Episode 1 of The MS Phoenix Rising
A serial podcast created by director Katie Brook and writer Trish Harnetiaux.
“To try to belong to one’s own time is already to be out of date.” —EUGENE IONESCO
It’s 2022 and in six short weeks The MS Phoenix Rising will set sail, marking the relaunch of the cruise ship industry after a prolonged shutdown. Tensions are high as the front office desperately races to pull it all together. Whose idea was it again to hype the new route by touting a recreation of Christopher Columbus’ voyage through the Bahamas? There’s hardly time to dwell on that now, as the team finds themselves in uncharted waters when they hear the on-board entertainment plan is to mount an avant-garde theatre production of Ionesco’s The Chairs.
The PlayCo commission features Episode One of six. The rest are in development – stay tuned!
The MS Phoenix Rising
Created by: Katie Brook and Trish Harnetiaux
Written by: Trish Harnetiaux
Directed by: Katie Brook
Produced by: Katie Brook and Ben Williams
Sound Design and Audio Engineering by: Ben Williams
Performed by: Anthony Arkin, Eric Berryman, Susan Blommaert, Johnny Gasper, April Matthis, Emily McDonnell, Keilly McQuail, Danielle Skraastad, Nidra Sous la Terre, and Jacob A. Ware
Jingle by: Trish Harnetiaux and Riley Thomas, orchestrated by Lloyd Kikoler, and performed by Jessie Shelton
Artwork by: Dana Leonetti
A Mini-Commission presented as part of #Playfrom6FeetAway
BEHIND THE SCENES
ABOUT KATIE BROOK
Katie Brook is a director of new experimental plays and performance, most recently, the premiere of Liza Birkenmeier’s Dr. Ride’s American Beach House at Ars Nova. Previously with Trish Harnetiaux: How to Get Into Buildings (New Georges). Brook makes original work collaboratively with her theatre company, Televiolet. Her work has been presented at various venues in New York City and beyond, including The Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival, The Provincetown Tennessee Williams Theatre Festival, Prelude NYC, and more. She is also the Director of Production at StoryCorps, an oral history project that broadcasts stories weekly on NPR. http://katiebrook.net/
Photo by Maria Baranova
ABOUT TRISH HARNETIAUX
Trish Harnetiaux’s plays include Bender and Brian (Exponential Festival, Prelude Festival, forthcoming JACK), Tin Cat Shoes (Ars Nova Play Group/ Playwrights Horizons Superlab /Clubbed Thumb summerworks), How to Get into Buildings (Soho Rep writer-director lab/New Georges), and If You Can Get to Buffalo (Incubator Arts Project, Son of Semele Ensemble, The Acme Corporation) all published by Samuel French. She has been a resident at MacDowell, Yaddo, The Millay Colony, and SPACE at Ryder Farm. MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College. www.trishharnetiaux.com
Photo by Jude Domski