BrandoCapote (2019) | reid-farrington

BrandoCapote 2019

Why? It’s anyone’s guess, but it looks great.. and is sometimes dazzling…” - Rollo Romig The New Yorker

Photo Miguel Aviles

Conceived by Sara & Reid Farrington

Written by Sara Farrington

Directed by Reid Farrington

Premier Nov 7-24, 2019 The Tank NYC

TIME/PLACE

Purgatory, which in this case is a hotel room in The Miyako Hotel,

Kyoto, Japan in the years between 1957 and 2004.

BrandoCapote is approximately 60 minutes with no intermission

CAST

Rafael Jordan* – Brando

Jennifer McClinton – Capote, or The Devil

Lynn R Guerra* - Dodie, or The Mother

Laura K Nicoll – Cheyenne, or The Daughter

Cooper Howell* – Christian, or The Son

Sara Farrington – Voice of Capote, or The Devil

Akiyo Komatsu – Vocal Impression of Truman Capote

*Member AEA, Approved Showcase

CREW & CREATIVE TEAM

Written by: Sara Farrington

Directed by: Reid Farrington

Choreographed by: Laura K Nicoll

Video Designed by: Reid Farrington

Stage Manager: Jaclyn Pageau

Noh Consultant: Mayo Miwa

Lighting Design: Laura Mroczkowski

Sound Design: Marcelo Anez

Costume Design: Andre Joyner

Costume Construction: Kelvin Gordon-El

Prologue song performed by: Daniel DeWald

Lighting Assistant: Evan Hawkins

Sound Assistant: Sam Soghor

Technical Director: Conrad Kluck

Assistant Stage Manager: Haley Gordon

HISTORICAL NOTES

1957: Truman Capote interviewed Marlon Brando in his room at The Miyako

Hotel for seven hours while the actor was on location in Kyoto, Japan shooting

the film Sayonara. The revealing profile, The Duke in His Domain, was

published in The New Yorker on Nov. 9th 1957. At the time, Brando was the

most famous movie star in the world, forever changing acting in theater and film.

1966: Capote became the most famous American writer of his generation after

the publication of his “non-fiction novel” In Cold Blood, about the Clutter family murder at the hands of Dick Hickok and Perry Smith. Hickok and Smith were hung for their crimes on April 14th 1965.

1984: Truman Capote died of liver disease due to a lifelong addiction to pills and alcohol. He was 59. He never completed another book.

1990: Christian Brando, Brando’s oldest son, murdered Dag Drollet, who was Cheyenne Brando’s boyfriend, with a single bullet to the face. Drollet, who was 25, was watching TV in Marlon’s living room when Christian shot him. Christian pled guilty to manslaughter and spent 4 years in prison. Cheyenne witnessed the murder.

1995: Cheyenne Brando committed suicide by hanging. She was 25.

2004: Marlon Brando died due to complications from respiratory and pulmonary disease. He was 80.

2008: Christian Brando died of pneumonia. He was 49.

SOURCE MATERIAL

Films referenced: The Missouri Breaks, A Streetcar Named Desire, On The Waterfront, Julius Caesar, Mutiny on The Bounty, Sayonara, Reflections in a Golden Eye, Superman, Last Tango in Paris, Apocalypse Now, The Island Of Doctor Moreau, The Godfather, Don Juan DeMarco, Free Money

Prose referenced

The Duke in His Domain, by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote

Plays referenced

A Flag is Born, by Ben Hecht

BRANDOCAPOTE WORKSHOP HISTORY

The Tank, November 2018, featuring Lynn R Guerra, Roger Casey, Sean

Donovan

Art House Productions, March 2019, featuring Laura K Nicoll, Lynn R Guerra,

Roger Dominic Casey, Gabriel Hernandez, Sean Donovan. Stage managed

by Rufus Morgan Kreilkamp Nicoll.

Art House Productions, June-August 2019, featuring Laura K Nicoll,

Lynn R Guerra, Roger Dominic Casey, Akiyo Komatsu, Shashwat Gupta.

Stage managed by Jaclyn Pageau.

BrandoCapote was developed in part thanks to a generous artistic

residency from Art House Productions, Jersey City, NJ. We are so

grateful to Meredith Burns, Courtney Little, Miranda Dahl &

the whole Art House team.

SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING PERFORMERS & CREW

Laura Peterson, Roger Dominic Casey, Akiyo Komatsu, Sean Donovan,

Gabriel Hernandez, Shashwat Gupta, Miranda Dahl, Lillia Shrayfer,

Jennifer McClinton, Rachel Kaufman, Rufus Nicoll.

