Rorschach Theatre is pleased to announce its 25th anniversary season. For 25 years, the award-winning and nationally recognized company has been known for its bold use of theatrical space and its dedication to impossible fantastical realism. Rorschach Theatre’s explosive new season immerses audiences in adventures both new and reimagined. As the company embarks on its next quarter century, it continues to forge new paths in revitalizing downtown through partnerships with Golden Triangle BID and Lerner Enterprises; foster vital dialogues about history and community in neighborhoods across DC through its Psychogeographies Project; and further essential artist development programs KLECKSOGRAPHY and MAGIC IN ROUGH SPACES.
2023/24 SEASON LINEUP
George A. Romero’s
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
Adapted by Christopher Bond, Dale Boyer, and Trevor Martin.
Created by Christopher Harrison and Phil Pattison
Directed by Lilli Hokama
October 27-November 19
Previews October 27-29
Halloween Show on October 31
1020 Connecticut Ave NW
Revitalizing a vacant storefront in downtown in partnership with Golden Triangle BID and Lerner Enterprises
Smart, hilarious, and scary, this reimagining of George Romero’s 1968 cult classic, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD finds six strangers trapped in a farmhouse surrounded by the undead. What could go wrong? The adaptation examines Romero’s film, the period in which it was made, and the film’s influence on the horror genre.
Rorschach will transform a two-level 8,000+ sq foot former retail space into an unforgettable theatrical experience with thrills and surprises for both horror fans and those new to the genre.
HUMAN MUSEUM
By Miyoko Conley
Directed by Randy Baker
April 12 – May 5, 2024
Previews April 12-14
Source Theatre
1835 14th Street NW
HUMAN MUSEUM begins on the centenary of human extinction and follows three robots who run the Human Museum on Earth. The robots are putting the finishing touches on their largest exhibition yet, about humanity’s final days on Earth, when they receive a startling radio call that upends everything they thought they knew about the last days of humanity.
Miyoko Conley is an Asian American playwright, games writer, and scholar. Her plays have been presented in the Bay Area and New York City, including at UC Berkeley; UCLA; Second Generation (2g); The Tank; The Wild Project; and New York University. In addition to Human Museum (which was developed at Rorschach Theatre’s Magic In Rough Spaces New Play Lab as well as at the 2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival), her plays include Starship Dance Party (developed with the New Play Reading series at UC Berkeley); End of the World Place (2015 semi-finalist Bay Area Playwrights Festival); Untitled Fantasy (part of 2g’s Jumpstart Commissions); and Interchangeable Parts (part of 2g’s Free Range Commissions). She has also received screenwriting commissions from the Oklahoma City University MFA Screen Acting Program in Los Angeles. Miyoko holds a BFA in Theatre from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, an MA from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study in Playwriting and Japanese Popular Culture, and a Ph.D. in Performance Studies and New Media from the University of California, Berkeley.
Human Museum was workshopped as a part of Rorschach Theatre’s 2023 Magic in Rough Spaces New Play Lab.
SLEEPING GIANT
By Steve Yockey
Directed by Jenny McConnell Frederick
June 28 – July 21, 2024
Previews June 28-30
Location TBA
When a firework-filled marriage proposal goes very wrong, the accompanying explosions wake up something very old that has been sleeping in the nearby lake for thousands of years. What follows are intimate, darkly comic, and sometimes startling vignettes about the lengths people go to when they desperately want to believe in something.
Steve Yockey is a Los Angeles-based writer with work produced throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. His plays Bellwether, Pluto, Afterlife, Octopus, Large Animal Games, CARTOON, Subculture, Very Still & Hard to See, Blackberry Winter, The Thrush & The Woodpecker, The Fisherman’s Wife, Wolves, Disassembly, and Niagara Falls & Other Plays are published and licensed by Samuel French/Concord Theatricals. Steve holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He was a Co-Executive Producer on the television series Supernatural and is the Emmy-nominated creator and showrunner of HBO Max’s breakout darkly comedic thriller The Flight Attendant.
