February 2006 Issue
Aaron Lewis Photography Kendra Owens and Gloria Belle Whaley
EDITORS' PICKS:
Waiting to Dance By Erica Hemenway
Directed by Whitney Q. Stebbins
What better place than purgatory to move from self-deception to truth? Rumor has it that purgatory won't let you out until you resolve a few key things. Five women, stuck together in a purgatorial holding cell, decide to go the self-discovery route, rather than spending eternity deluded and playing Parcheesi. Written by young local playwright Erica Hemenway, Waiting to Dance was finished while she was still in college and has since been workshopped twice. Now it receives its world premiere at Renegade Theatre. Director Whitney Stebbins was drawn by the five very distinct personalities of the women in the script. "There's a common sense of denial—why each is truly there is key," she says about the women's placement in the gray area. Though the play deals with topics that don't exactly fit the light and fluffy bill, the end is uplifting: "The audience has followed a journey, recognizes their individual worth and follows them to the moment of acceptance and truth," explains Stebbins. —AMBER ADRIAN
Renegade Theatre Experiment, HOOVER THEATRE, 1635 PARK AVE., SAN JOSE. FEBRUARY 3-18. TICKETS ARE $15-20. CALL (408) 493-0783.
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