rehearsal Photos
- Press Photos
- Press and Reviews
Synopsis: Still Life with Iris is a fantastical adventure which centers on a little girl's search for the simplest of things: home. Iris lives with her mom in the land of Nocturno–a magical place in which the workers make, by night, all of the things we see in the world by day. Also, in Nocturno, memories do not reside in people's minds but instead are kept in their coats (called 'Past Coats'). The rulers of Nocturno, the Great Goods, are determined to have the "best" of everything on their island–and therefore take Iris away from her home and bring her to Great Island to be their daughter. To ease the pain of this separation, they remove her Past Coat, leaving her with no memory of her home or her family. All that remains of Iris' past is a single button from her coat. Using the button as a clue, Iris joins with friends she meets on her journey–Annabel Lee (a young woman from the sea) and Mozart (the composer, age 11)–and frees herself from the Great Goods. She returns to Nocturno, having found her past, and her home.
Playwright: Steven Dietz
Steven Dietz is a professor of playwriting and screenwriting at UT. Mr. Dietz's thirty–plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off–Broadway. International productions of his work have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Greece, Peru, Singapore and South Africa. Recent plays include the Pulitzer–nominated Last of the Boys (produced by Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago); the Edgar Award winning Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (from William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle); and three new plays that will premiere this coming season: Becky's New Car (ACT Theatre, Seattle), Shooting Star (ZACH Theatre, Austin) and Yankee Tavern (Florida Stage). Mr. Dietz's work as a director has been seen at many of America's leading regional theatres. For Ruby and Abraham.
Selected directing credits include: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Pippin, The Lesson, Alice in Wonderland, Schoolhouse Rock, LIVE!, Antigone, You Can't Take It With You, The Bald Soprano, Stuart Little, King of Sticks, Gypsy, and Lysistrata. She also assistant directed Seattle Children's Theatres's Much Ado About Nothing with Todd Jamieson in 2003. Wendy splits her directing time between existing texts and developing/directing new theatre. Recent credits include: American Heroes (a new play by Jesse Donaldson), For Which It Stands (featured in the Cohen New Works Festival of 2007), Through the Darkness (a Holocaust memoir), and Steel (a performance ethnography of Pennsylvania steel workers.) Selected acting credits include: The Devil's Disciple, Moon Over Buffalo, My Three Angels, Death of a Salesman, What the Butler Saw, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Goodnight Desdemona–Good Morning Juliet, Salt Water Moon and the Birthday Party. Wendy was recently named a Winifred Ward Scholar by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education for her work in directing for and with young people.
- Stevi Baston as Iris
- Molly Searcy as Mom/Miss Overlook
- Nick Spain as Mr. Matternot/Other Roles
- Matrex Kilgore as Grotto Good
- Ashley Hayes as Gretta Good
- Betsy Clair Cummings as Annabel Lee
- Michael Bowman as Mozart
- Brian Fahey as Memory Mender
- Angelica Shah as Hazel
- John Harmon as Elmer/Mr. Himtoo
- Trang Bui as Leaf Monitor
- Nikki Valdez as Flower Painter
- Brian Ballew as Bolt Bender
- Blade Healey as Otherguy