Yockey’s plays Reykjavik and Very Still & Hard to See were produced at Rorschach Theatre. Very Still & Hard to See was nominated for five Helen Hayes Awards.
ELDRITCH INVESTIGATIONS
A Psychogeographies Project
October 2023 – July 2024
Created by Steve Yockey, Kylos Brannon, Jenny McConnell Frederick, and Jonelle Walker
Cults and cryptids collide when a curious Washingtonian investigates local unexplained phenomena. Explore the lure of the unknown and its entanglement with DC history in this multi-chapter adventure across the city.
This season, Steve Yockey, Emmy-nominated screenwriter (HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant) and playwright (Reykjavik, Very Still & Hard To See) will join the creative team behind Rorschach’s Psychogeographies Projects. In addition, Yockey’s dark comedy Sleeping Giant, will close out the company’s Rorschach 23-24 season, and the script’s themes of passionate devotion to questionable idols will resonate throughout Eldritch Investigations.
OTHER EVENTS IN 2023-24
KLECKSOGRAPHY: February 2024
Rorschach leads a partnership with six theatres for 50+ emerging artists to benefit from mentorship and networking opportunities when they create 12 new plays in 10 days.
MAGIC IN ROUGH SPACES NEW PLAY LAB
Rorschach will curate developmental workshops and public readings of two new plays in the 2023/24 season.
FIGHT CAMP: Summer 2024
Rorschach’s stage combat training program offers classes for all levels of experience.
ABOUT RORSCHACH THEATRE
Jenny McConnell Frederick and Randy Baker, Founding Artistic Directors
Through uncommon uses of environment and intimate passionate performances, Rorschach Theatre seeks to lure its audiences beyond the limits of ordinary theatrical experience so that they may discover new elements of their own humanity.
Rorschach Theatre tells stories that allow for innovative design and visceral performances. The company treats productions as “installations” that surround the audience with the world of a play. The work centers on the intersection of magic or impossible moments and everyday human experiences. Without proselytizing, it provides a complex, intellectual catalyst for self-exploration of challenging subjects.
Rorschach is also a vital launching pad for emerging artists. By trusting early-career actors, directors, playwrights, and designers with substantive artistic responsibilities, and surrounding them with established professionals and ample resources, the company has become an essential showcase for new talent. In addition to its regular season, Rorschach produces “Magic in Rough Spaces,” an annual new play development series; “Klecksography,” an annual new artist development event (for actors, local playwrights, and directors); and “Fight Camp,” a stage combat training program held every summer.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Rorschach completely reimagined the theater’s role in the community and its application of available resources and through that process forged a groundbreaking new program called “Psychogeographies.” These season-long immersive narratives take participants to lesser-known spots around their city as a story unfolds through letters, artifacts, and objects mailed in monthly chapters. Each Psychogeographies Project culminates with a live, in-person production.
The Helen Hayes Award-winning Rorschach Theatre has produced more than sixty plays seen by tens of thousands of people in the Washington area. The company has been recognized more than a dozen times by the Helen Hayes Awards; won a Mary Goldwater Award; been a finalist for the Mayor’s Arts Award; and has been the recipient of multiple grants and awards from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. The company’s work has garnered the attention of The New York Times, The Washington Post, American Theatre magazine, and National Public Radio, as well as countless local publications.
SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES
Subscriptions can be purchased at https://rorschachtheatre.com/subscriptions
Package 1: SEE IT ALL ($262)
- 3 Live, In-Person Productions (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD / HUMAN MUSEUM / SLEEPING GIANT)
- 1 subscription to ELDRITCH INVESTIGATIONS, the Seven-Chapter Psychogeographies Series
- 2 Special Events: Klecksography & Magic In Rough Spaces
Package 2: ON STAGE ($131)
- 3 Live, In-Person Productions (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD / HUMAN MUSEUM / SLEEPING GIANT)
- 2 Special Events: Klecksography & Magic In Rough Spaces
Package 3: PSYCHOGEOGRAPHIES ($194)
- 1 subscription to ELDRITCH INVESTIGATIONS, the Seven-Chapter Psychogeographies Series
- 1 ticket to the live summer show (SLEEPING GIANT)
