The Los Angeles premiere of Confederates is an often funny, often devastating look at today’s high stakes political media landscape. Melissa R. Randel (original Broadway cast of A Chorus Line, co-chair of Theater Arts at Glendale Community College) stars as a seasoned, embedded reporter on the road with a newly declared presidential candidate. When her young and ambitious colleague (Daryl C. Brown – Master Harold…and the Boys at Portland Stage Company) uncovers a compromising photo of the candidate’s teenage daughter (Miranda Lichtman, a recent graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts), the two must decide whether to publish or bury it. Confederates was workshopped at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and at the Lark Play Development Center and LAByrinth Theatre Company in New York City before receiving its world premiere at TheatreWorks in a production that was nominated for seven Bay Area Critics Circle awards; the play was also nominated for the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the L. Arnold Weissberger Award, and it received honorable mentions from the Kilroys two years in a row. The San Francisco Chronicle called it “part comedy, part thriller and part morality play.” Bradbeer says that her focus is on the relationships between her characters rather than on political commentary. “I like to put interesting, complicated people in ethical dilemmas, to tell a good story with high stakes,” she explained in an interview. Bradbeer’s other plays, including The God Game (Pulitzer nomination), Naked Influence, Shakespeare in Vegas, Lone Star Grace, Full Bloom and more, have been produced across the U.S. Her work has been published by Playscripts, Samuel French, Applause Books, HowlRound, Connotation Press and appears in multiple Smith & Kraus anthologies. She is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre, the EST Playwrights Unit, the Dramatists Guild and is a regular moderator at the Actors Studio Playwright/Director Workshop. Two new character-driven relationship plays, both by award-winning women writers and both inspired by events currently at the forefront of our national consciousness, beat out 1241 other submissions in the inaugural Moss Hart & Kitty Carlisle Hart New Play Initiative. Hart NPI artistic director Christopher Hart will direct Silver Medallion-winning plays Confederates by Suzanne Bradbeer, opening Nov. 9, and Exit Wounds by Wendy Graf, opening Nov. 16, at Grove Theater Center in Burbank, where the two plays will continue to run in repertory through Dec. 16. One will be named the Gold Medallion winner and open on March 13, 2019 for a six-week, off-Broadway run in the 196-seat “Theater A” at 59E59 Theaters in New York City.
Confederates
Reviews
Confederates packs a wallop, not so much for the situation, as for the self-serving propensities of the characters. Playwright Suzanne Bradbeer pits Will (Darryl C. Brown) and Stephanie (Melissa R. Randel), two card-carrying news-types firmly situated in the soup of media's sensation-seeking, 24-hour news cycle, and pressures them into making consequential decisions at the expense of Maddie (Miranda Lichtman), whose father is about to run for President. At Burbank's Grove Theatre, Bradbeer's play is well-acted and well-directed. Her characterizations are so well-delineated that we completely understand the psychology of each person, even while decrying the paths they choose.
Playwright Suzanne Bradbeer crafts an engrossing drama replete with snappy dialogue that calls to my mind the sizzling interplay between characters in Front Page. Mr. Brown shows a crackle of star power in his performance. He is well matched by the scrappy intensity of Ms. Randel. Ms. Lichtman as Maddie carries the emotional weight of the play and displays more commanding power than one might expect in an ingénue.
Confederates packs a wallop, not so much for the situation, as for the self-serving propensities of the characters. Playwright Suzanne Bradbeer pits Will (Darryl C. Brown) and Stephanie (Melissa R. Randel), two card-carrying news-types firmly situated in the soup of media's sensation-seeking, 24-hour news cycle, and pressures them into making consequential decisions at the expense of Maddie (Miranda Lichtman), whose father is about to run for President. At Burbank's Grove Theatre, Bradbeer's play is well-acted and well-directed. Her characterizations are so well-delineated that we completely understand the psychology of each person, even while decrying the paths they choose.
Playwright Suzanne Bradbeer crafts an engrossing drama replete with snappy dialogue that calls to my mind the sizzling interplay between characters in Front Page. Mr. Brown shows a crackle of star power in his performance. He is well matched by the scrappy intensity of Ms. Randel. Ms. Lichtman as Maddie carries the emotional weight of the play and displays more commanding power than one might expect in an ingénue.