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Flannery O'Connor |
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Karin Coonrod |
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Paul Pryce |
Ean Sheehy |
Welker White |
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DIRECTOR’S NOTE FROM KARIN COONROD:
My first encounter with O'Connor's stories happened when I was 19 in an American lit class. The fierce comic tone and inherent drama blew my head open. She took no prisoners, and this cheered me. I felt called to bring O'Connor's imagination to the stage.
In the theater piece Everything That Rises Must Converge, not only does the quicksilver dialogue beg to be spoken aloud and played out on stage, but the featured characters also tightly attend to the dialogic narration. All these voices and the writer's prophetic gaze urge the piece to be performed verbatim from the story in front of an audience live!
A very special thanks to all the theater artists who have participated—and continue to remain present—in Everything That Rises Must Converge over many years. I first developed this at the University of Iowa, then at Sundance Theatre Lab and finally off-Broadway at New York Theater Workshop. Next year marks the 100th anniversary of O'Connor's birth, and her words remain as resonant as ever. For me, O'Connor is the American Dante, from the red clay of Georgia to the realm beyond.
About EVERYTHING THAT RISES MUST CONVERGE: Everything That Rises Must Converge, from a story of the same title by Flannery O’Connor and created for the stage by Karin Coonrod, is a tragic-comic interracial seat-shifting dance by whites and Blacks on a moving bus in America’s deep south. Playing and speaking out the text verbatim, seven Colombari actors, with razor-sharp precision, create all the characters and all the narration. Georgia’s red earth is slammed up against the eternal. O’Connor’s voice spread out across the company of actors, carrying the power of apocalyptic comedy into the audience.
About the style and playing of the piece: The company is an ensemble of carnivalesque narrators, driving forward a story about a white mother and her son on the most ordinary of adventures–traveling the bus to a class at the YMCA. It’s a story of politics and love. It is set in the early 1960s, post-Rosa Parks, but not at all as the dynamics between the characters unravel deep-seated prejudices. The characters slyly implicate the audience into a shared sympathy for Julian at the expense of the platitudinous mother, but then when Julian does what he must do, the actors—narrators—clear the stage for the cosmic drama to be played out. The narrators become silent witnesses as Julian delivers his vitriolic (and to him–in the moment–funny) invective. The silent witnesses—almost like invisible angels–simply watch.
The language is crisp and witty. The consonants must be pronounced as weapons in the repartee. The narrators can alternate between a Northern accent, a mock Southern, and anything in between. The characters on the bus and Julian and his mother must speak in a Georgia accent when they speak their dialogue, but they can move in and out of it in the narration, depending on what has the best effect. There are different classes represented of white trash–and when on the bus, those characterizations in sound are of utmost importance for the bus riders. O’Connor’s text (like Shakespeare’s) draws upon the overturning of many well-known proverbial sayings (“Rome wasn’t built in a day”).
The story and the theater piece overturn the hideous assumptions made by the culture. The theater piece puts these assumptions in a relief that exposes–through comedy–the necessity for a new consciousness. Both the mother and the son have no sense of the REAL. One lives more in the mind and the other in the heart. The story draws upon the platitudes of the culture and the hilarious misery of disenfranchised (privileged) youth and mines an existential truth: “If you know who you are, you can go anywhere!“ The power of the story is that O’Connor takes no prisoners. There’s no “wink-wink” here. The characters are fully human and fully represent us. Fear of the stranger, competing self-righteousness, pretense–it’s all central to the American experience, told in a hilarious, sly way with no speck of sentimentality.
