Bonnets

How Ladies of Good Breeding are Induced to Murder

By Jen Silverman

Musical Director and Additional Composition: Matthew Greenberg

Directed by Jeanine Thomspon
Scenic Design: Will Ledbetter
Costume Design: Jensen Glick
Lighting Design: Brady Held
Fight and Intimacy Direction: Erin Alys
Stage Manager: Erin Parsons

Photos: © The Ohio State University Department of Theatre, 2019 (Photos by Jodi Miller)

Weaving between the 17th and 19th Centuries, this absurdist, campy exploration of love and violence shows how easily three women become murderers.

Bonnets was presented by the Ohio State University Department of Theatre as part of the Big Ten Theatre Consortium. The consortium is commissioning a series of plays by outstanding American female playwrights. Each play features at least six substantial age-appropriate roles for young women.

The purpose of the initiative is to promote the writing and production of new works about women by professional and academic theatres around the country. It is also meant to draw attention to the need to produce and support such plays.

Bonnets was part grungy, rock-concert and part comedic masterpiece. I was so excited to work on a Jen Silverman play after using Phoebe in Winter with my students in scene study class at Ohio State the year prior.

For my role, I devised, composed and vocal coached the music throughout this play. I adapted music to be played with actors using instruments (including found objects in the space), added harmonies and worked with cast and crew members to produce excellent vocal prowess of the actors to produce the true ”rock” sound.

This production was written up in the Columbus Dispatch as “One of the Top 10 Theatre-going experiences in Columbus 2019,” alongside the likes of Hamilton.

I was the recipient of an Ohio State Department of Theatre, Film and Media Arts award for my work on this project.