Playwright Chloe Kay. (Photograph by Terri Kay)
Few relationships are as particular or as sophisticated because the one between a lady and her dad. Typically, these relationships are so complicated as to encourage two acts value of dramatic interrogation, as playwright and actor Chloe Kay has executed. In Kay’s one-woman present, Daddyland, which could have a staged studying July 17 and July 18 at Windmill Arts Middle, she examines the intricacies of her relationship along with her father, the way it has impacted her relationship to her femininity and the troublesome journey all of us undergo in accepting our dad and mom as human.
Daddyland is a two-character, one-person present through which Kay will play each her youthful self and her father. She describes the piece as “very a lot a reminiscence play,” through which she bounces round to varied formative moments between herself and her father (who remains to be alive), starting from ages 4 to 30. Kay additionally cites the musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s Enjoyable House as one in all a number of inspirations. “In my household, my father was the solar in our photo voltaic system,” says Kay. “Huge power, a variety of prowess, and so he’s an enormous character. He’s type of a larger-than-life man. He was and nonetheless is a really affectionate father however a really, very flawed human being.”
Among the many present’s thematic exploration of reminiscence and relationships, Kay additionally delves into the messaging younger ladies typically obtain from their fathers: “There was lots that I skilled and internalized as a lady, taking in a variety of totally different messages from him in addition to the world round me about what it means to be a girl and what it means to be in relationship to myself, in relationship to males.”
To that finish, the play explores misogyny, girlhood, physique picture, early sexual experiences and the methods through which the world views handed down by dad and mom informs all of that. “You actually derive a variety of your sense of actuality from them,” says Kay. “I believe that’s the function that fathers play a variety of the time: laying out the world and telling you ways issues are. He is aware of. He’s God.”
Kay started engaged on Daddyland roughly six years in the past, although it began as little greater than a remedy undertaking, one thing to assist her make sense of sure occasions in her life. It was not till significantly later that she determined to current the work.
“Performing is definitely an essential a part of the artistic course of for me. There’s something type of magical and essential for me about not solely creating the work however having it witnessed and having that relationship with an viewers. There’s something that type of closes the circle for me about sharing it and having it witnessed.”
This resolution can also be concurrent with Kay ending up a grasp’s program in counseling and humanities remedy, permitting this staged studying to help her bigger purpose of championing therapeutic and self-expression by way of the humanities.
On the tone of the present, Kay had this to say: “I’m sharing painful components of my childhood, undoubtedly, however I additionally suppose the tone of it’s comedic in moments. I undoubtedly have a humorousness about a variety of it.” Talking to the multifaceted relationship between mother or father and little one, she additionally credit a part of the humor to the person that impressed the play: “My dad is humorous! I gotta hand it to him, the man is humorous.”
The play may even incorporate a number of songs written by Kay. “I’m a really confessional songwriter, so perhaps across the second or third draft, I believed ‘Wait a minute. Any time I’m actually expressing myself, I’m often singing. So perhaps I ought to sing.’” Whereas a few of these songs have been written in parallel with Daddyland, a number of predate the present. “I didn’t alter my songwriting model to suit a theatrical efficiency. It’s extra like As soon as when it comes to a grounded, type of people model. But additionally I’m a theater child, so I believe my sensibility is already naturally theatrical.”
Whereas this studying represents simply step one within the piece’s growth — Kay emphasizes that the present remains to be in course of — she is hopeful her story will probably be impactful for others.
“I believe there’s potential for different folks to see this and acknowledge part of themselves in it in a manner that might make the entire thing value it, however, actually, the principle individual I’m performing this for is my youthful self. That is my expertise. That is what it meant to me, and I’m able to share that with the world.”
The place & When
A staged studying of Daddyland takes place at Windmill Arts on July 17 and July 18 at 7 p.m.
Tickets, $10 prematurely and $15 at door.
2823 Church St., East Level
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Luke Evans is an Atlanta-based author, critic and dramaturg. He covers theater for ArtsATL and Broadway World Atlanta and has labored with theaters such because the Alliance, Actor’s Categorical, Out Entrance Theatre and Woodstock Arts. He’s a graduate of Oglethorpe College, the place he earned his bachelor’s diploma, and the College of Houston, the place he earned his grasp’s.
