By Kathryn Chetkovich
World Premiere of The Formula by Kathryn Chetkovich, directed by Ellen Maguire, Co-Production with Blissfield.
In The Formula, inspired by William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an anxious young researcher experimenting with the neuroscience of attraction struggles to maintain control when the untested formula she's been working on gets loose at her own wedding — with spectacularly disastrous results. This whip-smart and moving new comedy swaps a lab-manufactured substance for Puck’s “love-in-idleness” flower and asks: Is choosing the right person to marry even possible?
Benefactors
Alan Daniel and Kathy Kenan
Audrey E. Stanley
Executive Producer
Anonymous, in memory of Tilly Shaw
Suzy
Allie Pratt
Woman
Paige Lindsey White*
Dean
M.L. Roberts*
Man
Ward Duffy*
Patrick
Christopher Silvestri*
Francis
Ward Duffy*
Jack
Dion Graham*
Miranda
Maggie Bofill*
* Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the U.S.
Director
Ellen Maguire++
Scenic Designer
Dipu Gupta
Costume Designer
Nikki Delhomme+
Lighting Designer
Kent Dorsey+
Sound Designer / Composer
Rody Ortega+
Wigs Designer
Jessica Carter
Production Stage Manager
Katie Ringwood Peavey*
Voice Coach
David Morden
Choreographer
Patrick McCollum++
Intimacy Choreographer
Noah Luce
Assistant Stage Manager
Grace Griffin
Assistant Costume Designer
Allison Miranda
Stage Management Intern
Olive Fox
Directing Intern
Sequoia Schirmir
Playwright
Kathryn Chetkovich
++ The Director is a member of the Stage Directors’ and Choreographers’ Society, a national theatrical labor union
+ These designers are represented by United Scenic Artists, Local 829 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
* Denotes member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the U.S.
Kathryn Chetkovich and I met in New York City, where we discovered that we share a love of comedy and a philosophy: comedy is best played with serious intentions, with high stakes. Our mantra: no sentimental choices.
As we developed The Formula together, gathering actor-friends in living rooms and rehearsal halls to read and explore scenes, it became apparent that Kathy's smart and observant play offers all the pleasures of a classic romantic comedy by Shakespeare (or even Billy Wilder), while stealthily subverting the genre. The Formula is many kinds of funny: it's full of wit, wordplay, physical humor, and situational humor. There's also music and, at the play's climax, dance. But—and this is vitally important to me—the comedy is rooted in the humanity of the characters, in their desires and needs. I also love that The Formula is a true ensemble piece; each character has a revelation about love and each character changes in a profound way.
I'm so grateful to Kathy for placing her faith in me and for the great deep fun we've had along the way. Thanks also to Geoff Lieber, for always being in my corner, and to Mike Ryan, for inviting us to join his season. I'm very happy to be directing the world premiere of The Formula at Santa Cruz Shakespeare, with its spirited band of storytellers. How lucky we are, during such a difficult time in the world, to be gathering together to laugh and be lifted out of ourselves into our collective imagination—and to perhaps question the ways we construct our ideas of love.
This play got kicked off for me by thinking about A Midsummer Night’s Dream and how the wrong person is given the love potion. In the ordered universe of that play, everyone has their designated right mate; the comedy comes in part from messing with that order, and the happy ending comes from setting it right. We live in a country where nearly half of marriages end in divorce, and yet the myth of “the one” persists—we still want to believe that there’s one right person out there for everyone. We want to believe in true love, whatever we mean by that. With The Formula, I tried to write a play that has sympathy for that wish and that also questions it, gives us a glimpse of the damage it can do.
What a thrill it is to premiere this play in the Audrey Stanley Grove—a perfect home for a story inspired by Shakespeare’s comedy about mismatched lovers wandering about in the woods on the eve of a wedding. And a perfect home for a playwright who first started attending shows at Shakespeare Santa Cruz in the 1980s. I’m so grateful to Mike Ryan and Santa Cruz Shakespeare for this opportunity, and to Ellen Maguire, who helped me discover the story of the play through rewrite after rewrite and who approaches each scene as a director with curiosity, inventiveness, and an instinct for finding comedy in truth. Every playwright should be so lucky. My thanks, too, to Jon Franzen, for helping me figure out, daily, what I mean.
