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Thoughts on Kingfisher Theatre's Production of "A Dress for Mona"

     A twentieth century pioneer in theatre, Bertolt Brecht, once related his ideal theatre to the kind of story-telling you’d find on a street corner where an accident has just taken place.  As the witnesses relate the event to other bystanders, they would not claim to “be” the people involved, but would re-live the event, narrating, jumping into the character of one, then another of the parties involved.  As bystanders, we learn and we are thrilled, but we don’t forget that this is a story and not the event itself.  

     In Kingfisher’s production of A Dress for Mona, there is certainly some witness bearing going on.  It’s as if three angels bore witness to an accident of history, and in their re-telling, they've given the story wings. 

     By all realistic estimates, three women should not be able to do this play, written as it was for no less than eight (preferably ten) actors, half of which should be male.  The realists, however, are proved wrong, and anything that might be lost in realism, we gain in the energy and momentum of the storytelling.  In the free flow of fabric and character, we sense Mona’s vision of life’s fleeting nature. 

     I congratulate Sonya, Lisa and Nancy and their director, Bill George, for their work and I thank them for bestowing the gift of such a unique production to the life of this play.

- Mark Perry

(Click here for photos)

Kingfisher Theatre Tour,

USA & Canada (Fall 2003)

10/7  Nazareth, PA

10/9 Boston, MA

10/11 Eliot, ME

10/13 Concord, NH

10/16 Montreal, QC

10/18 Ottawa, ON

10/24 Kingston, ON

10/25 Uxbridge, ON

10/30 Hungtingdon, PA

11/01 Kettering, OH

11/07 Springfield, IL

11/15  Glen Elyn. IL

11/20 Edmond, OK

11/22 Columbus, OH

11/29 Nashville, TN

A note from Bill George about The Kingfisher Theatre Company workshop and tour:    

   "As I write, a company of three women—Sonya Sier, Nancy Minden, and Lesa Michelle Silvers—are somewhere in the heartland of Canada touring an adaptation of Mark Perry’s A Dress for Mona, and a children’s play, Dragons of Rizvania, an original adaptation of Carol Handy’s much loved tale.  After five and a half weeks of rehearsal at our retreat--Little Pond Arts Retreat just outside of Nazareth, Pennsylvania—they’ve taken off in a very cramped mini-van to mount close to thirty performances over an eight week period throughout the mid-west and eastern regions of the United States and Canada.  This is the second year that Kingfisher has sent out such a company, and the eleventh year of touring dramatic work directly about or inspired by the Revelation of Baha’u’llah. 

   "It is too early to tabulate number of audience members served, workshops held, teaching events participated in, but for all those who have had the thrill of this work—and the challenge—it is difficult to return to “normal performance” again.  The work is of the highest artistic integrity, performed about the deepest and most important subjects, to audiences non-Baha’i and Baha’i alike that are intelligent, mature and committed.

    "Kingfisher Theatre is looking forward to touring again in the Fall of 2004, and will lead off at Little Pond Retreat, August 9^th with a two week intensive workshop in theatre techniques especially designed to assist in the expression of dramatic ideas that circle round the inexpressible divine. We are calling it the Sacred Theatre Workshop.  Rehearsals for Kingfisher’s third season of touring its Dragons Company will begin August 23, the tour ending early December. (2004 will see a remounting of A Dress for Mona and Dragons of Rizvania in order to tour the South West and Western portions of the United States.)  For those interested in attending the drama workshop, there will be a fee of $600 which covers housing and food.  Those participating in the 2004 tour will receive a small weekly stipend while in rehearsal and on tour.