Archer (still Angela to his family) doesn’t want to move back to his childhood home in eastern Oregon when his father falls ill. But at night under the oldest Ponderosa Pine, he meets a stranger who knows the history of the forests and the sadness of losing endangered things. As Archer accepts big changes in his family he discovers the power of names and the histories they make and mask.
Actors:
ARCHER: Genderqueer; Archer to himself, Angela to his family. 29.
POPS: Archer’s Dad. 60’s.
GRANDMA: She doesn’t hear very well. 80’s
OWEN: Semester intern at the nature conservancy. 29.
MOM: Archer’s Mom. 60’s.
Puppets: PETERSON: Cute pot-bellied puppet, manipulated by POPS.
Sagittarius Ponderosa has been developed by: The Yale School of Drama (Carlotta Festival 2013), New Harmony Project (Summer Workshop 2013), The Global Age Project (Festival 2014), New York Theatre Workshop (Mondays @3 Reading Series 2015) and UMASS Amherst New Play Lab (Spring 2015). Sagittarius Ponderosa had its world premiere in January 2016 at New Conservatory Theatre Center.
Author
MJ Kaufman is a playwright and television writer from Portland, OR. Their plays have been seen at the Public Theater, WP Theater, National Asian American Theater Company, Clubbed Thumb, Colt Coeur, Williamstown Theater Festival, InterAct Theater, Yale School of Drama and numerous other theaters and schools around the country as well as in Russian in Moscow and in Australia. Their work has been developed by the... [FULL BIO]