SPECIAL THANKS TO CHILDCARE SUPPORTERS FOR

JACK & LEVI FARRINGTON

Sally Carnevale, Russell Sperberg, Rosa Wolff, Daniel DeWald, Mike Asselin,

Kay & Jack Farrington, Holly Clark, Marti Giorgi, Lilly Rose Block,

Olivia Chamorro, Jane Wilbourn.

…

Photo Miguel Aviles

3 min. video of performance - "What was your father like?"

Opening Video - "The Overture" - This is projected on the closed kabuki drop before the performance begins. It shows all the film clips used in performance.

3 min. video of performance - "Tell me about the night of the shooting."

WHAT CRITICS SAID:

"Written by Sara Farrington and directed by Reid Farrington, this jittery dance-theatre piece, performed by five actors in kimonos, begins in 1957, in Kyoto, where Marlon Brando was acting in the film “Sayonara” and Truman Capote interviewed him for a Profile in this magazine. (Jennifer McClinton stands out as a slinky Capote, as does Lynn R. Guerra as Brando’s mother.) It then imagines that interview extending to the end of Brando’s life, conflates his movie dialogue with his actual biography, tosses in bits of Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” and loops them, in a manner suggestive of Noh theatre. Why? It’s anyone’s guess, but it looks great, with sound (by Marcelo Añez), lights (by Laura Mroczkowski), choreography (by Laura K. Nicoll), movie clips, and props working together in sometimes dazzling concert." — Rollo Romig, The New Yorker

"The performers are compelling to watch throughout, and they work effectively as an ensemble. Eschewing conventional narrative techniques, BrandoCapote is both a hypnotic and enervating experience in its repetitive attempts to “get this right.” Disentangling the lives of the two souls merged in purgatory is fruitless and frustrating. Of course, that is exactly the point." – James Wilson, OffOffOnline

"It all comes off like clockwork, which is fascinating to experience. It is also repetitive in an abstract way, which can be both titillating and aggravating. But it’s always stimulating, both aurally and visually. “I’m not an actor,” Brando says self-effacingly. “I’m a mimic. Everyone is. And I’m not successful.” However, BrandoCapote is, in part by not merely mimicking its two famous celebrities but taking their story to another level." – Mark Rifkin, This Week in New York

"This now infamous interview caused quite a stir for its snarky tone and caustic observations about Asian women. In their BrandoCapote, Sara & Reid Farrington have sliced and diced this article, added music, fanciful Japanese costumes and rather severely stylized choreography and come up with a fascinating theater piece." – Joel Benjamin, Theater Scene

"BrandoCapote is ambitious, non-linear, memorable and wholly original. It also is a play, a dance, and a historical multimedia exhibit." – Joe Lombardi, Broadway World

"I may not have understood all I was watching, but BrandoCapote is gripping to watch" – Gillian Russo, Plays to See

"This one was a demanding viewing also a super gratifying experience: dense and visually gorgeous. I'd definitely try to see it again." – Kamila Slawinski

"For all the money in the world, I would not have been able to tell you what I saw." – Gregor Collins, Theater that Matters

Photos Miguel Aviles

AND THANK YOU TO OUR BACKERS

Our team would like to thank the generosity of all 273 of our generous

Kickstarter backers who made this possible. They are:

Kristen Thomason Abbas, Juan Aboites, Jonathan Allen, Swati Alurkar, Ruth Alyce, Cathey Ambush, Jenny Ampersand, Mary Ann &Michael Cinelli, Anonymous, Anonymous, Siobhan Antonioli, Trish Arbib, Rachel Artenian, Michael Asselin, Nancy & Fred Asselin, Richard C. Aven, Cynthia Babak, Charles Bales, Joel Bassin, Joie Bauer, Evelyn Belasco, Kate Bernyk, Brad Berridge, Randi Berry, Kwesi Blair, Tom Block, Lucrecia Briceno, Emmy Brooks, Betsy Brown, Chris Burke, Deb Burks, Meredith Burns, Katie Cameron, Danny Carroll, Delvyn Case, Nat Cassidy, Kelley Cayton, Virginia Child, Jody Christopherson, Janet D. Clancy, Holly Clark, Julie Schwietert Collazo, Alexandra Collier, Jelena Conrad, Amanda Cooper, Kurt Crowley,

