Body Awareness

Last updated
Body Awareness
Written by Annie Baker
CharactersJoyce
Phyllis
Jared
Frank
Date premieredMay 28, 2008 (2008-05-28)
Place premiered Atlantic Theater Company
Original languageEnglish

Body Awareness is a 2008 American one-act play written by Annie Baker. The play premiered Off-Broadway in May 28, 2008.

Contents

Background

This play marked the Off-Broadway debut for Annie Baker. [1] The play takes place at Shirley State College in Shirley, Vermont, which "evokes Amherst, Mass., where Ms. Baker... grew up, or Keene State College in New Hampshire, where her mother teaches now." Baker said, "My goal for the play is to not judge anyone, to get at that point where everyone is equally right and equally wrong, so the humor comes from that... I wanted to write a play about issues that wasn’t an 'issue play'." [2]

The play was developed at the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival, San Francisco, California, part of the Playwrights Foundation, and with the support of Atlantic Stage 2. [3] [4] [5]

Plot synopsis

The play is set in the fictional small town of Shirley, Vermont. Phyllis is a professor of psychology, and has organized a campus Body Awareness Week, whose topics range from a dance troupe of refugee Palestinian children to an eating disorder seminar. She lives with her partner Joyce, a high school social studies teacher, and Joyce's 21-year-old son Jared, from a prior marriage. Jared shows several symptoms of Asperger's syndrome, but he refuses to see a therapist for treatment. Their houseguest is a middle-aged photographer named Frank Bonitatibus, whose artistic photos of nude women offend Phyllis. Frank's presence exacerbates the already existing tension between the three of them, and when Joyce agrees to pose for one of Frank's pictures, this threatens her relationship with Phyllis. Meanwhile, Jared, a self-described autodidact who works at McDonald's until he successfully tries to get fired because he hates his co-workers, asks Frank for advice on how to attract women.

Productions

Body Awareness premiered Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company from May 28, 2008 (previews) to June 22, 2008. [6] Directed by Karen Kohlhaas, the cast featured JoBeth Williams (Joyce), Mary McCann (Phyllis), Jonathan Clem (Jared) and Peter Friedman (Frank). [7]

The Boston premiere took place from October 22, 2010 until November 20, 2010. It was produced by the SpeakEasy Stage Company and teamed with Company One (which put on Aliens) and the Huntington Theatre Company (which put on Circle Mirror Transformation ) as part of "The Shirley, VT Plays" Festival. It was directed by Paul Daigneault, with scenic design by Cristina Todesco, costume design by Bobby Frederick Tilley II, lighting design by Jeff Adelberg, original music and sound design by Nathan Leigh, and Victoria S. Coady as production stage manager. The SpeakEasy cast featured Paula Plum (Joyce), Adrianne Krstansky (Phyllis), Gregory Pember (Jared) and Richard Snee (Frank). [8] [9]

The play was produced at the Aurora Theatre, Berkeley, California from December 2012 to March 2013, the first play of Baker's to be performed in the San Francisco Bay Area. [10]

Critical reception

Charles Isherwood, in his review for The New York Times , wrote: "...low-key, engaging new comedy by Annie Baker, a young playwright with a probing, understated voice, making her Off Broadway debut. 'Body Awareness,' which opened Wednesday night at the Atlantic Stage 2, is not exactly a dazzler. It announces its everyday quality almost proudly, as the characters mark the passage of time by writing the days of the week on a chalkboard at the back of the stage. But its quiet rewards steal up on you... Ms. Baker’s generosity of heart, embodied most touchingly in the character of Joyce, and in Ms. Williams’s sensitive performance, invites you to overlook the occasional misstep." [7]

In reviewing the 2010 Boston production, the ArtsFuse reviewer wrote: "Annie Baker’s characters strip themselves down to their raw emotions: this is a play where characters don’t remove their clothes but the walls they’ve built to protect their inner selves. Essentially, the body awareness the script explores is not a matter of a healthy self image but a more nurturing awareness of the bodies and souls around us." [9]

