Making audiences uncomfortable comes natural to Troy Foundry Theatre
TROY, N.Y. » It started with a photograph of two young children standing on a stoop. Now, according to playwright Katie Pedro, “They are two living and breathing people to whom I am very attached.”
Actually, they are characters in a play written by Pedro. They are older, but still isolated in their own world.
The people in the photograph, named Brother and Sister, are two of the three people in the Troy Foundry Theatre’s production of “Models of Perfection.” They are the center of the play as they are being evicted from a place they call home.
Pedro explains that Brother and Sister entered her life as part of a writing exercise as a graduate student.
She explains that at graduate school, she was given a photograph and was told to create a world from the image. She says she had this strange and immediate connection to the children in the photo.
The conflict in the play comes from Brother and Sister being losing the only place they think of as home – that stoop.
Pedro says the world she created is not a world of reality. “It is their reality, but it’s not totally recognizable to the rest of us.” Her hope is by play’s end their reality and the audience’s reality will be reconciled.
The work opens Friday evening. It will be presented at an outdoor space next to the Trojan Hotel at 41- 43 3rd St., downtown Troy. The show plays at 8 p.m. this weekend through Sunday, and Oct. 28-Nov. 1. Seating is limited to 35 seats a performance. Face masks must be worn throughout the performance.
If sitting outside in a late-fall evening sounds uncomfortable, it might be offset by being such an appropriate setting for the material.
Feeling some slight physical discomfort might be a portal into the mental anguish of the characters.
But not to worry, audiences can bring blankets, a heater will be at every table and the show only runs for about 60-minutes.
Besides - making the audience feeling a bit uncomfortable is always a goal of Troy Foundry. Past productions used material that challenged the audiences. They were offered in nontraditional spaces and most were presented in a nonlinear manner that made demands on those who attended.
Offering a play in a Troy alley, outdoors, in late- October seems rather normal for the company.
The material seems equally as challenging. In a telephone interview from her Brooklyn apartment, Pedro says of her writing style, “I never write a play for people to leave saying, ‘The playwright wanted me to think this.’ I write a play so that the audience will do its own work and take from it what they want.”
Though it is implied that the characters are or will soon be homeless, Pedro insists the play is more about displacement, which she feels makes the work more universal and contemporary.
“I started writing this play in 2017, and now in
2020 with the pandemic and the divisive politics in this election year, it seems we are all suffering issues of displacement.”
Identifying some of the things we have lost, she names jobs, friendships and regular routines, before her voice fades off ending in an almost sad silence.
Making the experience more complex, Pedro reveals that the stoop they are leaving is actually “a vessel that represents a person.” She explains throughout the play there is a repeated refrain, “She told us to wait here.”
Such references evoke the spirit of Absurdist playwright, Samuel Beckett. Pedro says some involved in the production feel it more resembles plays written by Caryl Churchill, who’s non-naturalistic style speaks to abuses of power.
She offers a sly laugh
at the comparisons but doesn’t disagree. Indeed, she uses her own life to show the strange paths that are often dictated to us by chance.
Pedro was raised in New Hampshire and attended Russell Sage College in Troy as a theater major. After graduation she attended Sarah Lawrence where she obtained her MFA and a photograph. Upon graduation she immediately went to New York City to begin a life as a theater professional.
While at Sage she met David Girard and Emily Curro, who are founding members of Troy Foundry. They formed the theater company in 2017 with Girard as the Artistic Director and Curro the Producing Executive Director. Pedro agreed to be an Associate Artistic Director of the company.
“I always loved Troy, but when I moved to New York, I was convinced it was part of my past. Now I make regular trips back and Troy is still very much part of my present,” she says, with a touch of wonderment.
So, in the middle of a pandemic that shut down live theater everywhere, a girl from New Hampshire, who lives in Brooklyn, is having a play produced in an alley in Troy. Add to that, it’s being directed by a theater artist ( Niya Colbert) from Philadelphia.
Don’t try to tell Katie Pedro the world doesn’t resemble an absurdist play.
“Models of Perfection” produced by Troy Foundry Theater in downtown Troy has a preview tonight 8 pm. It continues 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Oct. 28-Nov. 1. For tickets and information go to modelsofperfectiontft.eventbrite.com