{"id":24093,"date":"2023-07-05T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T16:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=24093"},"modified":"2023-06-29T13:08:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T20:08:47","slug":"absinthe-bourbon-vodka-and-sake-explores-themes-of-running-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2023\/07\/05\/absinthe-bourbon-vodka-and-sake-explores-themes-of-running-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Absinthe, Bourbon, Vodka, and Sake<\/em> explores themes of running away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria-based director Zelda Dean was drawn to Absinthe, Bourbon, Vodka, and Sake<\/i> because the play takes unexpected turns. Dean has worked with award-winning playwright Caroline Russell-King for 40 years and says she has watched her develop into her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I\u2019m intrigued by many of her scripts, but this script in particular is… very compelling,\u201d says Dean. \u201cIt\u2019s very powerful, and what I like about it is that there are major twists in the play, so things are not as they appear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean has read many scripts over her career, but this one really stood out for her because it brought about many different emotions and kept her on her toes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Absinthe, Bourbon, Vodka, and Sake<\/em> director Zelda Dean (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cYou know, theatre can sometimes be magical, and it\u2019s hard to find the scripts that come across that way… It brings a sense of reality, there\u2019s great connection as we go through the journey with the characters,\u201d she says. \u201cIt challenged my perception, it kept me guessing. The play made me laugh when I first read it, it made me cry, it surprised me, and it actually made me examine myself. So, for a play to do that, I mean… I think it\u2019s my 151st play that I\u2019ve directed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The theme of \u201cwherever you run to you bring yourself\u201d drew Dean to the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, one of the questions that the play brought to mind for me,\u201d she says, \u201cis, \u2018Have you ever felt like running away?\u2019 I mean, what if you could have a redo of your life, or a moment in your life, or in a relationship? What if you could script your own story, your own life story?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Dean always has a roadmap of how a show will end up, there are new discoveries during the rehearsal process.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI always have an idea in my head of the frame that the play will end up in, on opening night,\u201d she says. \u201cBut I\u2019m always surprised by what we discover as we take the script apart, because when I\u2019m working with actors, all I\u2019m trying to do is help them find the truth in their characters, so that we stay true to the characters, true to the script.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean has previously worked with actors Christine Upright and Ryan Kniel and knows what they can bring to the final production.<\/p>\n

\u201cI work in a collaborative fashion with my actors, but when the dust settles, the director decides what shape the show will be,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I obviously have a good sense myself of what the shape of the show is, and how I hope it will end, and having worked with both of these actors I know their capabilities, and I know how much they\u2019re going to bring to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean believes that audiences may experience moments of surprise during the play, and she\u2019s looking forward to their reactions throughout the production.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis particular story happens to be intriguing, and that\u2019s really why I took it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just intriguing. And I can hardly wait to see the reaction from the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dean hopes that the overarching themes of the play will resonate with its viewers and lead them to an understanding about the urge to run away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, I\u2019m in my 80s, and, I admit it, that I\u2019ve thought about it, yeah, that there are times we just want to run away,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, I think that what people will take away from this is that there are different ways to run away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Absinthe, Bourbon,\u00a0Vodka, and Sake
\n<\/i>Various times and dates,
\nWednesday, July 19
\nto Sunday, August 6
\n$25, Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue Black Box Theatre
\nbemaproductions.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria-based director Zelda Dean was drawn to Absinthe, Bourbon, Vodka, and Sake because the play takes unexpected turns. Dean has worked with award-winning playwright Caroline Russell-King for 40 years and says she has watched her develop into her career. \u201cSo, I\u2019m intrigued by many of her scripts, but this script in particular is… very compelling,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-july-5-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24095,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24093\/revisions\/24095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}