"In short, we, the black and the white, deeply need each other here if we are really to become a nation--if we are really, that is, to achieve our identity, our maturity, as men and women." – James Baldwin, from The Fire Next Time (written in 1964, the year O'Connor died)
"Dear God, I cannot love Thee the way I want to. You are the slim crescent of a moon that I see, and my self is the earth's shadow that keeps me from seeing all the moon. The crescent is very beautiful, and perhaps that is all one like I am should or could see, but what I am afraid of, dear God, is that my self-shadow will grow so large that it blocks the whole moon and that I will judge myself by the shadow that is nothing." –Flannery O’Connor, from her prayerbook
Cast
Creative Team
Karin Coonrod
Flannery O'Connor
Compagnia de’ Colombari
Carlton Terrence Taylor
Jacob Russell
Anna Crivelli
Christopher Akerlind
Karin Coonrod and the Company
Oana Botez
Damarius Kennedy
Jennifer Harrison Newman
Sofia Crouch
Cindy Sibilsky
Meet the Company
Chris McLinden
New York City: The Employees (Theater Lab), Red Hills (En Garde Arts), The Tempest (La MaMa ETC), Everything That Rises Must Converge (Compagnia de Colombari), Nicholas, Maeve, Marianne (New York Fringe.) Select Regional: Merchant of Venice (Peak Performances); Ibsen in Chicago (Seattle Repertory Theater); King Charles III (A.C.T., The Shakespeare Theater Co., Seattle Repertory Theater); Last of the Boys and Diary of Anne Frank (Steppenwolf Theater Co.);, The Lion in Winter, The Seagull, and Duchess of Malfi (Writer’s Theatre); Taming of the Shrew (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre); Twelfth Night and Cymbeline (Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival); Speak American (City Theatre, Pittsburgh); Celebrity Row (American Theatre Company); Vincent in Brixton (Appletree Theatre); Midsummer Night’s Dream (First Folio Shakespeare); The Lady From the Sea (Greasy Joan & Co.); and The Vortex (Boxer Rebellion). Film and TV: “The Night Agent,” “FBI: Most Wanted,” “Blacklist,” “Law and Order SVU,” “Boardwalk Empire,” “Alpha House,” and Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, 5-25-77. Member of The Actors Center.
Paul Pryce
Paul Pryce is thrilled to join the Compagnia de Colombari ensemble once again! Theatre credits: King Lear, The Merchant of Venice (Compagnia de’ Colombari / Arts & Ideas Festival / La MaMa ETC), Hamlet, The Piano Lesson, Good Goods (Yale Repertory Theatre), Create Dangerously (Miami New Drama), Julius Ceasar, Pericles (Elm Shakespeare), Pecong (The National Black Theatre of Harlem), GO FORTH! (NY & US Tour), Silence & Fear (Compagnie Lieux Dits, France). Film & TV: Marvel’s “Jessica Jones,” “Narco Saints” (Netflix), “Unforgettable” (CBS). As a filmmaker & producer, Paul’s debut film, Come Out Come Out World, premiered at the Cannes Short Film Corner. His short film The Deliverer won Best Foreign Film at The Atlanta Underground Film Festival, and his feature-length screenplay for The Deliverer was a Sundance Writers Lab Short-listed Finalist. Paul teaches at Brooklyn College, HB Studio, and in South Korea. MFA: Yale School of Drama alum. Paul was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago.
Stacey Sherrell Scott
Stacey Sherrell Scott is a Juilliard graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama, a business owner of an Acting and Performance Coaching business called “Setting Your Stage,” and is the program director for the Classical Theatre of Harlem’s Education and Community Engagement Department. She is excited to celebrate Colombari's 20th Anniversary through the classic language of Flannery O'Connor.
Ean Sheehy
Ean Sheehy has appeared in many episodes of “Law & Order,” “Law & Order SVU,” “Law & Order Criminal Intent,” and the HBO series “John Adams.” He also appears in the films Slow Machine and The Notorious Bettie Page. Theater: Red Eye To Havre De Grace at New York Theater Workshop and Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Paramount Theater in Boston, Georgia Tech, Dartmouth College and many others, Inflatable Space at the Edenborough Fringe Festival, as well as theaters in Denver, Cleveland and other locations. Also, "Thom Pain (based on nothing)" (The Ensemble Theater of Cincinnati), "No Foreigners Beyond This Point" (Center Stage Baltimore) "Master and Margarita" (The Fisher Center), "The Making Of King Kong" (Target Margin) and "This Is The Color Described By The Time" (The Flea), Shooter (European tour), Psychic Self Defense (HERE) and many more.
ElizabethElizabeth Stahlmann
Broadway: Slave Play; Off-Broadway: Tectonic Theater Project’s Here There Are Blueberries at New York Theater Workshop; Here There Are Blueberries (La Jolla Playhouse, Shakespeare Theater of DC); Slave Play (Broadway Transfer at The Mark Taper Forum); Grounded (Westport Country Playhouse-CT Critics Circle Award); The Humans, The Cake (Alley Theatre); Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater; Tennessee Williams Festival; Three national tours of Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors, As You Like It with The Acting Company; The Guthrie Theater; a founding member of Krymov Lab NYC, originating Onegin: In Their Own Words. TV/film credits include: “City on a Hill,” “The Equalizer,” “Law & Order: SVU,” and The Snare. She graduated from the University of MN/Guthrie Theater (BFA) and Yale School of Drama (MFA). Elizabeth is a proud member of The Actors Center.
