Instructions For Breathing

by Caridad Svich

"In a world of hurry, what's the cost of playing? Jon and Sara return home one night to find that their child, Sonya, has mysteriously vanished through a casual act of neglect. Her disappearance turns her parents – and the community – upside down with regrets, judgments, and gossip; but also galvanizes them to take responsibility for their own fate in today's global and frenetic society. This lyrical, dreamlike drama exposes tragedy in the modern world – personal, private and public – in a fiercely witty look at love, lies and the language we use to disguise our hearts."

A full-length play that examines a marriage and community shattered by the disappearance of a child. A play about loss and faith; an intimate portrait of quiet lives broken by tragedy, and how we may heal and transform from moments of crisis.

Cast: 2 female (30s), 1 female (teens), 3 male (30s). Setting: Several locations suggested simply.

World Premiere produced by Passage Theatre @ Mill Hill Playhouse, Trenton, NJ.
Artistic Director, June Ballinger.

Original premiere run: April 16-May 10, 2009
Director: Daniella Topol

Cast: Heidi Schreck (Sara), Bryan Close (Jon), Les (Frank Harts), Leslie (Polly Lee), Don (Gerardo Rodriguez), Kate Hopkins (The Girl)

Set Design: Jeffrey Van Velsor
Lighting Design: Charles S. Reece
Costume Design: Gail Hecht
Sound Design: Broken Chord Collective
Line Producer: Kacy O'Brien

Photo credit: Cie Stroud

About Caridad Svich (Playwright)

Caridad Svich is a U.S. Latina playwright, translator, lyricist and editor whose works have been produced across the U.S. and abroad at diverse venues including 59E59, The Women's Project, The Pearl Theater, McCarren Park Pool, INTAR, Walkerspace, 7 Stages, Salvage Vanguard, ARTheater-Cologne and Edinburgh Fringe Festival/UK. Her works include “12 Ophelias,” “Any Place But Here,” “Alchemy of Desire/Dead-Man's Blues,” “Antigone Arkhe,” “The Booth Variations,” “Iphigenia...a rave fable” and “The Labyrinth of Desire.”

This spring her new plays “Instructions for Breathing” and “Wreckage” received their world premieres, respectively, at Passage Theater/NJ and Crowded Fire/CA (dir. Erin Gilley). She has translated nearly all of Federico Garcia Lorca's dramatic works as well as plays by Lope de Vega, Calderón de La Barca, Julio Cortazar and contemporary works from Mexico and Cuba. She has been a Radcliffe Institute Fellow, NEA/TCG Fellow at the Mark Taper Forum Theatre and a TCG/Pew Charitable Trust Fellow at INTAR. Her works have been published by TCG, Playscripts, Smith & Kraus, BackStage Books, Arte Público Press, Stage & Screen, Heinemann, and Manchester University Press. Svich is an alumna playwright of New Dramatists, founder of NoPassport Theatre Alliance & Press, Associate Editor of Routledge's “Contemporary Theatre Review” and Contributing Editor of “TheatreForum.” Svich is also member of PEN American Center, The Playwrights Center and The Dramatists Guild. She is featured in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latino History and holds an MFA from University of California, San Diego.

Photo credit: Cie Stroud