←Recommendations of Big Bad

A powerful look at the haunting affects of trauma and the questions one has. Well done.

We are pleased to support this play! It was a Finalist for the 2019 New Works Festival at Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas, Texas.

Big Bad is an intelligent dissection of the effects of fairytale and story simplification. Katherine tackles trauma, empowerment, and rage, speaking so effectively to the world today and what we aren't doing to ensure we're safer. Her use of shadow puppetry to build the world of the play is inspired and enviable, and turns the play itself into a silent and omnipresent fifth character, constantly hinting at subtext and things that lay beneath the surface. She writes with such magic and lightness that you never feel at odds with her play; she walks you through its themes so effectively.

A remarkable, visceral reclamation of fable. I adore this play, in its effortless tightrope-walking between the language of fairy tale and sensitively-managed, fully-felt themes of female anger, trauma, violence, and the choices we make to sustain, protect, or empower ourselves in a world that gives no outlet to do any of those things. I can't wait to see Katherine's spell cast on audiences -- magic with a tremendous capacity to heal through the examination of past and pain and to give ferocious voice to those struggling to find theirs.

A beautiful play that subverts every narrative you ever heard regarding the Little Red Riding Hood fable. Gwynn creates devastatingly effective characters whose storyline can sometimes lead you one way and then completely blow up your assumptions with a new revelation a scene later. Her command of subtlety allows you to go along this journey through the woods never knowing who or what is lurking there. Gwynn's use of shadows and phantoms along with her tight dialogue create a Litte Red Riding Hood story perhaps as it always should have been told, with its dark secrets just beneath the surface.

Oh my goodness, this play. A dark fairytale twisted in shadow and blood. A fascinating story steeped in metaphor and incredibly layered. A dark, and magical tale, this is a clever director, and lighting designer's dream!