Carlton Terrence Taylor
Carlton Terrence Taylor is a passionate game-changer committed to empowering generations to think critically using art as a catalyst for change. Recent credits include Tina the Tina Turner Musical (First National Tour), Deep Blue Sea and What Problem for New York Live Arts and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, The Late Show performing “The Americans” with Janelle Monáe, and Great Day in Harlem’s tribute to Janet Jackson. Theater: Illa (a hip hop musical), Ronve O’ Daniels (NYMF), How the Light Gets performing Ilathi (NYMF), Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor (with Compagnia de’ Colombari, NYC, US and international tours), Five Guys Named Moe (Black Spectrum Theatre), Songs for A New World (The 411 Theater). Film: August Rush, TV: 80th Annual Academy Awards. Carlton is the Artistic Director of Ballet and Beyond NYC’s R.Y.S.E Conservatory. “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced,” –James Baldwin.
Welker White
Welker White's many film credits include Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (as Jo Hoffa opposite Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa) and Lois Byrd in Goodfellas. Other notable films include Dead Poets Society, Nora Ephron’s This Is My Life, HBO’s Emmy-winning Bad Education, and Radha Blank’s The 40-Year-Old Version. Most recently, Welker completed filming Jonah Hill’s Outcome opposite Keanu Reeves. Welker has performed on and off-Broadway and in regional theaters across the U.S., originating roles in works by playwrights John Patrick Shanley, Lisa Kron, David Ives, and Craig Lucas, among many others. She’s a member and Co-Artistic director of The Actors Center. Welker attended NYU Tisch and holds an MFA in Directing from Brooklyn College, where she has been on the acting faculty for over 15 years. With her company, The Moving Frame, Welker brings screen acting intensives to some of the most respected universities and training programs across the U.S. and abroad. Welker is a proud recipient of a Fulbright Specialist designation.
Karin Coonrod
Flannery O'Connor
Compagnia de’ Colombari
Carlton Terrence Taylor
Jacob Russell
Anna Crivelli
Christopher Akerlind
Karin Coonrod and the Company
Oana Botez
Damarius Kennedy
Jennifer Harrison Newman
Sofia Crouch
Cindy Sibilsky
Photos
Everything That Rises Must Converge (photo by Shin Kurokawa)
ETRMC Rome Rehearsal Photos (by Mikolaj Cempla)
ETRMC Rome Rehearsal Photos (by Mikolaj Cempla)
ETRMC Rome Rehearsal Photos (by Mikolaj Cempla)
ETRMC Rome Rehearsal Photos (by Mikolaj Cempla)
ETRMC Rome Rehearsal Photos (by Mikolaj Cempla)
ETRMC Rome Rehearsal Photos (by Mikolaj Cempla)
THE MAKING OF Everything That Rises Must Converge:
The theatrical adaptation of Everything That Rises Must Converge was first developed (with two other stories, A View of the Woods and Greenleaf) at the University of Iowa in 1998, at Sundance Theatre Lab in 1999, and Off-Broadway to sold-out audiences at New York Theatre Workshop in 2001. Subsequently, Everything That Rises Must Converge played in Rome in 2009 and on tour around the United States of America and Colombari’s New York City home base in 2014, 2015, and 2019. The 2024 marks a triumphant return to Rome, New York City, and premieres in Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and two New York State detention centers.
Additional Credits, Copyrights and Special Thanks:
Copyright 1964 by the Estate of Flannery O'Connor; copyright renewed 1992 by Regina Cline O'Connor—permission granted by Mary Flannery O'Connor Charitable Trust.
The Actors and Stage Managers employed in this production are members of the Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. The Director is a Member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical labor union.
Everything That Rises Must Converge and Compagnia de' Colombari's 20th Anniversary Season programs are made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and support from our donors. Special thanks to Michael Garanzini, Dr. Mark Bosco, S.J., Farrell O’Gorman, John Conklin, Craig Martell, William Monroe, Fr. Damian Ference, Michael Murphy, Emily Geballe, The Riddle Fund, the Eucalyptus Fund, Mary Flannery O’Connor Charitable Trust.
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