Humana Festival 2011: 'Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them'
The definition of family and the cost of having to assume too much responsibility too soon are two of the issues at the heart of playwright A. Rey Pamatmat’s “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them,” onstage as part of the Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre. “Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them," runs from March 11 through April 2, 2011.
With their mother dead and their father absent, aside from occasional phone calls to their home on a remote farm in Middle America, Kenny, 16, is entirely responsible for his 12-year-old sister, Edith, who is never without her air rifle and her stuffed frog. He’s doing a good job of keeping it all together until his friend – and first love – Benji moves in, upsetting the delicate balance. When Edith shows how well she can shoot, Kenny realizes he is in over his head.
Pamatmat wrote for “The Open Road Anthology” in the 2007 Humana Festival and is collaborating this year on “The End,” a premiere that will be performed by Actors Theatre’s Acting Apprentice Company from March 18 through April 3, 2011.
A graduate of New York University and the Yale School of Drama, Pamatmat developed “Edith,” which is directed by May Adrales, in the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. He has had work developed regionally at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference and Victory Gardens’ Ignition Festival, and several of his plays have been produced off-off-Broadway.
He told “Inside Actors,” Actors Theatre’s publication for subscribers, that he likes to feature protagonists who are marginalized by ethnicity, class, gender or sexual orientation in his plays and make them the “Everyman” characters. “When theater allows you to realize you’re a lot like someone who seems to come from a different world or background, it opens the door to empathy and to a wider representation of experiences,” he told Actors’ Mik Mroczynski.
The Humana Festival of New American Plays, underwritten by the Humana Foundation and now in its 35th year at Actors Theatre of Louisville, is the preeminent festival of its kind. It draws theater critics and arts writers from across the country to view new works, many of which go on to be produced on and off Broadway and at regional theaters nationwide.
Posted on Mar 7, 2011 by Carla Carlton
