IF I LIVE UNTIL I BE A MAN
Devised by Rae Bell, Sophie Falvey,
Zoe Senese-Grossberg
Directed by Zoe Senese-Grossberg
Cast
Rae Bell…………………………Dickon
Sophie Falvey………………………Ned
Production Team
Leo Lion……………………………Producer
Katie-Homer Drummond………Scenic Design
Zoe Senese-Grossberg………….……Lighting Design
Thomas M. Pflanz.………….……Lighting Consultant
Juli Worth………………Scoring/Sound Design
Cashel Day-Lewis……Additional Compositions
Produced by The Firebird Project
Run time: 45 minutes
Place: The Tower of London, 1483
Director’s Note
"An if I live until I be a man,
I’ll win our ancient right in France again
Or die a soldier, as I lived a king.”
-Prince Edward, Richard III, Act Three, Scene One
At the Hebrew School where I work they have an active shooter drill every couple months. During one, a Logan -a first grader- was scaring the other students because he kept telling them it was real, that the bad guys were coming to get us. I took him aside and spoke kindly but firmly, saying this was all pretend. I told him people are good, that no one wants to hurt him.
“But it’s real!” he protested. “There are all those posters that say people are kidnapped! The bad guys got them! What would we do if they came here?”
I didn’t know what to say. That’s about another place, I began, a complicated situation, you are safe here and now in America. But I knew he didn’t believe me.
I’ve had a lot of those conversations this year. So have Sophie and Rae -who also work as teachers. Children are telling us there are bad guys, they are coming, and we have to kill them before they kill us.
When Sophie and Rae pitched this project to me last fall they told me the story of the Princes: two little boys growing up in a state of perpetual war, raised to be warriors, locked away for their protection, and murdered by someone who supposedly had their best interests at heart. They connected it to our childhoods. Growing up in the shadow of 9/11 (we were all toddlers when it took place), we were taught to fear a faraway threat. We played games of war, played with guns, played at blowing up our enemies. We grew up in a country seeking revenge.
White American children are at the heart of the imperial project. We bomb schools abroad so they can sleep safely at night. We tell them to fear an other they will never meet and don’t believe them when perhaps the grown ups at home are the scariest threat of all.
There has been a war on all my life. We have -like the princes- always been told it is justified. We believe them; we play with our toy swords and our nerf guns and we never bother to wonder what we should really be afraid of.
Until it’s too late.
-Zoe Senese-Grossberg
With Special Thanks to: Nick Roblee-Strauss, Max Romanov, Anthony and Jodi Senese, Jessica Dizio, Jordan Muschler, Ellen and Paul Bell, Grace Tyson, Reva and Carmela Senese-Grossberg, Daniel and Julia Dizio, Julia Coffey, Nick Yelesin, Caitlin Garry, Celeste Samson
BIOS
Rae Bell (Dickon, co-writer) is a New York based sometimes-actor. Select stage credits include BOY MY GREATNESS (Firebird Players), Just Us (Sixth Fest NYC), Eight by Tenn (Zeigeist Stage Company), and This Other City (USA premiere) (Solas Nua). Film/TV credits include Selah and the Spades on Amazon Prime and Mostly 4 Millennials on Adult Swim. Rae is represented by Stein Entertainment Group.
Sophie Falvey (Ned, co-writer) is a New York-based actor, devisor, and teaching artist. New York stage credits include Comedy of Errors (Gallery Players), Horsegirls (Homemade Jean Shorts), The Dream (Columbia University), and Abbie’s Mom has Cancer (Murmuration Theater Co). They are also a resident artist at The Firebird Project, where credits include RUR and The Seagull, as well as BOY MY GREATNESS, which will tour regionally in the Fall.
Zoe Senese-Grossberg (Director, co-writer) she/her. Zoe is a New York based director, writer, dramaturg, and teaching artist. Recent directing credits include: if i live until i be a man, BOY MY GREATNESS, The Seagull, and RUR with the Firebird Players, Facelift at Gallery Players, and speaking strictly for me at Astoria Food Pantry Productions. She has been Firebird’s Literary Director since 2017. Zoe has worked as a stage manager, dramaturg, production assistant, and assistant stage manager at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Powerhouse Theater, Four Walls Theater, and the Workshop Theater. Her playwriting has received recognition from organizations such as the Eugene O’Neill Center, Penguin Random House, and YoungArts. UPCOMING: if i live until i be man at the SpaceUK as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and BOY MY GREATNESS on tour this fall. More at zoesenesegrossberg.com.
