The British theater maker and theorist Peter Brook as soon as mentioned that each one an “act of theater” requires is an empty area, a performer, and an viewers. For Rorschach Theatre, one of many District’s most persistently ingenious and impressive firms, that’s solely the place to begin for his or her latest manufacturing.
Titled SPARKED: The Vanishing at Buzzard Level, the brand-new play stretches out over 5 at the moment vacant retail areas in The Stacks, a brand new luxurious growth in Southwest, not removed from Audi Discipline. Guides will lead teams of viewers members by way of the areas to select up clues and are available to their very own conclusions in regards to the mysterious 1933 disappearance of two lovers and one very highly effective storm that threw time and area into turmoil. The present runs October 22 by way of November 15.
To fill these 5 rooms, Rorschach employed a workforce that might be cramped in a studio house: 4 administrators, two set designers, two lighting designers, a number of design consultants, plus a costumer, sound designer, props designer, choreographer, video designer, intimacy coach, technical director, and a pair of stage managers. Many have assistants, and that is earlier than the actors confirmed up or the script was even completed.
Heading up SPARKED is Jenny McConnell Frederick, who got here up with the story and idea of the play, wrote it, and sat in one of many directing chairs (she’s additionally producing alongside her longtime cohabitant at Rorschach, Randy Baker).
Whereas the corporate is preserving a decent lid on the story, McConnell Frederick shares how uniquely design-driven this manufacturing has been.
“We wished to make use of these vacant retail areas to inform a narrative in slightly bit totally different manner,” she says. “Most frequently, you’re beginning with a script, and everyone responds to that. Right here, we began with a top level view. The script developed alongside the designers, suggesting how totally different design parts might inform the story. It’s a bit extra collaborative, extra parallel course of when the script is on equal footing, reasonably than major, with design.”
Sarah Beth Corridor, serving as a scenic inventive guide, agrees. “As a result of all of the designers have been introduced in because the script was growing, we have been capable of current concepts that ended up influencing the script and the staging,” she shares. “It was actually enjoyable to embrace the size of the challenge. Jenny and Randy talked about an epic daring minimalism, about these story moments dropped into these giant, industrial areas.”
One second — which will or could not make the ultimate reduce — got here from Dean Leong, who shares lighting design duties with Ben Harvey. “We’re incorporating the historical past and lore of the PEPCO energy plant in Buzzard Level, and one of many first issues we requested was ‘Is there any manner we might discuss to any person on the energy plant and get management of their exterior lighting as a part of the present?’”
Mixing historical past, geography, and fantasy has been a part of Rorschach’s DNA since Baker and McConnell Frederick based the corporate greater than 25 years in the past. Lengthy earlier than The Stacks opened, Buzzard Level fascinated SPARKED’s creator. “Within the late ’90s, I might see buses go by that mentioned ‘Buzzard Level.’ I believed it was a really mysterious, evocative place title, like, what might probably be there,” McConnell Frederick says.
“One afternoon I principally adopted a bus down there, however there have been a whole lot of areas you couldn’t get into, authorities buildings, fences, and many greenery and wildlife. So it remained mysterious.” In the present day, builders are turning the neighborhood right into a high-end dwelling and procuring district, however Rorschach is preserving a number of the space’s mysteries and histories alive.
The ultimate participant of any theatrical act, as Peter Brook knew, is the viewers. “Somebody might undergo the totally different rooms, discovering issues that sneakily present up in quite a lot of methods, hear totally different tales, and are available away with a unique perspective than anybody else,” Corridor guarantees. “SPARKED doesn’t pinpoint a solution about what occurred to the couple. It invitations you to take a position. That feels proper for Rorschach and for ‘spooky season.’”
For viewers members who want to debate the present afterward, Rorschach has you lined. Every night time, the present begins and ends within the 5 Useless Horse Tavern (don’t image it too lengthy), a functioning bar and social area. On condition that totally different viewers members will expertise the present’s areas in several orders, and obtain totally different narratives alongside the way in which, the necessity to debrief is just about assured. However first, it’s worthwhile to be within the rooms to see what occurs first, subsequent, earlier than, and after.
Working Time: Roughly 90 minutes.
SPARKED: The Vanishing at Buzzard Level performs by way of November 15, 2026, produced by Rorschach Theatre, performing in The Stacks, 101 V Avenue SW, Washington, DC. Tickets (common, $50; senior and scholar, $35; restricted variety of $20 InkTix for each present) can be found on-line.
Idea and Story by Jenny McConnell Frederick
Written by Jenny McConnell Frederick and Randy Baker, with contributions from Erik Harrison, Andrew Quilpa, and the Firm
Directed by Elizabeth Ung, Esteban Marmolejo-Suarez, Jenny McConnell Frederick, and Randy Baker
CAST
Abel Haddish
Irene Hamilton
Erik Harrison
Andrew Quilpa
Robert Bowen Smith
THE REGULARS
Alexys Adams
Ayanna Fowler
Aja Goode
Mollie Greenberg
Erik Harrison
Brooke Kemph
Charlotte Kim
Drew Okoye
DESIGNERS
Scenic Designer: Brandon Roak
Scenic Designer: Margarita Syrocheva
Scenic Inventive Advisor: Sarah Beth Corridor
Lighting Designer: Dean Leong
Lighting Designer: Ben Harvey
Costume Designer: Jessica Utz
Sound Designer: Kristina Manente
Assistant Sound Designer: Sora Reyes
Video Inventive Advisor: Kylos Brannon
Props Designer: Roo Sultan
Intimacy Choreographer: Lorraine Ressegger
Video Designer: Andres Poch
Dance Choreographer: Robert Bowen Smith
STAFF
Stage Supervisor: Josh Diewald
Stage Supervisor: Madeline Mustin
Technical Director: Sean Flaherty
Manufacturing Affiliate: Sophia Menconi
PRODUCERS
Randy Baker
Jenny McConnell Frederick
