Critical Mass Performance Group has spent the last six years doing a deep dive into all things Virgin Mary to develop our newest project called Mariology. Now we’re thrilled to be invited to present Mariology at Boston Court Pasadena in November, and we’re looking for funding and community partners to make it happen! More than ever, it’s important for individuals to support independent artists and art as a conduit for free expression and communion. If you’re able, please consider supporting us in any way that feels meaningful-- whether through a donation, a conversation to learn more, and/or connecting us with others who might be interested.

The performance is set in a Catholic 5th grade classroom of impressionable 10-yr-old girls, swirling with anxiety, sexual mystery, fear, racism, and long division. The rituals of the school day and its indoctrinations explode into a wild spectacle of the girls' rebellions and fantasies. It’s a raucous, ironic, and tender journey of self-discovery and empowerment. And even though it encompasses religious territory, Mariology is not about religion.

 

We’ve come to realize that whether or not you believe in the Virgin Mary, she has a lot to do with you. The project has been inspired by so many questions, like: What is “virginity” and what does it have to do with a woman's worth? Why have we not had a female President? How did a brown Jewish girl become the bleached-white mother of the Christian God? Why is Mary the only named female in the Quran? How was an Indigenous goddess transformed into La Virgen to colonize a nation? What if Mary had said “no”? 

It’s such a complex topic that we want to invite many different ways to engage and explore. So, around the performance, there’s a constellation of interactive events and features, including a lobby installation, community salons, and multi-disciplinary presentations led by artists, activists, and scholars.

 

 

written & directed by Nancy Keystone

created in collaboration with the company

original music & sound design by Randy Tico

 

ACTING ENSEMBLE:

Gabriela Bonet, Fran de Leon, Russell Edge, Lorne Green, Amir Levi, Valerie Spencer

 

DESIGNERS: 

Lena Sands/costumes, Christine Ferriter/lights, Nancy Keystone/set, Atria Pirouzmand & Ali Roustaei/props & scenic assistance

TIMELINE                                                                                                                                       
Mariology has been in development since 2019. We’ve presented the work-in-progress several times over the past 6 years. In 2021 we went on-line and Boston Court Pasadena presented our virtual work-in-progress. In 2023 we were honored to present the piece at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis. We’re so grateful, now, for the opportunity to continue development, to create new material, refine what we’ve done before, and finally share the finished piece!

FINANCIALS
Making theatre is a labor-and-time-intensive endeavor which is necessarily costly. Every bit of support helps!

Critical Mass’ part of the budget is $57,600. So far, we’ve gratefully raised $20,250 from grants, donations, and foundation support! And, we still need to raise $37,350 more.

This money will help us to complete the journey of bringing Mariology to fruition in our home town. The budget break-down:

$35,470 – artist & production team fees [actors, designers, stage managers, dramaturg,         producer, production assistant]

$10,040 – production expenses [set, costumes, lights, props, supplies, food]

$7,290 – insurance, rent, administrative fees, contingency

$4,800 – accompanying festival program expenses [installation, presenters, supplies, hospitality]

WHY
The themes of Mariology have become even more urgent since we started this project. Mariology busts open biases and assumptions, and invites questions, communion, and liberation. We believe that by sharing stories through vibrant performance and community interactions, theatre can sow seeds of empathy to help us imagine and manifest a more just world.

A FEW THINGS PEOPLE HAVE SAID ABOUT THE PROJECT:
“I loved it. It hit close to me, I could really relate. I grew up Catholic and Latino and I was grateful to see myself represented.”

“This piece is a Midrash on Mary's story!” 

“It made me feel that even as we're ground in the gears, we can find comfort in religion.”

"I am so compelled by this piece, as an evangelical preacher's kid- growing up in a religion that distorted so many things and really "othered," totally vilified Catholicism.  Also, for a very long time I had a totally wrong understanding of the Immaculate Conception! I wouldn't have ever thought that I had, in any way, a connection to Mary, but listening to the actors, I realized that as a young christian I very much was given a biased, misogynistic portrait of her, and for many many decades that affected how I viewed Catholicism. Wow."

“I am intrigued, disturbed, informed, and generally wrestling with my own relationship to this important figure in religious history.”

“I have always been fascinated by Mary--and especially by the women who turn to her for comfort and inspiration. I loved the implied connections between the Virgen and social justice causes...It was so powerful.”

ABOUT CRITICAL MASS PERFORMANCE GROUP
Critical Mass Performance Group is an award-winning ensemble instigated by Artistic Director, Nancy Keystone, at UCLA in 1985. Through form-busting theatricality and electrifying collisions of ideas we explore big questions about people and their place in history and within systems. We make epic historical projects (Ameryka, Apollo, The Akhmatova Project), re-imaginings of classics (Alcestis, After Iphigenia), interactive salons (Bread), social practice art (A Jordan Downs Illumination, Pose), and quirky inventions (Untitled Communion, Bad Medicine). Our work is created through ensemble collaboration. We start with nothing but an idea, and develop a piece over many years of research, snacks, workshops, community story-sharing, snacks, presentations of works-in-progress, audience feedback, and lots of snacks. Our productions have been consistently honored with awards and critical recognition. Apollo is prominently featured in Stephanie Arnold’s textbook, The Creative Spirit (McGraw Hill, 2011), and in Tom Bryant’s The Dramaturgy of History(Routledge, 2024). 

We’ve partnered with, and performed at: Center Theatre Group, Boston Court Pasadena, Mixed Blood Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Getty Villa, The Getty Center, REDCAT, Skirball Cultural Center, PlayMakers Rep, LA Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), South Coast Rep, The Orchard Project, USC’s Visions and Voices, Huntington Library, and others.

If you would like to donate by check:
Checks must be made out to "Fractured Atlas"
It is very important that all checks are made out to "Fractured Atlas" ONLY.
-Please write "Critical Mass Performance Group" on the Memo line
-Mail the check to Critical Mass Performance Group
P.O. Box 41435
Los Angeles, CA 90041