Body Awareness
| Body Awareness | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Annie Baker |
| Characters | Joyce Phyllis Jared Frank |
| Date premiered | May 28, 2008 |
| Place premiered | Atlantic Theater Company |
| Original language | English |
Body Awareness is a one-act play by Annie Baker. The play premiered Off-Broadway in 2008.
This play marked the Off-Broadway debut for Annie Baker. The play takes place at Shirley State College in Shirley, Vermont, which "evokes Amherst, Mass., where Ms. Baker... grew up, or Keene State College in New Hampshire, where her mother teaches now." Baker said, "My goal for the play is to not judge anyone, to get at that point where everyone is equally right and equally wrong, so the humor comes from that... I wanted to write a play about issues that wasn’t an 'issue play'."
The play was developed at the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, San Francisco, California, part of the Playwrights Foundation, and with the support of Atlantic Stage 2.
The play is set in the fictional small town of Shirley, Vermont. Phyllis is a professor of psychology, and has organized a campus Body Awareness Week, whose topics range from a dance troupe of refugee Palestinian children to an eating disorder seminar. She lives with her partner Joyce, a high school social studies teacher, and Joyce's 21-year-old son Jared, from a prior marriage. Jared shows several symptoms of Asperger's syndrome, but he refuses to see a therapist for treatment. Their houseguest is a middle-aged photographer named Frank Bonitatibus, whose artistic photos of nude women offend Phyllis. Frank's presence exacerbates the already existing tension between the three of them, and when Joyce agrees to pose for one of Frank's pictures, this threatens her relationship with Phyllis. Meanwhile, Jared, a self-described autodidact who works at McDonald's until he successfully tries to get fired because he hates his co-workers, asks Frank for advice on how to attract women.
Body Awareness premiered Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company from May 28, 2008 (previews) to June 22, 2008. Directed by Karen Kohlhaas, the cast featured JoBeth Williams (Joyce), Mary McCann (Phyllis), Jonathan Clem (Jared) and Peter Friedman (Frank).
The Boston premiere took place from October 22, 2010 until November 20, 2010. It was produced by the SpeakEasy Stage Company and teamed with Company One (which put on Aliens) and the Huntington Theatre Company (which put on Circle Mirror Transformation) as part of "The Shirley, VT Plays" Festival. It was directed by Paul Daigneault, with scenic design by Cristina Todesco, costume design by Bobby Frederick Tilley II, lighting design by Jeff Adelberg, original music and sound design by Nathan Leigh, and Victoria S. Coady as production stage manager. The Speakeasy cast featured Paula Plum (Joyce), Adrianne Krstansky (Phyllis), Gregory Pember (Jared) and Richard Snee (Frank).
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