My next show: YERMA

Hi guys,

Thought you might like to know why I’ve been so MIA lately. Well, aside from a few others projects, the show I’ve been so busy rehearsing with Bohemian Theatre Ensemble is opening this weekend!

Yerma by Federico Garcia Lorca

Federico García Lorca's tragic, dramatic poem in three acts, Yerma ("Barren"), focuses on a woman's intense need to bear a child. It was written in 1934, and first performed the same year.

Alanda Coon as the Pagan Old Woman.

Surrounded by the wise mother of fourteen children, the Pagan Old Woman, her friend Maria and other young women from her village, Yerma is constantly reminded of her barrenness. Set in a small Spanish village, the play examines the passionate and driven heroine, Yerma, and her unhappy marriage to Juan, the cold and selfish shepherd. The presence of Victor, Juan's fellow shepherd and Yerma's childhood friend, also reminds Yerma of the happiness and true love she might have experienced. García Lorca's use of poetic language and ritualistic themes to portray Yerma's struggle to become pregnant recalls the dramatic elements found in the classic Greek tragedies, establishing the playwright and poet as a master of theatrical structure and content. She seeks a magical, spiritual aid in Dolores, who helps infertile women conceive. And the Washerwomen sing a song of the sadness the barren woman experiences. The restless Yerma is in great conflict with the unfeeling and strict overseer, Juan. It is in the final scene at the hermitage, a fertility festival, where Yerma's burning, primal need to bear a child culminates into a scene illuminated with the most beautiful of García Lorca's tragic poetry and lush imagery. The play's essence discloses the unstoppable force within Yerma to fulfill her instinctual desire to have offspring.

The BoHo production of Yerma has been adapted by Executive Producer Thomas J. Samorian and Associate Artistic Director (and production director) Peter Robel.

Yerma opens October 13, 2006 and runs through November 19, 2006
at Heartland Studio Theatre, 7016 North Glenwood in Chicago.

FOR TICKETS TO YERMA, CALL 773-791-2393
For more information on YERMA and Bohemian Theatre Ensemble, please visit their website.
For more info about Alanda Coon, please visit her site.