EVANSVILLE, IND. (03/19/2024) Senior theatre performance major, Christina Tinde Jesenski, from Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., makes her playwriting debut with a staged reading of her new play, GLOSSOLALIA, in the John David Lutz Theatre Lab. GLOSSOLALIA is being presented in conjunction with the UE Honors Program as Jesenski’s Honors Project. This staged reading opens at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 22. Additional readings are at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 23.
Somewhere in rural Kansas, sometime after the overturn of Roe v. Wade, two charismatic Christians face emotional and spiritual reckoning after having sex outside of marriage. Isaac, a convert called to preach, is nine years older than Evangeline, a sixteen-year-old pastor’s daughter raised in the faith. Faced with irreparable consequences in the aftermath of their tryst, Isaac and Evangeline struggle to reach moral common ground, craving redemption as deeply as they crave each other.
A fiery two-person play, GLOSSOLALIA bites down on age of consent laws, abortion legislation, and purity culture while questioning the lines between personal faith and organized religion, church and state, love and lust, and truth and lies.
GLOSSOLALIA is directed by Portia Krieger, an NYC-based guest artist and director of new plays and musicals. She has directed and developed work with Clubbed Thumb, Second Stage Theatre, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, Playwrights Horizons, Roundabout Theatre Company, New York Stage & Film, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Page 73, Ars Nova, Lark Theater, the Juilliard School, New York Music Festival, and others. Portia has been an O’Neill/National New Play Network National Director Fellow, a two-time New Georges Audrey Resident, a participant in the Drama League Directors Project, and an Ars Nova Director-in-Residence. She is a Clubbed Thumb Affiliated Artist, a company member of ColtCoeur and Lesser America, Co-founder of the New Georges Jam, and Associate Director of Broadway’s FUN HOME and SEMINAR, and ALMOST FAMOUS.
Emily Baggarly, an actress, dancer, singer, choreographer, and educator based in NYC, serves as the guest Intimacy Director. After graduating summa cum laude from Otterbein University with a BFA in Musical Theatre and a minor in Dance, Emily joined the Verdon Fosse Legacy by completing their Professional Training Program 1 and 2.
Jonah Charpie, a first-year design and technology major from Noblesville, Ind., Bailey Piontkowski, a first-year design and technology major from Fort Worth, Texas, and Jess Simmons, a first-year design and technology major from Indianapolis, Ind. serve as the lighting designers. Beverly Buchanan, a senior performance major from Tomball, Texas, serves as the sound designer; Katie Lawhorn, a junior stage management major from Louisville, Ky., is the stage manager, and Marguerite Winzinger, a first-year directing and dramaturgy major from Bordentown, N.J., is the dramaturg.
The cast features Aiblinn Rose 23, a guest artist from Clackamas, Ore., as Evangeline and Garrett Hale, a senior performance major from Haslet, Texas, as Isaac.
Tickets are free to the public and seating is general admission. Tickets may be reserved by calling the ticket office at 812.488.2031.
