A message from Jason Nodler about Beautiful Princess Disorder
And if you’ve seen it already I urge you to share your own thoughts in the comments: good, bad, or indifferent.
1. I can’t overstate my belief that 30-year-old playwright Kathy Ng is the future of American Theatre. We are all so proud to premiere their second full professional production.
Kathy is a quintessentially Catastrophic playwright in all the best ways.
2. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been involved with the premiere of such a simultaneously original, fantastical, important, hilarious, and subversive new play. To open our season, I directed Beckett’s ENDGAME, a play I often consider my all-time favorite.
It is entertaining as hell and it is a healer.
3. The ensemble is extraordinary, with tour-de-force performances by three Catastrophic all-stars doing some of their finest work: Amy Bruce is Mother Teresa, Kyle Sturdivant is killer whale Tilikum (late of Seaworld), and T Lavois Thiebaud is Triangle Person, a “Human Body” with a “Triangle Head”.
The unlikely trio lives in the sky in the parking lot of Heaven, and that’s all I’m gonna say about that. This is not the sort of play I can talk about without spoilers and I really, really don’t want to spoil any of it for you.
4. If you’ve seen the photos you’re already aware of @Matt Fries’ dreamy set of puffy clouds and the only actual 1971 Station Wagon you’re likely to see on any Texas stage maybe ever. You’ve gotten a taste of Macy Lyne’s ideal, delicious costumes. You haven’t seen all of the great Lauren Davis’ work but you’ve probably seen their terrific triangle head. You’ve seen Roma Adele Flowers’ stellar light design in freeze frame, but not in motion and you’ve yet to experience James Templeton‘s wonderfully imaginative sound, video, and original music (with major assist from Tim Thomson) at all.
You can only find criminally unsung hero stage manager Tabitha Mae with a key to the booth. Star of stage and backstage Clarity Welch works deck crew. And I don’t want to think about doing any of this without the vital asst. director/dramaturg Charlie Scott sitting next to me.
5. Anything could have been #1 on this list and maybe this should have: It is really fucking funny.
I haven’t heard more variations on “Thanks, I really needed that” since, depending on what you really needed, 4.48 PSYCHOSIS or SPEEDING MOTORCYCLE.
6. I say it’s subversive because—though it is the only play I know about the experience of having borderline personality disorder or loving someone that does—if you’re not one of those people you would never recognize it as such and you would have every bit as rich an experience. The wild, cartoonish nature of the play throws one off that scent too artfully.
7. As a rule, avant-garde theatre concerns itself with form as well as content and BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS DISORDER is more than a play—it’s two of them. I’m not gonna explain that but every time I see it, I discover something new. Come soon. You might well want to come again.
8. It is as generous of spirit as any play I know. It concerns itself with understanding, friendship, family, identity, sense of self, and radical acceptance. It is warm, it is tender, it is gentle. To me, it is like being held.
9. Plays like Kathy’s are why I work in theatre, a place where we too often forget that anything can happen. BPD will remind you. If you have ever gotten anything out anything I’ve directed in the past, I strongly urge you not to miss this one. I’d be fully satisfied if this were the last play I ever directed.
10. If nine reasons from me weren’t enough, don’t listen to me. Listen to Outsmart, Houstonia, The Houston Press, or Broadway World just to begin with. Here are some links that are more insightful than anything I’ve said here:
You can reserve your Pay-What-You-Can tickets here: