The British theater maker and theorist Peter Brook once said that all an “act of theater” requires is an empty space, a performer, and an audience. For Rorschach Theatre, one of the District’s most consistently inventive and ambitious companies, that’s only the starting point for their newest production.
Titled SPARKED: The Vanishing at Buzzard Point, the brand-new play stretches out over five currently vacant retail spaces in The Stacks, a new luxury development in Southwest, not far from Audi Field. Guides will lead groups of audience members through the spaces to pick up clues and come to their own conclusions about the mysterious 1933 disappearance of two lovers and one very powerful storm that threw time and space into turmoil. The show runs October 22 through November 15.
To fill those five rooms, Rorschach hired a team that would be cramped in a studio apartment: four directors, two set designers, two lighting designers, several design consultants, plus a costumer, sound designer, props designer, choreographer, video designer, intimacy coach, technical director, and a pair of stage managers. Many have assistants, and this is before the actors showed up or the script was even finished.
Heading up SPARKED is Jenny McConnell Frederick, who came up with the story and concept of the play, wrote it, and sat in one of the directing chairs (she’s also producing alongside her longtime cohabitant at Rorschach, Randy Baker).
While the company is keeping a tight lid on the story, McConnell Frederick shares how uniquely design-driven this production has been.
“We wanted to use these vacant retail spaces to tell a story in a little bit different way,” she says. “Most often, you’re starting with a script, and everybody responds to that. Here, we started with an outline. The script evolved alongside the designers, suggesting how different design elements could tell the story. It’s a bit more collaborative, more parallel process when the script is on equal footing, rather than primary, with design.”
Sarah Beth Hall, serving as a scenic creative consultant, agrees. “Because all the designers were brought in as the script was developing, we were able to present ideas that ended up influencing the script and the staging,” she shares. “It was really fun to embrace the scale of the project. Jenny and Randy talked about an epic bold minimalism, about these story moments dropped into these large, industrial spaces.”
One moment — that may or may not make the final cut — came from Dean Leong, who shares lighting design duties with Ben Harvey. “We’re incorporating the history and lore of the PEPCO power plant in Buzzard Point, and one of the first things we asked was ‘Is there any way we could talk to somebody at the power plant and get control of their external lighting as part of the show?’”
Mixing history, geography, and fantasy has been part of Rorschach’s DNA since Baker and McConnell Frederick founded the company more than 25 years ago. Long before The Stacks opened, Buzzard Point fascinated SPARKED’s creator. “In the late ’90s, I would see buses go by that said ‘Buzzard Point.’ I thought it was a very mysterious, evocative place name, like, what could possibly be there,” McConnell Frederick says.
“One afternoon I basically followed a bus down there, but there were a lot of areas you couldn’t get into, government buildings, fences, and lots of greenery and wildlife. So it remained mysterious.” Today, developers are turning the neighborhood into a high-end living and shopping district, but Rorschach is keeping some of the area’s mysteries and histories alive.
The final participant of any theatrical act, as Peter Brook knew, is the audience. “Someone could go through the different rooms, finding things that sneakily show up in a variety of ways, hear different stories, and come away with a different perspective than anyone else,” Hall promises. “SPARKED doesn’t pinpoint an answer about what happened to the couple. It invites you to speculate. That feels right for Rorschach and for ‘spooky season.’”
For audience members who need to discuss the show afterward, Rorschach has you covered. Each night, the show starts and ends in the Five Dead Horse Tavern (don’t picture it too long), a functioning bar and social space. Given that different audience members will experience the show’s spaces in different orders, and receive different narratives along the way, the need to debrief is pretty much guaranteed. But first, you need to be in the rooms to see what happens first, next, before, and after.
Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes.
SPARKED: The Vanishing at Buzzard Point plays through November 15, 2026, produced by Rorschach Theatre, performing in The Stacks, 101 V Street SW, Washington, DC. Tickets (regular, $50; senior and student, $35; limited number of $20 InkTix for every show) are available online.
Concept and Story by Jenny McConnell Frederick
Written by Jenny McConnell Frederick and Randy Baker, with contributions from Erik Harrison, Andrew Quilpa, and the Company
Directed by Elizabeth Ung, Esteban Marmolejo-Suarez, Jenny McConnell Frederick, and Randy Baker
CAST
Abel Haddish
Irene Hamilton
Erik Harrison
Andrew Quilpa
Robert Bowen Smith
THE REGULARS
Alexys Adams
Ayanna Fowler
Aja Goode
Mollie Greenberg
Erik Harrison
Brooke Kemph
Charlotte Kim
Drew Okoye
DESIGNERS
Scenic Designer: Brandon Roak
Scenic Designer: Margarita Syrocheva
Scenic Creative Consultant: Sarah Beth Hall
Lighting Designer: Dean Leong
Lighting Designer: Ben Harvey
Costume Designer: Jessica Utz
Sound Designer: Kristina Manente
Assistant Sound Designer: Sora Reyes
Video Creative Consultant: Kylos Brannon
Props Designer: Roo Sultan
Intimacy Choreographer: Lorraine Ressegger
Video Designer: Andres Poch
Dance Choreographer: Robert Bowen Smith
STAFF
Stage Manager: Josh Diewald
Stage Manager: Madeline Mustin
Technical Director: Sean Flaherty
Production Associate: Sophia Menconi
PRODUCERS
Randy Baker
Jenny McConnell Frederick