Katie Homer-Drummond (Scenic Design) they/them. Katie is a New York-based artist originally from upstate South Carolina. They graduated from Oberlin College in 2022 with a B.A. in Creative Writing and Cinema studies. They are a resident artist with the Firebird theater company, credits for which include set (The Seagull, BOY MY GREATNESS) and makeup (RUR, The Seagull, BOY MY GREATNESS). They have written, directed, and art-directed two twenty-five minute short-films (Boys Who Fly on Gilded Wings & Wolf Girl), and designed multiple sets for the Oberlin College theater department (Warsaw Melody, Orlando, Next to Normal, Hamlet, & Shayna Punim).
Thomas Planz (Lighting Consultant) is a graduate student at the University of Chicago studying ancient Egypt and queered histories, whose thesis recently won an award from their program. They are also a stage manager, lighting designer, and TTRPG artist who is currently the TaleKeeper on the actual play podcast, Tales from Grevelon. Their prior experience has included work with The Firebird Project (Resident Technical Director, Resident Production Stage Manager), Theater of the Apes (Lighting Technician, Stage Manager), and Rutgers's Cabaret Theatre (Producer, Lighting Coordinator). Many thanks to my family, friends, and to my mentor Joanna Lodin. Find me at thomasmp.com or follow me on Twitter and Instagram @thomasmpflanz
Juli Worth (Scoring/Sound design) they/them. Juli is an Oberlin College graduate from Alexandria, VA. They have worked as a composer and recording artist on films (Redwood, Wolf Girl, Designing Desire, Boys Who Fly); plays (The Moors, Orlando, The Tempest); and musical projects (Hotspur Johnny, SCAD Mom, South Professor.) They have appeared in numerous Firebird productions (BOY MY GREATNESS, Lay the Bent, The Seagull, RUR) and think that the company is quite cool.
Cashel Day-Lewis (Additional Compositions) is a composer of acoustic concert music and a baroque violinist based in Oberlin and New York City. Their mentors have included Jesse Jones, Michael Frazier, Elizabeth Ogonek, Stephen Hartke, Daniel Felsenfeld, and David Ludwig. Their inspiration is primarily drawn from their background in traditional Irish music, time spent living in Ireland, and historical performance; ornamentation and harmonic language from both musical traditions appear frequently in their work. Having spent much of their early musical life learning the violin by ear, Cashel has a unique relationship to improvisation that further informs the music they write.
Leo Lion (Producer) they/he/she. Leo is a theatremaker, teaching artist, and producer from Brooklyn, and the founding Artistic Director of The Firebird Project, a multidisciplinary production & arts education company. Leo also serves as the Associate Artistic Director of Phoenix Theatre Ensemble and heads their PlayCoop New Works Incubator, a home for new storytelling forms like ARG and RPG. As a teaching artist, Leo leads workshops in improv, playwriting, and RPG storytelling. As a genderqueer first-gen immigrant, Leo seeks to create work that explores nebulous identities, placelessness, and unconventional methods of meaning-making. | leolion.com / @whosleolion
The Firebird Project is an award winning NY based theater company founded in 2013 by Leo Lion. Since then it has produced thirteen off and off-off Broadway productions. It has also run a thriving educational wing where theater classes are taught throughout the year, as well as youth productions produced in the summer. Most recently, Firebird launched its adult production wing, The Firebird Players, which produced two full productions in 2023: Rossum’s Universal Robots at Alchemical Studios and The Seagull, a site specific production performed in collaboration with The Heights Players in a Park Slope backyard. This season they have produced the world premiere of BOY MY GREATNESS, Ayun Halliday’s NURSE, and countless readings and workshops. Previously, Firebird has produced in such spaces as Alchemical Studios, Hudson Guild, Downtown Art, The New 45th Street Theater, and the Roy Arias Theatre. For more information: https://www.thefirebirdproject.org.