Timucua elevates the text at first Wordplay Festival
Words lead the way this month at Timucua Arts Foundation — a venue known more for its music.
Don’t worry: The tunes will still be playing on Orlando’s uniquely intimate theater-within-ahouse, but March has been dedicated to the nonprofit’s inaugural Wordplay Festival.
This first-ever fest will feature world premieres of four plays, opera, a rock musical, poetry, a Joni Mitchell tribute and two vocal music concerts, including an International Women’s Day program by female composers.
“We’ve always presented theater and poetry events,” says executive director Christopher Belt, “but this is the first time we’ve bundled them together in one month.”
While tickets are available to the individual events, many of them pay what you like, a festival pass with access to all nine programs is available for $100.
The month of events begins with “The Important Problem: A Social Justice Opera” (7:30 p.m. March 3 and 4, pay what you wish). Holly Cordero’s opera explores how politics, the law and society intersect — and what to do about the ways in which the law is interpreted.
Among the characters: A corrupt CEO, a computer hacker, an unethical politician and an impoverished pregnant woman. One righteous citizen believes they all have broken the law, and the story leads to a twist ending.
Next up is “The Not” (7:30 p.m. March 5, pay what you wish). Ashleigh Ann Gardner wrote and performs this solo show that delves into the ways loss and abuse haunt us. Jeremy Seghers directs.
International Women’s Day brings “I Am Woman,” a concert by Keri Lee Pierson.
“It’s all work for solo voice by women who are composers and performers,” Belt says.
Among the composers represented: Cathy Berberian, Meredith Monk, Gilda Lyons, Susan Botti, Kamala Sankaram and Alex Temple.
Pierson specifically chose solo work “because as a female-identifying singer, there is a lot of empowerment performing alone, at times with my own accompaniment, and in representing fellow females,” she says.
Two short plays by new producers make up the double bill of “Works in Progress: ‘Who mothered
the corpse?’ and “Precious Gems’ ”
(7:30 p.m. March 12, pay what you wish).
“One is 24 and one is a grandmother,” Belt says. “And they are both doing this for this first time.”
“Who mothered the corpse?” is a 40-minute work by Zero the Writer. It’s set in a time when the dead are used by the living. Four women claim to be the mother of a corpse found in the woods — and each has her own plans for the body. A trial commences to determine who has the true claim.
Joanna Tress then presents her “Precious Gems,” a 40-minute piece of musical theater with seven original songs. The hopeful story: In the 1930s, a Black woman tries to break into show business, finally getting the chance to share her music later in life.
The play’s message fits alongside Tress’s passion for encouraging those 50 and older to explore their creativity, a mission she pursues with her husband, Matthew, at Mattanna.org.
Next, Orlando playwright Joseph Reed Hayes presents the first reading
of his “Tempus” (7:30 p.m. March 17 and 18, pay what you wish).
In “Tempus,” Hayes reinterprets Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” as a look at the 1940s jazz scene and a tale of legendary swing band leader “Duke” Prospero. Hayes uses the framework to examine immigration and integration, among other societal changes.
Spoken-word artist Raymond Jimenez will perform a series of poems around the theme of monsters, both imaginary and real, at the monthly “Authentic Selves Poetry Reading and Open Mic Night” (7:30 p.m. March 19, pay what you wish).
That’s followed by the Orlando premiere of “Queen of Swords,” (7:30 p.m. March 24-25, $25 with discounts for students, seniors and frontline workers). Thom Mesrobian and Ben Shepler wrote rock musical, which will be presented as a staged reading.
Mesrobian is known to Central Florida audiences for Orlando Fringe Festival shows such as the critically acclaimed “Be a Pirate!” and “Simpleton: The Legend of President Trump.”
“Queen of Swords” had its genesis in 2016 after the success of “Simpleton,” when Mesrobian began writing with a future Fringe in mind. But he soon discovered that his musical’s subject — the 17th-century bisexual opera singer and sword fighter Julie D’Aubigny — needed more time than a short Fringe show would
allow.
“She was such an astonishing person with such an incredible life that she deserved a full-length musical,” Mesrobian says. “So that’s what we’ve done.”
Among D’Aubigny’s exploits, detailed in the show: becoming the star of Opera Paris, successfully dueling three men at once — and burning down a convent to rescue her girlfriend.
Award-winning director Tara Kromer will helm the reading, with a cast that includes Ema Pava in the lead role, Sarah Lockard as the narrator and Juan Cantú, Cathy Colburn, Jarrett Poore, Kari Ringer and Fredy Ruiz, among others.
Music by Mozart, Rossini and Puccini headline
“A Night at the Opera!” (7:30 p.m. March 26, pay what you wish). Musical Traditions Inc. presents the program, which also includes selections from Bizet’s “Carmen” and musical-theater works from “Guys and Dolls” and “Man of La Mancha.”
Singers Aleksandra Vargas, Natalie Doliner, Angeliz Bula and Jose Manuel Lopez will be accompanied by Sergei Kossenko at the piano.
Finally, the Monika Herzig Quintet with Alexis Cole will salute the legendary Joni Mitchell with “Both Sides of Joni” (7:30 p.m. March 31, $25 with discounts for students, seniors and frontline workers).”
The concert will showcase Mitchell’s beloved songs through arrangements and improvisation designed to highlight both the timelessness and versatility of Mitchell’s songwriting.
The Wordplay programs are available to watch in person at Timucua, 2000 S. Summerlin Ave. in Orlando, or online, with details at timucua.com.
“We do so much with instrumental music, especially classical and jazz,” says Belt, explaining the change of pace for the organization. “This idea was to celebrate all things words.”