Brendan

by Ronan Noone
directed by McKerrin Kelly
Awards: Best Production, Best Direction~StageScene LA
Scenic Design – Arthur McBride
Costume Design – Michele Young
Lighting Design – Bosco Flannagan
Sound Design – Sean Branney
Awards: Catia Ojeda ~ Best Supporting Actress Nominee ~ Ovation Awards
FEATURING: Amir Abdullah, Devereau Chumrau, Kathleen M. Darcy, Catia Ojeda,
Eamon Sheehan, Patrick Quinlan
Produced by Theatre Banshee Theatre in Los Angeles, CA
"Director Kelly and her cast and creative team have taken Noone's marvelous words and brought them to life with consummate inventiveness and flair"
StageSceneLA
"Director McKerrin Kelly efficiently stages this hetero Gaelic cousin to Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey” in a spare, stylized manner. Assembling her talented cast like a Greek chorus on either side of designer Arthur MacBride’s set of banked storage boxes, Kelly maintains easy forward propulsion, aided by Bosco Flanagan's resourceful lighting and a proficient ensemble." LA Times
"McKerrin Kelly's consistently creative direction takes what could have been a somewhat static play and fills it with visual ingenuity, from using swinging lights and a bustling ensemble to display Brendan's disorientation to creating a visceral near car crash scene mainly with lights and sound effects." LAist
"director Kelly has pulled off a minor coup…" Stagehappenings.com
Director's Note
"Brendan, on the surface, is a sweet and simple tale.
Boy leaves country. Boy meets another country, tries to settle down and disappear among the masses.
But, as most of us know, stories are rarely simple. Anyone who has ever tried to leave their past behind can testify to that.
Compared to others around him (and millions of others in the country today), Brendan's journey as an immigrant is remarkably easy. No decades long waiting period, no joblessness or substandard ousting, no hiding from authorities and very little discrimination. But his emotional journey is stuck in an endless holding pattern that even his remarkable luck won't break until outside forces intervene.
With today's immigration debate raging, it is tempting to lump masses of individuals in to a single 'them' in an attempt to make sense of an issue too big for sound bites. "THEY are not US". But that is the surface story, and stories are never simple. We are all immigrants. Some of us more recent than others, but all of us have had to leave something behind in order to be where we are today. Some of us are citizens, some of us not Some of us are desperate to become American because, even with all its' flaws, the USA stands for basic freedoms and rights that are unique and honorable.
May we all be as lucky as Brendan and experience the healing power of human connection, being seen and coming out of the shadows.
As Mammy says: " Brendan, I just wanted to say, we all do the best we can. We make friends when we can make friends, and we love even when we can't help it. Some people are lonely and some people are happy but we're all the same and as long as we are good, just a good person, then we're alright.
We're alright."
directed by McKerrin Kelly
Awards: Best Production, Best Direction~StageScene LA
Scenic Design – Arthur McBride
Costume Design – Michele Young
Lighting Design – Bosco Flannagan
Sound Design – Sean Branney
Awards: Catia Ojeda ~ Best Supporting Actress Nominee ~ Ovation Awards
FEATURING: Amir Abdullah, Devereau Chumrau, Kathleen M. Darcy, Catia Ojeda,
Eamon Sheehan, Patrick Quinlan
Produced by Theatre Banshee Theatre in Los Angeles, CA
"Director Kelly and her cast and creative team have taken Noone's marvelous words and brought them to life with consummate inventiveness and flair"
StageSceneLA
"Director McKerrin Kelly efficiently stages this hetero Gaelic cousin to Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey” in a spare, stylized manner. Assembling her talented cast like a Greek chorus on either side of designer Arthur MacBride’s set of banked storage boxes, Kelly maintains easy forward propulsion, aided by Bosco Flanagan's resourceful lighting and a proficient ensemble." LA Times
"McKerrin Kelly's consistently creative direction takes what could have been a somewhat static play and fills it with visual ingenuity, from using swinging lights and a bustling ensemble to display Brendan's disorientation to creating a visceral near car crash scene mainly with lights and sound effects." LAist
"director Kelly has pulled off a minor coup…" Stagehappenings.com
Director's Note
"Brendan, on the surface, is a sweet and simple tale.
Boy leaves country. Boy meets another country, tries to settle down and disappear among the masses.
But, as most of us know, stories are rarely simple. Anyone who has ever tried to leave their past behind can testify to that.
Compared to others around him (and millions of others in the country today), Brendan's journey as an immigrant is remarkably easy. No decades long waiting period, no joblessness or substandard ousting, no hiding from authorities and very little discrimination. But his emotional journey is stuck in an endless holding pattern that even his remarkable luck won't break until outside forces intervene.
With today's immigration debate raging, it is tempting to lump masses of individuals in to a single 'them' in an attempt to make sense of an issue too big for sound bites. "THEY are not US". But that is the surface story, and stories are never simple. We are all immigrants. Some of us more recent than others, but all of us have had to leave something behind in order to be where we are today. Some of us are citizens, some of us not Some of us are desperate to become American because, even with all its' flaws, the USA stands for basic freedoms and rights that are unique and honorable.
May we all be as lucky as Brendan and experience the healing power of human connection, being seen and coming out of the shadows.
As Mammy says: " Brendan, I just wanted to say, we all do the best we can. We make friends when we can make friends, and we love even when we can't help it. Some people are lonely and some people are happy but we're all the same and as long as we are good, just a good person, then we're alright.
We're alright."