FLASH! A play by Suze Allen
Jackson Davis,* Sally Dana* and Michael Bellino perform on 1/18/15
FLASH!
A play by Suze Allen featuring Sally Dana*, Michael Bellino, Jackson Davis* and Ian DeVaynes. Directed by Ann Thomas.
ABOUT THE PLAY
13-year-old Terrence and his menopausal mother, Tina, can’t be in a room together for more than a minute without all hell breaking loose. Father, husband and peacemaker Tony is instrumental in creating family harmony, but when he gets stranded by a snow storm while on an Ohio business trip, a crazed burglar breaks into the family home and leaves Tina and Terrence tied up together for 2 days. Their combined raging hormones ignite a blaze that forges a surprising new path for the family. FLASH! is about how we make sense of change and create space for the people in our lives when they are going just a little crazy.
DEVELOPMENT TO DATE
FLASH! by Suze Allen, is kicking off the 3GT Salon Staged Reading Series 2015! Last year Suze was asked to share her first draft of the play, fresh out of the printer!, as a way for our audiences to get a rare look inside theatre-making in action. That developmental reading really guided Suze to her final draft – if a play is ever final… The exchange of audience participation and actor and director openness was invaluable in the play making process. Suze and Jennifer Welch (Producing Artistic Director of Tides Theatre) were both willing to experiment!
FLASH! Conversation between Resident Playwrights SUZE ALLEN and PATRICIA MILTON, February 2015.
Click here for information about last year’s first public reading of FLASH!.
*RIDING A CULTURAL WAVE INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
The playwright based Tina’s story on her own experience as a menopausal mother of young children: There is of course the old adage, “write what you know” and so I did. I came to parenting late. I had two children – one in my late 30’s and one in my early 40’s. That was my time and I wanted it, bad. Like any decision you make in the moment, the future ramifications seem distant and like a non-issue. Now that my son is 14, my daughter nearly 12 and I am 53, I realize the folly of my ways. Convergent hormones are not for the faint of heart! It’s a brave admission — but Suze is far from alone! Plenty of cultural commentators have observed this emerging paradigm — just plug “menopause and adolescence” into Google and you’ll see hundreds of articles and conversations on the topic. For example, women’s health and wellness advocate Ellen Dolgen notes that: Now, more than ever, so many households are experiencing puberty and perimenopause and menopause (I call it PM&M for short) at the same time. Why? In 1980, the average age of a first time mother was 23. In 2010 that number jumped to almost 27 (26.8). This matches up a 14-year-old child with a 41-year-old mother. So what happens when you mix adolescent hormones and menopausal hormones in the same house? Hormone combustion! Read more on “Dueling Hormones- When Puberty and Menopause Collide.”
In her thoughtful article “She blossoms, my flower is fading,” Kate Figes describes the combination of sadness and conflict that she felt in losing her fertility and her daughter at the same time. New York Times blogger Randye Hoder calls her relationship with her 15-year old son “a Molotov cocktail waiting to explode” in her piece on Adolescence and Menopause. And suffering teenagers can even find video hints on “How to Survive Your Mother’s Menopause” on YouTube.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
3GT Associate Artistic Director and Resident Playwright Suze Allen is a published author, playwright, teacher, dramaturg and director with credits on both coasts. She is the director of GirlWrights, 3GT’s program for teenage girls and also teaches the 3GT Theatre LabWorkshops for adults. She was the creator of Fresh New Works San Francisco, The Maine Playwrights’ Lab and Short Works Festival, Artistic Director for the SF Writers and Actors Lab, Director for Fertile Ground Writing Studio and the resident Dramaturge and playwriting instructor at The Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco. Her work and the work she has directed has played the Dramatists Guild’s SF Footlights, Tides Theatre, Brava Theatre, 450 Geary, The Marsh, Intersection for the Arts, Noh Space, The Phoenix, OutNorth Contemporary Art House in Anchorage Alaska and The SF and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. Her show THE MANIC MAMA DANCE premiered at the Marsh Café and played Birthfest 2008. Suze co-authored the book, The Time-Starved Woman’s Guide to Emotional Wellbeing with SD Shanti and advises writers through her company Manuscript Mentor. Suze’s short play program, THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE, was featured at 3Girls Theatre’s 2013 Celebration of Women’s History Month. In 2012, Suze directed AJ Baker’s THE RIGHT THING and Lee Brady’s WHAT ABOUT BEN? at 3GT’s inaugural 2012 March Celebration Of Women’s History Month. Since 2012 Suze has been San Francisco’s representative to the Dramatists’ Guild and playwright in residence at Balboa High School in San Francisco. She is currently dramaturge for the Playwrights Center of San Francisco. FLASH! is her fifth full length play.
