Passage Theater is marking its 30th anniversary with one of its signature presentations, the Solo Flights Festival, running Thursday, March 3, through Sunday, March 27, at the Mill Hill Playhouse.
The name comes from the solo performance by an actor who writes or interprets a work. “This has been a long popular type of storytelling with audiences internationally and has the benefit of providing each theater artist control of their own artistry and career,” says artistic director June Ballinger. “And it affords Passage the opportunity to curate a wildly eclectic month of theater with a variety of stories, theatrical forms, and generations.”
Six “solos” are set for presentation this year, including two fitting for the anniversary: shows written and performed by Ballinger and Passage Theater associate artistic director David White.
Ballinger’s “Remembrance Day,” slated to be performed on Thursday, March 10, and Sunday, March 20, follows the memories of an 80-year-old former worker at Bletchley Park, the World War II Nazi code breaking center, who was attending a Remembrance Day service in England and reflecting on her life and the secrets she was sworn to keep.
Ballinger says the work is based on her mother and was “inspired by the letters, the photos, and the investigation I did into Bletchley Park after my mother died. And then finally — by great luck — her diary. Filled with personal things about her I never knew, and a lot of study and research of my own into the machines and a visit to Bletchley Park last year.
“I learned she worked at Bletchley Park in the late 1970s when (British Secret Intelligence Service official and author Frederick William) Winterbotham wrote the book ‘Ultra Secret,’ and then came the book about Enigma (the deciphering machined used to crack Nazi codes). Mom was furious as they were all to have gone to the grave with the secret. They had all signed the official secrets act after all. “But I never did get much from mom. Either she didn’t want to talk about it or she no longer remembered as she got older, and I became more curious. I had been told things about her very tragic love life, ghost stories, and some of the social histories in the Woman Royal Navy Service but none of the technical or work related secrets,” notes Ballinger, adding that the piece is attracting the interest of veterans, women’s groups, cyber-school enthusiasts, and faculty at the Institute for Advanced Study and Princeton University. The work will be directed by Janice Goldberg.
Ballinger, whose father worked as an editor for Better Homes and Garden, was born in Camden, raised in Connecticut, and trained in England. She came to Passage Theater 19 years ago and lives in Trenton with her husband, real estate developer Michael Goldstein.
“Panther Hollow,” written and performed by White, but directed by John Augustine, is set for Fridays, March 4 and 18. White calls the work a “comedy” and describes it with this statement:
“Everything I’m about to tell you is true. And, fair warning, some of it is upsetting so I’m going to apologize in advance. There are 11 corpses in this show — eight victims of suicide, one tragic accident, one fake dead body, and one cat. I apologize for that. I especially apologize for the cat, although it’s not me that kills it. There are references to sex in this show — awkward, humiliating sex or, in my case, the humiliating and awkward lack of sex. I’m sorry.
“There are also two skinheads, one reference to public fornication, a few ghosts, Satan, and Shakespeare. I’m sorry that I take a few potshots at religion although I feel it’s warranted. Also, because of lifelong feelings of self-loathing, I feel the need to say “I’m sorry” for everything you might find offensive and for that, I apologize. So let me just start with the first dead body and you can tick everything off as I go along.”
While Ballinger is premiering her work, White has been taking his show on the road and performed it in New York City and in Pittsburgh, where he was in the MFA program at the University of Pittsburgh and lived in a neighborhood that gives the work its title.
During a December, 2015, presentation in Pittsburgh, White, a St. Louis native and son of a psychologist and a teacher, told an interviewer about the play’s deeper and more personal roots. “Back in 1995, I had just finished grad school and was still living in this run down house in Panther Hollow. One morning, I found a dead body hanging from a tree down the street from my house. I spent the next year cruising therapists, popping meds, and trying to piece my broken life back together. When I turned 45, I stumbled across my 20-year-old journal and starting piecing the story back together. This show is the result.”
White came to Passage in 2001 and lives in Bordentown Township with his wife and son.
Other solo flights presentations include Joseph Edwards performing in his adaptation of American novelist Claude Brown’s “Manchild in the Promised Land,” a coming-of-age story, where the young Brown struggles to find his identity and keep his sanity to overcome social ills and turn his life around. The play explores themes of education, power of choice, and self-awareness. Wynn Handman directs. It runs Thursday, March 3, and Saturday and Sunday, March 5 and 6.
Playwright and performer Leslie Ayvazian’s “Mention My Beauty,” an account of growing up in the rebellious 1960s and ’70s, is set for Friday, March 11, and Saturday, March 19.
Susan Stein’s “Etty” is crafted solely from Etty Hillesum’s writings during the Holocaust. Called an adult Anne Frank, “Etty” also lived in occupied Amsterdam and wrote of love and work, while wrestling with history and “God.” Performances are Sunday and Monday, March 13 and 14.
Improviser and storyteller Alex Clothier’s “Everything’s Fine!” is “an exploration of family and memory an intimate night full of secrets, laughter, and food.” It is set for Thursday, March 17.
Passage Theater is Trenton’s professional —- Actors’ Equity Association — theater company and performs at the Mill Hill Playhouse, 205 East Front Street, Trenton. Solo Flights are March 3 through March 27, with various shows scheduled Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m.(with some 3 p.m. performances), and on Sundays at 3 p.m., $10 to $25.
The company ends its season with a full-stage production of Philadelphia playwright Bruce Graham’s “no-holds-barred look at hidden and not-so-hidden racism” production, “White Guy on the Bus, running May 5 through May 22. For information and updated solo flights schedule, call 609-392-0766 or visit www.passagetheatre.org.
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