By Mark Guarino
Featuring
SOPHIE SENARD
RATIE MAE MACLAUGHILIO
ALLISOM GRUBER
LOLA ZIMMERMAN
Midnight Leaves is a play rooted in theatrical realism — A tree is its central image — but it tells the story of an older woman through her interactions with magical elements such as birds, all of whom represent her past lives. Influenced by The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco and The Crows by Henry Becque, Midnight Leaves is highly theatrical but at its core is the story of a woman confronting who she once was, where she came from, and the uncomfortable realities she had to overcome in order to survive to the present day. The play is ultimately about shedding your past selves to evolve into the next phase of your life. I use birds — a Hummingbird (teenager), a Bluebird (twentysomething), and a Crow (middle-age) — to represent different phases of the woman’s life. Music plays a role in setting mood and creating the voice of the Bluebird, who strums a guitar.
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