Drama Queens, a five-star arts journal focusing on female artists

Et Alia Theater is proud to present Until Dark by Federica Borlenghi, a new play that reflects consent and the intricacies of sisterhood, while testing its ties and boundaries.

Founded by international women in New York, Et Alia Theater champions multicultural, women-centered storytelling in the performing arts and fosters a community of mutual support. By providing performance programs and artistic opportunities that welcome, support, and showcase international women artists in New York, Et Alia offers an empathetic creative space for people adapting to a new social environment.

MEET THE TEAM
Produced by Et Alia Theater
Co-Produced by Mo Shah & Kavita Shah
Associate Producer & Dramaturg: Covi Loveridge Brannan
Stage Manager: Skye Pallo Ross
Associate Director: Isabel Criado 
Set & Prop Designer: Andrés López-Alicea
Associate Set & Prop Designer: Gilberto G Díaz Flores
Lighting Designer: Adrian Yuen
Associate Lighting Designer: Em Stripling
Costume Designer: Federica Borlenghi
Sound Composer & Designer: Stephanie L Carlin
Deck Manager: Julia D’Angelo 

We sat down with Et Alia Theater to learn about tbis vibrant company and their work

Tell us about yourselves

Et Alia Theater is a group of women from all over the world coming together in the vibrant city of New York to create art. Our mission is all about celebrating diversity and empowering women through storytelling in the performing arts. We are always seeking to be a supportive community that offers performances and artistic opportunities for international women. We’ve been working to create a space where people looking for a home can express themselves and connect with others. The current core team is composed of Ana Moioli, Giorgia Valenti, Luísa Galatti, and Maria Müller (all performers in the show). In our past work, they have tackled themes such as immigration barriers, cultural shocks, and the variation of eating disorders in women of different countries, as well as used our multiple languages and cultures as the lenses to rediscover theater in New York. 

What is your creative process? How did you create your character?

• Giorgia: When approaching a character I rely first on external forces that will help me slide into their ‘outside’ world: music, costume, research, accessories and the text – over and over. As rehearsals begin and I feel like I have a strong sense of the world and relationships of the play, I start my ‘internal’ work on the character. This is usually very reliant on paraphrasing as the character, daydreaming and playful improvisations with my co-actors. 
• Luisa: The text is so beautifully complete that I can say a lot of it has been “enjoying the ride”; letting the sister relationship flow in rehearsals has been an exciting journey. But aside from that, I’ve been deeply in touch with my inner child when experiencing Lisa – she has a hopeful and cheerful touch that leads me to explore that side of me.
• Ana: I feel like I have so much in common with Lisa that it has been a very exciting process to use some of my natural impulses to embody her. It’s been great to work closely with Luísa in this creative process, combining keen observation and emotional mirroring as inspiration for my version of the character. 
• Maria: I don’t believe that we create a character who is outside of ourselves, but rather that we find all characters within – we might have to tap into different parts of ourselves to connect with them, but they’re always there. Cass was closer to my heart than I expected and, under our director’s skillful guidance and grounded by the powerful text, I feel like all I had to do was let myself go places, even if they were painful. Cass has a lot of pain and feels like she carries the world on her shoulders at times, so I opted for kindness and understanding with her, even when the other characters didn’t offer her that.

The theatre has the power to educate and elucidate… Do you agree and if so, what do you hope the audience takes away from seeing your play?

Definitely agree. We’ve all experienced it with multiple shows (both in NYC and in our home countries) and we’ve seen it happen to our audiences with our own projects, which is an absolute honor. Until Dark is elucidating in so many ways. And while it’s not outwardly “educational” in the sense that it doesn’t provide clear answers, it does spark questions. As a company of women working on a play about consent, we understand the delicacy and the importance of this subject, and we are well aware of the responsibility this carries towards our audiences. The play has been workshopped thoroughly to include various nuances and implications of the characters’ actions, and we are constantly having conversations about the themes we are dealing with, drawing parallels with our personal lives, and making sure the people we’re portraying are full and complex. If nothing else, we want people to follow these three women’s stories – and how they each dealt with an unfair past – and to feel seen, heard, understood, and validated. If this play encourages them to ask questions, to have conversations about consent, and to hold space for others who want to do the same, even better!

What have you learned about yourself from this work? 

Finding this play was probably one of the best things that’s ever happened to us. Not only does it speak from a place of womanhood, delicately approaching the theme of consent, but it also deeply explores the relationship of sisters. Building Et Alia together as friends brought us to a sisterhood relationship amongst each other, so the first time we read Until Dark it fit like a glove; we were gifted with the opportunity to explore our own relationship on stage, and what a wonderful experience we’ve been having!

What’s next?

We are in the process of programming our new edition of the Et Alia Theater Lab: Art by the Other. This is the Lab that Federica Borlenghi won last year with Until Dark, and it assists three selected playwrights in workshopping a text they have in the works. In February, we are going to resume the Physical Expression and Multicultural Communication workshops that we teach at Cooper Union University. Simultaneously, we are working on writing an immersive play on the ethics of A.I. for the sophomore year students at the same university, scheduled to be performed at the end of March. Lastly, throughout 2024 we will continue to develop Fanny Unpacked, a collaboration between our Co-Artistic Director Ana Moioli, our Directing Fellow Marina Zurita, and Devlin Stark. Selected for a residency at the LAB at A.P.E., this devised project uses clowning as an instrument to explore childhood stories related to sexual awakenings and taboos.

UNTIL DARK plays at the new Out of the Box Theatrics, 154 Christopher Street #1E New York City

Visit EVENTBRITE to reserve your seat today

AVAILABLE PERFORMANCES:
Thursday, February 15 · 7:00 pm EST
Friday, February 16 @ 7:00pm
Saturday, February, 17 @ 7:00pm
Sunday, February 18 @ 7:00pm
Thursday, February 22 @ 7:00pm
Friday, February 23 @ 7:00pm
Saturday, February, 24 @ 7:00pm
Sunday, February 25 @ 3:00 pm
Thursday, February 29 · 7:00pm
Friday, March 1 @ 7:00pm
Saturday, March 2 @ 7:00pm
Sunday, February 3 @ 3:00 pm

Cast features Maria Müller as Cass; Giorgia Valenti as Jackie; and Luísa Galatti as Lisa (Covi Loveridge Brannan and Ana Moioli, alternates). Production written and directed by Federica Borlenghi (winner, Et Alia Theater Lab, 2023)