Opening up this week is an almost biblical Barnstorm Theater Company production. Entitled meet me in the belly of the whale, it is an original play by alum Gillian O’Leary and directed by UCSC graduate student Britney Johnson. This production opens on Nov. 13.
meet me in the belly of the whale is one of those rare live experiences where the less you know, the better the viewing experience. As the title implies (spoiler alert), it takes place inside the stomach of a giant sperm whale.
Five female friends awaken like at the beginning of a Twilight Zone episode and struggle to put together what happened and what is happening. The women’s conversations flip-flop between true hilarity and a possible impending grim conclusion.
Director Britney Johnson acted in the original earlier performance at the New Play Festival when it was still a one-act play. “Afterwards I immediately wanted to adapt it into a full script. Gillian got it to me within two weeks. We submitted and it was chosen,” says Johnson from up on the hill.
Playwright O’Leary has a natural gift for weaving funny banter with concepts like existential dread. Without too much hyperbole, her work has a cinematic quality to it.
“It’s a very good representation of girlhood and the environmental crisis. There’s also the fun of interstellar communication and other weird things. It’s timely, especially right now with the movie out called Whalefall, which is set in Monterey and is about a man who gets swallowed by a whale. And this play is about five girls that get swallowed by a whale,” says Johnson.
While Whalefall is a dire drama thriller, meet me in the belly of the whale unfolds like a dark comedy.
Despite all the rumbling and grumbling that all universities endure, UC Santa Cruz students in the Department of Performance, Play & Design are a lucky bunch. Besides having a wide array of fascinating professors, a stunning meandering campus and the close proximity to a certain small (growing) beach town, students also have unique opportunities to showcase their craft and learn every other aspect of producing and directing theater.
Graduate student Ellie Lang-Ree is Barnstorm’s managing director and has an ocean-deep résumé. “It’s just one of those funny things where you don’t really get a chance to get an education as a director as an undergraduate. So for both of us, our backgrounds are as performers on stage in many different regards. And then I discovered my love of directing like 8 or years ago now, and I have just been doing that ever since. There is really something special about the role of director,” says Lang-Ree.
It’s often said that tragedy and extreme circumstances (like waking up in the belly of a whale) bring people together, but so does theater. “It’s one of the greatest unifiers that we still have. It’s like going to church or a sports club. There’s no prerequisite for enjoying theater. I think it’s one of the most important ways, especially right now, to a better world. Theatre can educate and fire people up about change in their communities. And more importantly getting them to participate in the community. Which makes such a huge difference,” says Lang-Ree.
Director Johnson agrees. “A great personal thing about theater is that if you have a show with good people, you can keep doing shows with them. When I find a good group of people, I want to keep them near me at all times and do everything with them. A lot of theatre is about networking.
“The most talented people are not on Broadway. The most talented people probably aren’t even in New York. There’s all around us. Sometimes what we create is more artistically interesting because it does not revolve around making money or paying investors back. There’s value in the people involved in community theater,” Johnson concludes.
meet me in the belly of the whale runs Nov. 13–22 at UCSC’s Theater Arts B100 Studio Theater, 453 Kerr Road, Santa Cruz. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. General admission is $5–$20, pay what you like; free for UCSC undergraduate students with a ticket. Information and tickets: https://events.ucsc.edu/series/barnstorm-mmitbotw/.
