The Tribe invites audiences to the world premiere of Ophelia Underwater by
Janielle Kastner.
Ophelia had everything: the boyfriend, the future, the dress. Her life was a comedy. Until it really, really wasn’t. Set underwater in the mind of Hamlet’s forgotten, drowned heroine, Ophelia cross-examines her story, her existence, and most importantly - her ending. Janielle Kastner’s aggressively contemporary play explores the good news, the bad news, and the ultimate cost of being a very good girl.
Local playwright Janielle Kastner makes her professional playwrighting debut with this world premiere. A one-woman show, Ophelia Underwater stars Zoë Kerr as Ophelia, with sound, video, and lighting design by Preston Gray. Carson McCain directs The Tribe’s first ever full production.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Janielle Kastner is an actress and playwright based in Dallas, TX. Believing art-making to be an efficient means of changing the world, she considers herself an artist + activist, or “artivist” with particular interest in gauging the success of a community by the stories and experiences of its young women. Recent projects include Ophelia Underwater, Project: Girl, and the one-woman show GIRL: andotherbeautifulworksoffiction. You may have seen her appear locally in Decline of Ballooning with The-In Laws, The Firestorm at Kitchen Dog Theatre, A Midsummer Nights' Dream with Shakespeare in the Bar, Uncle Vanya with Dallas Actors' Lab, Seminar at Theatre Three, Romeo and Julieta at Cara Mia Theatre, and Pericles at Shakespeare Dallas. Janielle was also an inaugural member of the Dallas Playwrights’ Workshop at Dallas Theatre Center. Janielle received her BFA from SMU Meadows School of the Arts.
ABOUT THE TRIBE
The Tribe is a theatre collective serving one artist at a time to cultivate new work in Dallas, providing collective support in individualized ways. The Tribe throws its heart, mind, and labor to one question, "What does this artist need?", and then provides resources and support to fulfill that need. Whether it is an incubation, a workshop, a reading, or a creative brainstorm in a living room, The Tribe exists to provide individualized support one artist at a time. The Tribe’s goal is to support local artists, challenge their doubts, and to help make them more them — because we know their work will enrich the Dallas cultural landscape.
Winners of a 2016 Dallas Observer Mastermind Award, past projects by The Tribe include a staged reading of Widows by Brigham Mosley, a staged reading of Ophelia Underwater by Janielle Kastner, a workshop of Lil’ by Brigham Mosley and performed by Katherine Bourne, a devised theater piece in Deep Ellum featuring an ensemble of local performers, two cabarets featuring performances by over twenty local artists, and a solo salon of short solo performances by six different artists.