Kinda Human

by Anne Valentino

Live reading by Theatre off the Square

Thursday, March 16th at 7:30 p.m.

Sanders Theatre | Fort Worth Community Arts Center

1300 Gendy St, Fort Worth 76107

Cast: DIANA VINCIGUERRA - Anastasia Braswell

NAYA LANDRY - Jordyn Mahar

HARRISON BUCKLEY - Christian Lopez

MARK JENNINGS - Lisle Justice

TENNYSON / DIANA'S FATHER - Nikolai Braswell

LESBIAN CHORUS:

LESBIAN 1 / DIANA'S MOTHER - Jennifer Brown

LESBIAN 2 - Dana Powers

LESBIAN 3 / UNA CLARK - Laurie Jones

BARNEY CLARK - Lewis Schwartz

STAGE DIRECTIONS - Kaley Powers

In 1982, 61-year-old Barney Clark received the first-ever permanent artificial heart. Behind the scenes is a little-known laboratory where data-driven scientists experiment on Holstein calves implanted with mechanical heart prototypes. It is in this lab where Diana, a research fellow, confronts the parameters of humanness—the patient’s, the cow’s, and her own. Diana is unsure about her place in this “men’s only” club. Trying to find her voice within this context becomes increasingly difficult. Couple that with her silent struggle to come out to her family, and Diana seems to find herself at more than one crossroads. Her personal desires repeatedly get pitted against her professional ambition. Along the way, Diana gets a little perspective from Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the resident laboratory cow slash reincarnated Victorian poet, as well as from the outspoken and often comical Lesbian Chorus. This is the era when the fear of AIDS calls homosexuality into question: human or deviant. This “question” plays out in the lab, in the women’s home, and in a bookshop that after hours represents a lesbian safe space. Using the mechanical heart as a metaphor, the play asks the question, what does it really mean to be “human?”

Playwright Bio:

After receiving a Ph.D. in Literature from Temple University, Anne Valentino segued from academia to the private sector as a content creator/media strategist. Now as a ghostwriter, Anne has worked with a wide range of personalities—from pro athletes to politicians. In embarking upon her ‘second act’ as a playwright, she had a workshop production of an excerpt from her full-length play Kinda Human as part of the Baltimore Playwrights Festival, and she produced/performed an original monologue at a "Dramatize Your Story" event (Washington DC). She resides in the Washington DC area with her fiancé and their pups.

For more info on the presenting company visit: Theatre off the Square