The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
Sound Design and Original Music
Performances: September 2019
Performance count: 8
Description of company:
Flint Repertory Theatre is a professional theatre located in Flint, Michigan. They were established in 2018 and feature a combination of world premiere productions as well as innovative stagings of the classics. The theatre employs professional Equity (union) actors and professional designers from across the United States. The theatre uses two spaces in house as well as the Capitol Theatre (IATSE roadhouse) in downtown Flint for productions. The Effect of Gamma Rays… was produced in the Elgood Theatre, which is a black box theatre in a 3/4 thrust configuration that seats 130 patrons.
Playwright: Paul Zindel
Director: Kathryn Walsh
Lighting Design: Jen Fok
Costume Design: Katherine Nelson
Scenic Design: Lauren Nigri
Properties Design: Lisa Bilaski
Synopsis
"Supporting herself and her two daughters by taking in a decrepit old boarder, acid-tongued Beatrice Hunsdorfer wreaks a petty vengeance on everyone around her. Her older daughter, Ruth, is a pretty but highly strung girl subject to convulsions, while her younger girl, Tillie, plain and almost pathologically shy, demonstrates an intuitive gift for science. Encouraged by her teacher, Tillie conducts a botanical experiment, winning a prize at her high school. Proud but jealous, too filled with her own hurt to accept her daughter's success, Beatrice can only maim when she needs to love and deride when she intends to praise. Yet, as Tillie's experiment proves, something beautiful and full of promise can emerge from even the most barren, afflicted soil.” from Concord Theatricals
Design Statement
The Effect of Gamma Rays… is a show that initially seemed like just an interesting opportunity but developed into a far richer experience thanks to my collaborators. Director Katy Walsh felt that Paul Zindel had crafted this narrative around a theme of female generational trauma, and that ultimately led me to think about cycles. The waltz you hear plays again and again throughout the show, mutating as it were from transition to transition. As Tillie discovers with her marigold project, some mutations are beautiful and unexpected, and some are ugly. In one of the happiest accidents of my career, once we hit tech I realized that Nanny was also creating a waltz with her walker. Walker, shuffle, shuffle; walker, shuffle, shuffle. This served to tie the waltz to a pattern that Beatrice resented day-to-day.
“Flint Rep’s production has an intensity to the realism…Care is taken of every detail for a fully immersive experience…In the hands of Flint Rep, Director Walsh, the creative team, and the five fine actors in the show it transforms into an intense experience that is sure to imprint itself on the hearts and memories of all who see it.”
Bridgette Redman - Encore Michigan
Patsy Isenberg - East Village Magazine
“The Rep’s production is intense, appropriate to its searing themes.”