The reviewer of the 2012 California production for the sfgate called the play "hilarious" and noted the "...smart, provocative dialogue and even more pointed silences..." [10]

In a review of a 2012 production at Theatre J, Washington, D.C. in The Washington Post, Nelson Pressley wrote: "The result in the easygoing 'Body Awareness' is indeed very funny, skewering everything from the professor’s pretensions to the blunt sex talk Frank delivers to Jared... Baker’s dialogue is tart and personable, with just enough unexpected twists in the characterizations to keep you leaning forward... Baker is fast becoming one of the country’s more popular playwrights... and it may be because she has a lovely ability to comically mock types and trends while exposing the raw seams in her characters." [11]

Awards and nominations

Nominations

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Margulies</span> American playwright

Donald Margulies is an American playwright and academic. In 2000, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Dinner with Friends.

Faith Prince is an American actress and singer, best known for her work on Broadway in musical theatre. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in Guys and Dolls in 1992, and received three other Tony nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lapine</span> American stage director and librettist

James Elliot Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendy Wasserstein</span> American playwright (1950–2006)

Wendy Wasserstein was an American playwright. She was an Andrew Dickson White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University. She received the Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1989 for her play The Heidi Chronicles.

Will Eno is an American playwright based in Brooklyn, New York. His play, Thom Pain was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2005. His play The Realistic Joneses appeared on Broadway in 2014, where it received a Drama Desk Special Award and was named Best Play on Broadway by USA Today, and best American play of 2014 by The Guardian. His play The Open House was presented Off-Broadway at the Signature Theatre in 2014 and won the Obie Award for Playwriting as well as other awards, and was on both TIME Magazine and Time Out New York 's Top Ten Plays of 2014.

Itamar Moses is an American playwright, author, producer and television writer. He gained acclaim for writing the book for the Broadway musical The Band's Visit (2017) receiving the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. He wrote the play Completeness (2011) earning a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. He wrote books for the musicals Nobody Loves You (2012), and Fortress of Solitude (2014). His latest play The Ally (2024) about a college teacher teacher conflicted about signing a petition debuted at The Public Theatre.

Stephen Adly Guirgis is an American playwright, screenwriter, director, and actor. He is a member and a former co-artistic director of New York City's LAByrinth Theater Company. His plays have been produced both Off-Broadway and on Broadway, as well as in the UK. His play Between Riverside and Crazy won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J. Smith-Cameron</span> American actress (born 1957)

Jean Isabel Smith, credited professionally as J. Smith-Cameron, is an American actress. She gained prominence for her roles in the television series Rectify (2013–2016) and Succession (2018–2023), the latter of which earned her two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Friedman</span> American actor (born 1949)

Peter Friedman is an American stage, film, and television actor. He made his Broadway debut in the Eugene O'Neill play The Great God Brown in 1972. His other Broadway credits include roles in The Rules of the Game (1974), Piaf (1981), The Heidi Chronicles (1989), and Twelve Angry Men (2004). He earned a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical nomination for his role as Tateh in Ragtime (1998).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annie Baker</span> American playwright and teacher

Annie Baker is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play The Flick. Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: Circle Mirror Transformation, Nocturama, Body Awareness, and The Aliens. She was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2017.


Halley Feiffer is an American actress, playwright and television writer, known for her award-winning plays I'm Gonna Pray for You So Hard, Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow Moscow and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Gynecologic Oncology Unit at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center of New York City, and for showrunning and writing the entire season of American Horror Story: Delicate starring Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian.

Amy Herzog is an American playwright. She is known for her poignant and character-driven plays that explore themes of family dynamics, personal relationships, and the complexities of human experience. She has received a Drama Desk Award as well as a nomination for a Tony Award.

