Beautiful Blessed Child

An Irons in the Fire Project

December 9, 2022 @ 3:00pm
Pearl Studios

Written by Daria Miyeko Marinelli
Directed by Zi Alikhan

This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Feel free to contact us with any questions on accessibility.

Synopsis

I thought you checked your car-fluids / I did ?
Professionally ? / No.
Mm.

Aimiko has never taken a road trip with t/her Mom. Sharon has never seen nor heard of any sort of mother-daughterchild road trip.

And so, our brave pioneers take to the road, driving West, 10 miles per hour above the speed limit, with tales of cannibals (The Donner Party), crane wives (The Decemberists), and samurai children (the mythic family lore) buzzing over the airwaves, offering avenues of survival, all of which are only moderately helpful when Aimiko’s car radiator suddenly goes dead.

This is their story.

Performed By

Dawn Akemi Saito
Zo Tipp
Erica Ito (Stage Directions)

Stage Manager: Hannah Sgambellone

Playwright

DARIA MIYEKO MARINELLI [she/they] is a Japanese-Italian playwright who writes about outcasts and underdogs trying to rewrite the cultural mythology they have inherited while honoring the wildness of their hearts. Their plays include Ravenous, A Departure, Beautiful Blessed Child, and This is Not What I Expected When I Imagined a Republic. Daria’s work has been performed at Victory Gardens, Ensemble Theatre Company, La Jolla Playhouse’s WOW Festival, The Flea, and HERE Arts Center, among others. Mx. Marinelli has developed work with SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Playwright’s Realm, NNPN’s MFA Playwrights Workshop and TYA/USA’s New Visions New Voices at The Kennedy Center, and The New Harmony Project. Accolades include being a Finalist for The O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, a Princess Grace and Bay Area Playwrights Semi-Finalist, and a showcased writer at the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists. Daria graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magnum Cum Laude, and with Honors from Brown University and received their MFA in Playwriting as a Michener Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin. While forever a New Yorker at heart, Daria is currently based in Los Angeles. www.dariamiyekomarinelli.com

Director

ZI ALIKHAN [he/him]. Selected: Manik Choksi’s The Ramayan (currently in development at Ars Nova), Ragtime (Playmakers Repertory Company), The Flick and Red Speedo (Juilliard), House of Joy (New York Stage and Film), Shabash! (LCT3), Blood Special (Playwrights Horizons Guest Curator Series), Tilda Swinton Betrayed Us (Keen Company), Lippa's Wild Party (Yale University Theatre), Les Misérables (Pace University), WHERE HAVE YOU GONE. and The Maids (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill Fill (Soho Rep Lab), and SUMMER&SMOKE (ACCESS). RESIDENT DIRECTOR: Hamilton: An American Musical. ASSOCIATE/ASSISTANT: The Band’s Visit (First National Tour) with David Cromer, Six Degrees of Separation (Broadway) and The Rose Tattoo (Williamstown and Broadway) with Trip Cullman, Ripcord (Manhattan Theatre Club) and It Shoulda Been You! (Broadway) with David Hyde Pierce, Pete the Cat with Dan Knechtges, The Boy who Danced on Air with Tony Speciale at The Abingdon, and Uncle Vanya with Hal Brooks at The Pearl. Proud alum: Drama League Directors Project, Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab (Year 18), Drama League Artist Residency Program, Manhattan Theatre Club Jonathan Alper Directing Fellowship, Williamstown Directing Corps, and Drama League Rough Draft. Faculty: Pace University, BFA Musical Theatre Program. Graduate: NYU/Tisch.

Poster Art by Sean Devare
Photography by Valerie Terranova