4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane
Kalamazoo College
While in my Junior year of college, I chose to direct Sarah Kane's final play, 4.48 PSYCHOSIS, a bitter and lyrical meditation on the nature of clinical depression, haunted by the fact that Kane killed herself shortly after its completion. It is acutely dependent on rhythm, verbal repetition and cyclic thematic patterning, with 24 scenes written in no specific chronological order. I split the text between three actors focusing on the division between the sane and insane, male and female, psychical and psychological.
Cast:
Marissa Rossman
Brian Keys
Casey Klaussman
Gallery
Back of the Throat by Yussef El Guindi
Cast:
Rasheed Hammoud
Calder Burgam
Marissa Rossman
Woody Tuake
Ra'ed Al Shdaifat
Kalamazoo College
My senior year of college, I was asked by the department to direct BACK OF THE THROAT. A chilling black comedy, BACK OF THE THROAT, tells a Kafkaesque story of two mysterious government agents who visit the apartment of Khaled, an Arab-American writer, for some routine questioning. What begins as friendly and humorous becomes uncomfortable, then menacing, and finally violent. “For the longest time Arab issues or Muslim issues just had not been on the radar," says playwright Yussef El Guindi. "The subject was just "too edgy.” Then came 9/11. Suddenly there were calls for plays.”
The set, designed by Jon Reeves, was “based on the works of Francis Bacon and his caged deteriorating images of the pope including a single bare light bulb.”
