Site-Specific Play Comes to Santa Barbara’s Stearns Wharf
See ‘Whalers’ Triptych, Part I’ at Moby Dick Restaurant August 19-28
After many years as a theater artist in experimental hubs like N.Y.C. and L.A., Meg Kruszewska founded More Theater/SB to explore her passion for site-specific theater here in Santa Barbara. The aim of site-specific work is to take the actors and audiences out of the brick-and-mortar theater and put them “on location.” By placing spectators within the scene, the gap between watching and experiencing can be bridged, giving audiences the room to be more emotionally activated. More Theater’s inaugural show is a new adaptation of Melville’s Moby Dick, called the Whalers’ Triptych, which will be performed, appropriately, in the Moby Dick Restaurant on Stearns Wharf.
As writer and director of this adapted drama, Kruszewska’s focus is on the contribution of female voices. Her work is based on Tara Karr Roberts’ novel, Wild and Distant Seas, which is told from the point of view of a minor character from Melville’s original work — a female purveyor of chowder at a seaport inn frequented by sailors. “She’s surrounded by men,” says Kruszewska. “Seeing these men come through as they await their ship, knowing that most of them won’t come back …. She probably has relations with some of them. It’s the tension of loss and desire, and the pull of the sea, even if they’re going to die in it.” Audience members will see the performance from a table in Moby Dick’s, eating chowder like a sailor, existing within that tension.
Kruszewska describes Moby Dick as being about desire, incredible loss, and defining madness — and this play offers that context through the eyes of a previously unrecognized character. Whalers’ Triptych will utilize natural light and a soundscape (designed by Randall Tico) of whale song to create a textured aural environment within the space.
The show runs August 19–28; see moretheatersb.com for details.
