Hi Tyler, Jess Noel from Humble Materials here.
Getting ready to head out for Queers in a Thrift Store with Monsters, wearing my finest because I figure this will be a stylish event given the name of the project. Upon arriving at TMoms and scanning the actors’ and audience’s fits, I’m so glad I wore my mini dress, black tights and my black leather motorcycle boots. Everybody looks incredible, I look fierce, and so do you! You look exactly like how Lilith is described in the stage directions.
Speaking of stage directions, Eliana Berson’s were my favorite part of the reading. Don’t get me wrong. The script is very funny and well-written, but the stage directions are profound! I hope when Eliana and TBD stage a fully-realized production, they somehow feature the stage directions. I don’t know how, but the stage directions are truly hilarious, and it would be a different story without them. They give the audience so much information and a lot more comedy.
The script is side-splittingly funny, but moments of tender truth are peppered throughout. Lilith’s monologue about love was powerful and relatable. People AND monsters have to earn love. As they should! I was listening and thinking “YES!” We should all test the waters before diving in head first. Love is a big deal, and Lilith understands that. She’s protective of her heart, and she’s intelligent and self-loving. She is a dynamic character with interesting layers, and I found myself wondering about her back story. I kept assigning her traits in my imagination. For example, Lilith is clearly the youngest in a family of at least four siblings. She had to learn early in childhood how to self-regulate and stay calm.
Surprisingly, this silly sci-fi comedy had me pondering big themes. Specifically: being human right now. Or the dreaded: being American right now. Existing today is just too much, so a play that transports me into a world that resembles a comic-book-meets-Empire-Records-meets-Ghostbusters-meets-Rick-and-Morty-episode, but also lets me look into a window and spy on exes who still love each other, is more than welcome. It’s necessary!
The actors were so talented and fresh. Even though they were clearly very familiar with the text, the spontaneity and authenticity kept the pace rapid-fire quick and helped the comedy really soar. I also enjoyed witnessing the friendships in the cast. This is a group of people who’ve known each other and made theatre together for a long time. You can tell.
Queers in Thrift Store with Monsters gave me a lot of hope, Tyler. The direction theatre is headed in is fun, funny, non-binary, and resembles something like a graphic novel. Be gone, stuffy, boring theatre for one type of person! Make way for a new exploration of humanity, love and death with larger-than-life, oozing monsters who’ve lived under the shop for generations. I’m seated for whatever is next for this show! It’s a script for ALL of us.
Yours truly,
Jess Noel
Tyler Rocio Ecoña was an actor in this reading of Eliana Berson’s Queers in a Thrift Store with Monsters, which played Sept 21st at Tattooed Moms.
Jessica Noel wrote and directed Cass, which ran Sept 18-20th at PhillyPACK.
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