<i>Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike</i> 2012 comedy play by Christopher Durang

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike is a comedy play written by Christopher Durang. The story revolves around the relationships of three middle-aged single siblings, two of whom live together, and takes place during a visit by the third, Masha, who supports them. They discuss their lives and loves, argue, and Masha threatens to sell the house. Some of the show's elements were derived from works of Anton Chekhov, including several character names and sibling relationships, the play's setting in a country house with a vestigial cherry orchard, the performance of an "avant-garde" play by one of the main characters, and the themes of old vs. new generations, real vs. assumed identities, the challenges of a woman growing older after successes in a career that seems to be ending, the hope and carelessness of youth, intrafamilial rivalries, and the possible loss of an ancestral home.

<i>Circle Mirror Transformation</i> Play by Annie Baker

Circle Mirror Transformation is a play by Annie Baker, centered on drama classes at a community center in Vermont. The play opened Off-Broadway in 2009 and received the Obie Award for Best New American Play.

The Flick is a play by Annie Baker that received the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2013 Obie Award for Playwriting. The Flick premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2013.

The Aliens is a play by Annie Baker. The play is set in Vermont, as are three of Baker's other plays, Body Awareness,Circle Mirror Transformation, and Nocturama. The Aliens premiered Off-Broadway in 2010 and won the Obie Award for Best New American Play, with Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation.

Michael Louis Chernus is an American actor. He has acted on film, television, and the stage. He is perhaps best known for his role as Cal Chapman on the Netflix original comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019). Chernus played Phineas Mason / Tinkerer in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was released on July 7, 2017.

Sam Gold is an American theater director and actor. Having studied at Cornell University and Juilliard School he became known for directing both musicals and plays, on Broadway and Off-Broadway. He has received the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, a Tony nomination for Best Director of a Play, and nominations for four Drama Desk Awards.

Joshua Harmon is a New York City-based playwright, whose works include Bad Jews and Significant Other, both produced Off-Broadway by Roundabout Theatre Company.

Reed Birney is an American actor. Birney is known for his performances on stage and screen often acting on and off Broadway. Birney gained acclaim in 2016 for his role in The Humans winning the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. He was also nominated previously in the same category for his performance in Casa Valentina in 2014.

References

  1. ↑ Jones, Kenneth. "Baker's 'Body Awareness', With Clem, Friedman, McCann, Williams, Opens at Atlantic Stage 2" Archived April 19, 2014, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, June 4, 2008
  2. ↑ McGee, Celia. "Childhood Is the Mother of the Play" The New York Times, May 25, 2008
  3. ↑ Baker, Annie. Body Awareness, Samuel French, Inc., 2009, ISBN   0573663106, p. 4
  4. ↑ "History of Bay Area Playwrights Festival" Archived 2015-11-07 at the Wayback Machine playwrightsfoundation.org, accessed October 13, 2015
  5. ↑ "Press Release. Playwrights Foundation, August 3 – 12, 2007" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine playwrightsfoundation.org, accessed October 13, 2015
  6. ↑ Clements, Alexis. "Big Break: Annie Baker's Body Awareness", Brooklyn Rail , June 2008
  7. 1 2 Isherwood, Charles. "Theater Review" The New York Times, June 5, 2008
  8. ↑ "Body Awareness"
  9. 1 2 Mendes, Chantal. "Theater Review. Body Awareness a Lesson in Human Awareness" artsfuse.org, accessed August 13, 2015
  10. 1 2 Hurwitt, Robert. "Body Awareness review: Tap to lesbian funny bone" sfgate, December 18, 2012
  11. ↑ Pressley, Nelson. "'Body Awareness’ at Theater J: Real problems couched in funny business" The Washington Post, August 20, 2012
  12. 1 2 Gans, Andrew. "'Ruined' and 'Billy Elliot' Win Top Honors at Drama Desk Awards" Archived 2012-10-15 at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 17, 2009
  13. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "'Billy Elliot', 'Carnage', 'Ruined' and 'Avenger' Are Outer Critics Circle Award Winners" Archived April 9, 2014, at the Wayback Machine playbill.com, May 11, 2009
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.