Humana Festival 2011: 'Elemeno Pea'
Playwright Molly Smith Metzler takes a comedic look at how the absurd wealth of Martha’s Vineyard draws a young woman far from her blue-collar upbringing – much to her older sister’s dismay – in “Elemeno Pea.” "Elemeno Pea" runs in Actors Theatre’s Humana Festival of New American Plays from March 8 through April 3, 2011.
When Devon visits Simone on Martha’s Vineyard, where Simone is the personal assistant to a demanding trophy wife, Devon is distressed by the changes in her younger sibling. Simone has thoroughly adopted a lavish new lifestyle foreign to their Buffalo, N.Y., roots, and what’s more, she also seems to have a new set of priorities to go with it. Devon’s attempt to remind her sister of who she really is becomes even more complicated when the trophy wife, Michaela, shows up in the middle of her own crisis.
Metzler's witty script explores class issues, ambition and mistakes, and how the choices people make ultimately shape them.
Metzler, who developed the play for the Humana Festival through a partnership with New York University, was inspired by her own job waiting tables at a yacht club on Martha’s Vineyard after college graduation.
She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and the Ars Nova Play Group. Her first full-length play, “Training Wisteria,” received the Kennedy Center National Student Playwriting Award, the Mark Twain Prize for Comic Playwriting and the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award. Her most recent play, “Close Up Space,” was developed at the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference last summer.
“Elemeno Pea” is her first Humana Festival play.
The monthlong Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville is a nationally renowned theater festival that has introduced more than 400 plays into the repertoire. Three Humana Festival plays have won the Pulitzer Prize. The festival, which is underwritten by the Humana Foundation, is an opportunity to see what’s coming next in theater and mingle with emerging playwrights and critics and producers from across the country.
Hello Louisville Tip: The Humana Festival also includes behind-the-scenes events, panel discussions and open houses. Many are offered during Locals Weekend, March 11-13.
Posted on Mar 14, 2011 by Carla Carlton