Jessica Crowley, Shoni Currier, Daniel & Heidi, Suzanne Daniels, Rebecca Davis, Emily Walraven Davis, George Day, Pierre DePaz, John DeSilvestri, Daniel DeWald, Alex Duval, Elyssa East, J. Eisenstat, Diane Eisenstat, Elizabeth R. English, John Evans, Megan Evers-Swindell, Clay Farland, Sara Farrington, Katya Feffer, Jamtown Films, Ben Finane, Ramona Floyd, Jonathan Forgash, Kevin R. Free, Lisa Frigand, Michael J Fulvio, Megan Gaffney, Sarah Gallagher, Maria Luisa Gambale, Vallejo Gantner, Xime Garcia, Vince Gatton, Samantha Geldworth, Mike Genito, David Gibson, Tracy Gilchrist, Michele Giordano, Eileen Glenn,

Emma Goldman-Sherman, Lucas Gonzalez, Amanda-Mae Goodridge, Eleanor Graham, Kate & Gil Grandbois, Nat Grauman, James Graves, Tatiana Grey, Cindy Grossman, Rosalind Grush, Rebekah Guerra, Erick Guerra, Kimberly Guerra, Devansh Gupta, Caleb Hammond, Arzoo Hansen, Clay Hapaz, Maxwell Hardy, Lili Hartman, Marcus D. Harvey, Brendan Healy, Caroline Heaney, David Herskovits, Rachel Spencer Hewitt, Patton Hindle, Eric Hoyle, Joanne Hudson, Patti Interrante, Toby Irving, Reiko Ishiyama, Noboku Ito, Alexander James, Amanda Jones, JP Carrier Inc., Stewart Kendall, Mardi Keyes, Emma Khalfon, Hiro Komatsu, Fumi Komatsu, Yoshiko Komatsu, Hisashi Komatsu, Roz Kreilkamp, Jacob Kreilkamp, Maria Kreilkamp, Ben Kreilkamp, Christian Kreilkamp, Fawn Krieger, Beth Kriegsman, Anne Kuite & Alan Johnson, Holly Ledbetter, Alex Lehmann, Betty Leon, Rusty & Jane Lewis, Michael Lord, Leah Lowe, Elizabeth Macklin, Erin Mallon, Beth Manicone, Kelly Manning, Ivan Martinez (Nov 19 dedicated to you!), Maria Martinez, Eliza Mason, Jessica Massart, Amanda Mathis, Peter McCabe, Amelia McClain, Scott McCue, Matt McGloin, Kane McGuire, Maureen McMahon, Kato McNickle, Michael & Liz, Rachel Miller, Winter Miller, Mark Montalbano, Marvin Morganti, Peter Moskos, Chris Murtagh, Sam Newman, Chad Nicholson & Tyler Sharp, Rufus Nicoll, Donald Nicoll, Hugh Nicoll Maggie Niles, Jeffrey Novack, Zora O’Neill, Okwui Okpokwasili, Marisa Olsen, Barry Oreck, Hilary Ormond, Wolf Owczarek, Adam Patterson, Paul Peers, Jim Peskin, Ariel Phillips, Alyce Phyall, Ciara Pierson, Liz Plimpton, Martha Porter, Carly Preusse, Jim Quinlivan, Ramon Ramen, Emily Rauch, Dani Reuben, Jeane Reveendran, Casey Revkin, Lily Rhodeen, Gabriella Rhodeen, Vanessa Robles, Elizabeth Rosen, Maya Rosewood, Donna & John Ross, Mickey Ryan, Paul Emily Ryan, Rachel Sankey, Chris Schimpf, Tom Schloegel, James Scruggs, Beth Sercus, Linda Shafer, Daniel Shafer, Jackson Shafer, Dave Shelley, Heather Shepley, Micah Sherman, Risa Shoup, Marina Sinichenko, David Skeist, Sharon & Don Sniffen, Natacha Springer, Jadelynn Stahl, Elise Stone, Matthew Sutte, Meryl Sweeney, Harmony Tanguay, Michelle Tarry, Araba Taylor, Liz Thaler, The Creative Fund, Brenna Thomas, John Thompson, Jim Thurston, Jennifer Tipton, Alex Tobey, Francesca Trerotla, Kara Trokey, Sammy Tunis, Marya Ursin, Steve Vaccaro (Nov 21 dedicated to you!), Zoë Van Tieghem, David Van Tieghem, Benjamin Voce-Gardner, Eva von Schweinitz, Steven Vymbersky, Roxane Wach, Riley Watts, Jonathan Wei, Shelly Weingarten, Peter Mills Weiss, Carleigh Welsh, Melissa Wender, Katherine Wessling, Andrew Wetzel, Sascha Wiebenson, Jane Wilbourn (Nov 16 3pm dedicated to you!), Andrew Wilbourn, James C. Wilbourn, Becca Wilson, Ronald J. Zank, Jordanna Zeigler, Deborah Zitomer