Luminous New Play ORANGE Marks Aditi Brennan Kapil's Seventh World Premiere at Mixed Blood
On the eve of a family wedding Leela, a young woman on the autism spectrum, sneaks off with her cousin on a joyride though Orange County. ORANGE chronicles Leela's adventures over the course of one ill planned night full of detours, thrilling heights, mythic encounters, a nine-year-old villain, and the search for a perfect orange. A soulful and hilarious exploration of youth, fearlessness, family, and difference, ORANGE navigates the cusp between childhood and adulthood.
Mixed Blood Artistic Director Jack Reuler directs this inventive coming-of-age tale. Presented on a corridor stage and flanked by projected illustrations, the Swiss army knife of a set fluidly transforms from an OC beach to the top of a billboard, taking the audience on a journey inside the mind of a singular young woman.
Playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil: The characters in ORANGE snuck up on me. I intended to write a play about driving through Orange County, a play about that night when you separate from the safety of parental supervision, make poor choices, live through something a little dangerous with your friends, and in the morning everything is different. But the character who started speaking on page one was not the typical teen I thought she would be. She took over the play I thought I was writing and demanded an adventure of her own, one I resisted, one I didn't think she was ready for. All parents have fears as their children near adulthood, but I suspect the reason ORANGE took this particular form has to do with how much more pronounced that fear can be when your child is atypical.
Director Jack Reuler:
Aditi Brennan Kapil writes poetic plays, writes comic characters in serious situations, combines history with the contemporary, puts marginalized voices in the center of honest circumstances, tells her own personal tales of being an immigrant and woman in epic yet intimate fashion, and she lets us do them at Mixed Blood. ORANGE marks Mixed Blood's seventh world premiere of a play by playwright-in-residence Aditi Brennan Kapil. ORANGE amasses her ambitions and vision in one enormous showcase of her acumen, craft, and talent. Its lens - that of autism - is intimate and personal. ORANGE is filled with love. Its simplicity is complex. Its beauty is gorgeous.
ORANGE features Annelyse Ahmad in the central role of Leela, with Owais Ahmed and Lipica Shah, who Mixed Blood audiences will remember from the Displaced Hindu Gods trilogy (2013) and Passing Strange (2014), rounding out the cast playing multiple roles. The creative team includes Joseph Stanley (Sets), Victor Zupanc (Composer/Sound), Wu Chen Khoo (Lights), Megan Reilly (Projections), Janet O'Neill (Costumes), and Abbee Warmboe (Props).
ORANGE marks the seventh Mixed Blood world premiere by Playwright in Residence Aditi Brennan Kapil. ORANGE was commissioned by SouthCoast Repertory Theatre, where the play will receive its West Coast premiere in March 2017. In a busy season, she will also premiere her new play Imogen Says Nothing in Yale Repertory Theatre's 50th anniversary season in January 2017. Imogen Says Nothing was commissioned by Yale Rep, and Kapil continues work on commissions for La Jolla Playhouse and Oregon Shakespeare Festival, in addition to creating new work for Mixed Blood.
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