bad eggs
bad eggs
by Jessica Hood
A magical reimagining of the myth of Persephone.
Persephone and Hades have been trying to have a baby for nearly a year with no luck. Growing anxious, Persephone decides to see the fertility doctor, Eve, who also happens to be her mother. Problem is, Eve hasn't spoken to her since she eloped with Hades, and Persephone has debilitating panic attacks whenever she tries to leave the house. Her world crumbling around her, Persephone must discover who she really is, aside from being a wife and daughter. Through a feminist and darkly comedic lens, bad eggs explores the parallels between two women who ate "forbidden fruit".
Produced with the cooperation of the Union of BC Performers.
With the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts, rice & beans theatre, KW Studios, and Presentation House Theatre.
CAST
Sarah Roa as Persephone
Raes Calvert as Hades
Lissa Neptuno as Eve
TEAM
Playwright/Producer - Jessica Hood
Producer - Rachelle Miguel
Director - Pedro Chamale
Director of Photography/Editor/Lighting Designer - Jessica Han
First Assistant Director - Teresa Leung
Set Designer - Kimira Reddy
Costume Designer - Emily Fraser
Composer/Sound Designer - Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi
Dialogue Editor/Colourist: Emily Robertson
Sound Editor: Brayden McCluskey
Animator: Emily Pickering
Camera Operators: Joseph Hirabayashi & Dan Loan
Head Gaffer: Jamie Sweeney
Sound Technician/Boom Operator: Fletcher Mussett
Follow Me
Your phone pings. It’s a text from an unknown number. “Are you ready?” You ask yourself the same question. “Yes,” you reply. Your phone lights up with directions, instructions, questions, messages, all leading you somewhere. Who is the perosn on the other end of the line? And where are they taking you? Only you can find out.
Created by Jessica Hood and Rachelle Miguel as part of HIVE 2021: Flight Paths
Flight Paths is a build-your-own-adventure style interactive journey, a collection of twelve micro-performances that take place digitally between you and an artist from your own home, phone, or neighbourhood.
Presentation Haunted House
Created with the HIVE Performance Collective
Presented by Presentation Haunted House
We collaborated with Aliya Griffin, of The Troika Collective, to create our spooky micro-peformance! Such a perfect mashup of our aesthetics, an unladylike troika.
Jessica Hood as the "good wife" who "knows her place", Rachelle Miguel as the "good girl" at her first communion, And Aliya as the wild woman, reminding us to reject the patriarchy!
those whom fortune favours
Created for the HIVE Performance Collective
Presented by Presentation House and Magnetic North Festival
those whom fortune favours was a collaboration between Jessica, Rachelle, and Sarah Roa. The devising process for this piece began with a meme which pictured Disney's Sleepy Beauty and the text "In the original text, Sleeping Beauty was not kissed awake by a prince, but raped by a king and woken by childbirth". We then took further inspiration from that original text, Giambattista Basile's Sun, Moon, and Talia. Upon discovering our performance space had three full-length windows, we distilled our piece into three vignettes. The first featured an Instagram-influencer Sleeping Beauty (@arosebriaranothername) dealing with derisive comments from @thepatriarchy and @bautystandards. The second vignette saw a movement piece from the perspective of the aging and jilted queen who warns Sleeping Beauty of mens' fading affection. In the final section, the fortune-telling frog, who gave fortunes to both Sleeping Beauty and the queen, gets dissected by the former and reveals a cryptic fortune to a chosen audience member.
bad eggs (staged reading)
In bad eggs, Persephone, Hades, and Eve (as in "Adam and Eve") are all living in the modern world. Persephone and Hades have eloped and are now trying to have a baby. Growing anxious, Persephone goes to the fertility doctor, Eve, who also happens to be her mother. Her world crumbling around her, Persephone must discover who she really is, aside from being a wife and daughter. Through a feminist and darkly comedic lens, this play explores the parallels between the two myths, a serpent Hades and two women who ate "forbidden" fruit, and unearths the modern and mythic cause for an abusive marriage and a strained mother-daughter relationship.
Jessica Hood as Persephone
Melissa Oei as Eve
Carlen Escarraga as Hades
Director: Jamie King
Stage directions read by: Jess Amy Shead
Praise:
"Congratulations, Jessica and company, for a beautiful reading of an exquisite and exciting new play. Thrilling, surprising, squirmy, funny, painful. I'm eager to see the full production. Wonderfully done, all." - audience feedback
"The sound of cracking eggs was chillingly satisfying to hear!" - audience feedback
The [Organization]
The [Organization] is a story that follows Wren, a young Asian-Canadian, as she tries to meet deadlines whilst being bombarded with prejudice and toxic masculinity from coworkers and management. Navigating through an office culture filled with racial slurs, sexualization of women, and aggressive competition, Wren struggles between maintaining her sense of right and wrong and toeing the company line. The [Organization] features a diverse and female centric cast, a reflection of the composition of Vancouver's workforce.
Grace Le as Wren
Joy Kriekenbeek as Sheila
Henry Beasley as Lyle
Francis Winter as Mike
Piril Sesli as HR
Melanie Yeats as The Boss
Director: Gavan Cheema
Stage Manager: Teresa Leung
Playwright/Producer: Rachelle Miguel
Producer/Production Designer: Jessica Hood
Praise:
"This wasn't just about sexism, racism, it's all the isms, all the crazy things that happen in a workplace...I think it's really about starting a conversation…Even though this is the first play by a new production company, they're onto something here and I'd love to see more by them. More insight, more thought-provoking pieces. And kudos to the performers, I think they all did a great job." - Karen Roller, Theatre Addicts
"It was a fantastic play and a great performance." - audience feedback
"I also love how thought provoking the topics of the play were. I have been in the workforce for many years like a lot of other people, and it really resonated with me how accurately the office politics were reflected in the play."
- audience feedback
"I thought the audience experience was delightful - I loved being led into the space and I loved the intimacy of it and how close we were to the actors. I thought it was staged very thoughtfully and I really like the percussive bits for the passage of time. The acting was concentrated and disciplined, especially for being so close." - audience feedback
Performance for “On the Line” Book Launch with BC Labour Heritage
We performed two scenes we adapted from the book "On the Line: A History of the BC Labour Movement"' by Rod Mickleburgh.
Collaborators:
Jess Amy Shead
Sindy Angel
Nathania Bernabe
Jessica Hood
Rachelle Miguel
Praise:
"There were cheers, tears and a standing ovation for Jessica Hood, Rachelle Miguel, Sindy Angel, Jess Amy Shead, and Nathania Bernabe (The Unladylike Artist Collective) at Tuesday's book launch of "On the Line". The actors performed two stories: Mother Jones' 1914 speech to striking miners on Vancouver Island, and Hospital Employees' Union members' struggle after Bill 29 and the Supreme Court in 2007 establishing collective bargaining as a Charter Right. A night to remember! THANK YOU!" - BC Labour Heritage
"Fantastic and moving performance by The Unladylike Artist Collective on @HosEmpUnion members' struggle after Bill 29 to their Supreme Court in 2007 establishing collective bargaining as a Charter Right." -Tweet by HEU
"…brought tears to my eyes." - Ken Novakowski
"Thank you so much. Everyone really enjoyed it and the performances were a great way to bring parts of the book to life. I know that the HEU folks were really moved." - Denise Moffat
