WHORTICULTURE is an unflinching look at the ways women/girls go through life. Using narrative and spoken word, this all-female feminist production follows 3 girls coming of age in a toxic culture. Produced by AJ Campbell, Quarantine Players. Directed by Sophia Menconi. Starring Tzena Nicole Egblomasse , Sarah Wiesehahn, and Teresa Hui. Written by Emma Goldman-Sherman.
A Letter from the Director
Whorticulture is a play that confronts the dark truth of being raised a girl within rape culture. Throughout the process, I had the privilege of working with a team of three phenomenally smart and talented women on a play that is not only empowering but also challenging and complex. It is rare to find a play in the theatrical canon written just for women, let alone one that so deftly handles themes of sexual violence, abuse, and survival while still maintaining a strong sense of humor.
Emma Goldman-Sherman has distilled what being a young woman is like in the age of social media. She affirms the pain of growing up against a backdrop of the male gaze while also upholding the strength of young women to endure and to grow. The dizzying journey from childhood to womanhood is captured completely by Goldman-Sherman, who never shies away from the harsh and violent realities of life. What she captures at the heart of the play is the irreparable harm of sexualizing girls in childhood, a specter which hangs over the life of every women.
The rise of the #MeToo movement in 2017 shook the foundations of America’s media culture, and brought sexual harassment and violence to the forefront of the national conversation. It has become increasingly difficult to ignore allegations of abuse and harm, a reckoning that was a long time coming in Hollywood and beyond. The #MeToo movement asks us to interrogate celebrity culture and those we look up, as well as investigate the ways sexualization and patriarchy have harmed our own lives. Women’s voices, and the voices of all those harmed by sexual violence, are now taking center stage, as we begin a collective effort to reframe the ways in which rape culture has been able to shape our narratives. Whorticulture, like Framing Britney Spears and Allen V. Farrow, explores power, our understandings of familial abuse, and how young people articulate trauma and pain.
I am incredibly thankful to Emma Goldman-Sherman, AJ Campbell and the Quarantine Players for programming this work in 2021 and equally as grateful to the team at The Tank for giving it a second life. I’d also like to thank the team at Theatrical Intimacy Education, whose training in theatrical intimacy was invaluable to me during this process.
This show was made by an all woman creative team and cast who were hard-working, generous and remarkable. When we sat together and interrogated the ways in which the play spoke to us, not one of us could remember a time before we held hostage by the male gaze. Rape culture is pervasive and sinister, and it is the work of all of us to fight for a better future. To all survivors of sexual violence: you are seen, you are heard, and you are believed. Thank you.
Sophia Menconi – Director
Meet the Cast
Teresa Hui
Teresa Hui (LarkSpur) Teresa Hui is an actor, singer, musician, and a native of New York City. She has performed in many virtual plays and concerts during quarantine, and started regularly posting YouTube videos covering songs and accompanying herself on ukulele and upright bass. On an actual stage, Teresa appeared as Amy Farrah Fowler in the Off-Broadway production of The Big Bang Theory: A Pop-Rock Musical Parody at the Theatre Center, and she has performed in many Off-Off Broadway shows as well. This is her fourth time performing the role of Larkspur Kim in Whorticulture, and she is thrilled to be making her Quarantine Players debut! Some of Teresa's TV/film credits including Power Book II: Ghost (Starz), The First Wives Club (BET+), Difficult People (Hulu), Candide on PBS "Great Performances" (with Kristin Chenoweth and Patti Lupone), and That's What She Said (Sundance Film Festival). Teresa placed 3rd in Amateur Night at Showtime at the Apollo. She is a National Anthem singer for the TCS New York City Marathon, the Brooklyn Cyclones, and the Westchester Knicks. She has a Bachelor of Music degree from Westminster Choir College in Voice Performance. Thanks to Emma Goldman-Sherman for the opportunity to go on this theatrical journey again and share this extremely important play! She would also like to thank her family and friends for their support, especially her husband Jarrid, who has to put up with helping her film self-taped auditions at 3am on some nights during this pandemic. www.teresahui.com
Tzena
Tzena (Belladonna) (pronounced “tsay-nah”) is a multilingual actor (German, French and English) based in New York City. She is a graduate of The William Esper Studio and has extensive experience in classical theatre. She’s worked with the Classical Theatre of Harlem, The National Black Theatre, Hudson Shakespeare Co., 13th Street Rep, the LIT Council at The Tank, among many others. Upcoming projects include a workshop reading on March 23rd of "Spider Play" by Jeanne Smith about domestic violence and, being released this summer, a webseries drama about online therapy during the Covid era.
Sarah
Wiesenhahan
Sarah Wiesehahan (Indygo) is so excited to be a part of this project. It has been a breath of fresh air to be working on theatre again especially when it’s such an amazing piece as Whorticultre. You may have seen Sarah as Nadia in Bare at the Barrow Group Theatre or as Shasha Away in Ms.Delight at the Emerging Artist Theatre. Before pandemic, she was on tour with Chamber Theatre Productions. She cannot wait for theater to come back to normal but is so thankful for the Quarantine Players for helping to keep theatre alive during these crazy times.
MEET THE CREATIVES
Sophia Menconi
Sophia Menconi is a freelance director, stage manager, and teaching artist in Washington, DC. They are a recent graduate of Denison University and a former Women's Theatre Festival apprentice. She is a passionate advocate for new and experimental theatre, especially immersive works and contemporary adaptations of classical pieces. Recent directing credits include Captain Joe (Brave New Classics), The Pee Test (At Home Artists Project), and Sway (Women’s Theatre Festival).
Emma Goldman-Sherman
Emma Goldman-Sherman (Playwright) believes in the power of theatre to confer healing and agency on audiences. Her plays have been produced on 4 continents and include "Counting in Sha'ab" (Golden Thread, PlayingOnAir.org) and Abraham's Daughters (TheParsnipShip.com). Whorticulture was named a finalist at Cutting Ball and Campfire. Her other plays have been named finalists at Henley Rose, BAPF, Unicorn (3x), Cutting Ball (3x), and The Bridge Initiative. Emma earned an MFA from University of Iowa where she received a Norman Felton Award, the Richard Maibaum Award for Plays Addressing Social Justice, and PERFECT WOMEN won the Jane Chambers Award. Emma received residencies at Millay Colony; Ragdale; and twice at WordBridge where she also worked as a dramaturg. As Resident Dramaturg, she created and ran the 29th Street Playwrights Collective and the WriteNow Workshop for the past 6 years. She has taught at U of Iowa, Great Plains Theatre Conference, The Alliance for Jewish Theatre, New York Writers Workshop, et.al. In 2019 she launched www.BraveSpace.online via zoom to support women+ and gnc writers of all genres, especially trauma survivors. Her plays are available at newplayexchange.org. Member: The Dramatists Guild, LPTW, LMDA.
A J Campbell (Producer) is the founder of the Quarantine Players, a new play production company based in Washington, DC. She is a playwright, lyricist and coffee aficionado. You can find her work on the New Play Exchange, her hot takes on her twitter feed @CampbellWriter