FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT
Playwright Jen Silverman (they/them)
In an interview with The Indpendent, playwright Jen Silverman shared, "This play is for you because if you are human, then you know what it's like to have someone see you in a way that limits you... It's for you because even if you're a perfect Kinsey 0 of a man, you might also be a Betty." Read the FULL ARTICLE.
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Jen Silverman (they/them) is a playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Plays include: The Roommate (Broadway: The Booth Theatre; Regionally: Williamstown Theatre Festival, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville Humana Festival, Steppenwolf, South Coast Repertory Theatre, etc); Highway Patrol (The Goodman); Spain (Second Stage Theater); Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Woolly Mammoth, MCC, Southwark Playhouse London); The Moors (Yale Repertory Theatre, The Playwrights Realm); and Witch (Writer’s Theatre, The Geffen, The Huntington). Books include: the debut novel We Play Ourselves, story collection The Island Dwellers, and novel There’s Going to be Trouble from Random House. Silverman also wrote the best-selling narrative podcast The Miranda Obsession for Audible, starring Rachel Brosnahan. Silverman is a three-time MacDowell Fellow, a member of New Dramatists, and a Scholar of Note at the American Library in Paris. They write for TV and film, including Tales of the City (Netflix) and Tokyo Vice (Max). Their OSCAR® qualifying short film Troy screened at 70 festivals internationally including the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and is featured online in The New Yorker’s Screening Room. Honors include fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim. More at jensilverman.com
FROM THE DIRECTOR
Director Becca Wolff (any pronouns)
"This comedy tells the story of 5 people whose collective rage inspires power over their own private parts, both physical and spiritual. It is in the theater – a play within this play – that the Betties harness this great power as individuals and a collective. But at the start of the play, we are in a circle of hell where there is NO THEATER (gasp!)
Without theater, we’re trapped! If theater is color, movement and commitment to the present moment, then we drain color, restrain movement, create barriers to connection. This is why the gray curtain. This is also why the microphones. They stand between the Betties and you. They capture their voices and process them before you can hear. Every impulse is mediated by the device, every movement circumscribed by being tethered to it.
What’s behind the big gray curtain? Is revelation afoot? What secrets lie beyond what the eye can see? The Betties begin the play asking the question that I hope is also on your lips – isn’t there more to life than this?
Spoiler alert. There is." - Becca
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Becca Wolff(she/her) has directed, developed and presented new works with the Exploratorium, On the Boards (Seattle), Golden Thread, The Public Theater, Long Wharf Theatre, ACT, San Francisco Playhouse and Z Space among others. Festivals and residencies include Brown University Arts Institute, Sibiu Festival, Theateworks’ New Works, New York Stage & Film’s Powerhouse series, and the Getty Villa. She teaches writing and directing for film at Berkeley City College and theater at City College of San Francisco. Member SDC. More at beccawolff.net
