Father/Daughter by Kait Kerrigan

Father / Daughter is an a structurally inventive play that asks how much our relationship with our parents and our children impact our romantic relationships. Two stories told 23 years apart, Baldwin is Miranda's 30-year-old divorced father who is trying to forge a new relationship with a beguiling woman, and Miranda is Baldwin's 30-year-old daughter, who has found herself in her first serious...
Father / Daughter is an a structurally inventive play that asks how much our relationship with our parents and our children impact our romantic relationships. Two stories told 23 years apart, Baldwin is Miranda's 30-year-old divorced father who is trying to forge a new relationship with a beguiling woman, and Miranda is Baldwin's 30-year-old daughter, who has found herself in her first serious relationship. What baggage do we bring with us from our past and how can we learn from the relationships we choose in order to repair the relationships we inherit?
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Father/Daughter

Recommended by

  • David Hansen:
    16 Apr. 2021
    “ I love this script because it manages love and disappointment and hope and the desire to be desired. And because it delves into what is ugly and awkward and so so deeply upsetting without flinching. Because it’s brutal in its honesty. I feel like I could be any of these people. Also, seriously; two actors play these two couples, and the older couple is SO late-90s Gen X and the other is SO right-now Millennial, it kills me. I would love the opportunity to see two actors play these four characters. ”
  • Elizabeth A. M. Keel:
    20 Feb. 2019
    “ Father/Daughter matures as it goes along, moving from meet-cutes in bars to much richer, deeper territory. Through the clever casting device, the playwright creates a compelling world where no one has all the answers, whether they are in the role of child or parent. The characters dig deep for their courage, avoiding sentimentality in favor of plain language with more heft, heart, and weight than poetry could hold. Thank you for this one! ”

Each of the two actors play two parts. The woman plays Miranda and Risa and the man plays Baldwin and Louis. The stories are told 23 years apart and Miranda is Baldwin's daughter but I don't think that means that they need to be played by the same ethnicity. More important is the energy of actors. Both actors must be able to embody a character who is open to the world and another character who has significant walls.

Development History

  • Workshop
    ,
    IAMA Theatre Company
    ,
    2019
  • Workshop
    ,
    Theatreworks / Silicon Valley
    ,
    2019
  • Residency
    ,
    Lark Playwright Development Center
    ,
    2015

Production History

  • Professional
    ,
    Aurora Theatre
    ,
    2021

Awards

Winner
,
Edgerton New Play Award
,
Edgerton Foundation
,
2021