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THROUGH THE LEAVES
by Franz Xafer Kroetz
Directed by Brittney Brady
Behind the door of a small butcher shop, Through the Leaves scrutinizes the deep inner lives of Martha and Otto. Martha is an independent woman, a butcher, and a small-business owner. Fueled by a sexual attraction that borders on violence, Otto and Martha are locked in a battle balancing independence and partnership. Raw, ruthless, and reaching for beauty, Through the Leaves is an unflinching interrogation of brutality and loneliness.
From my notebook, November 2018:
Through the Leaves is a fable of brutality and loneliness.
At the beginning of Roger Downey’s translation of our play, he includes a Bavarian proverb: Wer durchs Laub geht, muss das Rauschen dulden. We are compelled to translate it this way: He who walks through the leaves, must bear the rustling. It also reminds us of another German proverb that resonates with the play: Wo gehobelt wird, fallen Spähne or where there’s wood planing, wood shavings will fall.. But back to walking through the leaves, it makes us think about pathways and what lies to the side of them. It asks us to consider what it means to go the road alone.
Lately I have been thinking a lot about loneliness and especially what Hannah Arendt said about it: “what prepares men for totalitarian domination is loneliness, once a borderline experience usually suffered in certain marginal conditions, like old age, has become an every day experience of the ever growing masses of our century.”
And then there is our play—siting square in front of us—this wild and simple and uncomfortable thing that stares at us, demanding we stare back.
Featuring
Juliana Alvarez and Samuel Garnett
Creative & Production Team
Production Stage Manager: Ethan Hollander
Production Manager: Ni Li
Technical Director: Mitchell Leitschuh
Scenic Designer: Songyi Park
Costume Designer: Edurne Fernandez
Lighting Designer: Christine Ferriter
Sound Designer: Bo Li
Scenic Artist: Rashi Jain
Composer: Evan Johnson
Video Designer: Christopher Jungwoo Kim
Director of Photography: Siru Wen
Fight Director: Steve Rankin
Asst. Lighting Designers: Christian Mejia & Euisun Yoon
Asst. Sound Designer: Jacenta Yu
Asst. Costume Designer: Selena Jin
Asst. Video Designer: Kathleen Fox
Assistant Technical Director: Francisco De Leon
Assistant Scenic Artists: Andrew Carey & Kato Lawton
Production Associate: Patrick Smith
Assistant Stage Manager: Gina De Luca
Assistant Production Manager: Jin Li
Assistant Scenic Designer: Tzu Hsiang
General Manager: Rui Xu
Marketing Manager: Sophie Blumberg
Digital Communications Manager: Jared Pixler
Line Producers: Xiaoyue Zhang, Alyse James
Resident Dramaturg: Changting Lu
about
Perceiving lies at the heart of my artistic journey. I strive to delve beneath the surface, exploring psychological and emotional depths, as well as the intricate currents of connection and community. These realms, often intimate and vulnerable, fuel my work.
Brittney Brady is a versatile theater artist and educator, intersecting live performance, text, and film/video. Her skills span directing, writing, producing, choreography, and dramaturgy. She thrives on the transformative power of hybridity, transcending boundaries of medium, nationality, hierarchy, and identity. Embracing collaboration, her approach is non-hierarchical and intuitive, shaped by her dance background, which informs her spatial and gestural language.
In 2012, Brittney co-founded Ghostbird Theater Company, dedicated to creating innovative, site-inspired performances. She is drawn to process-driven projects, fostering enduring relationships and embracing the evolution of time within her work. Community, collectivity, generosity, and reciprocity are core values that underpin her practice.
In her site-specific works, Brittney employs an eco-spiritual perspective on space and time, challenging and reinterpreting traditional works. For her, new theater is a collective endeavor, focused on process and generative collaboration.
In 2021, she was the recipient of an Arts and Projects grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has been showcased at the Walt Disney Modular Theater and REDCAT. She earned her MFA in Directing from California Institute of the Arts. Currently, she resides on the Gulf Coast of Florida.
