ZOON VADER PRODUCTIONS LLC

The Art of Self-Defense  

by Trish Johnson

Directed by Liz Sacco Couchman

Co-Produced by Frank Pasqualino and Samantha Gaies

Synopsis:

The play unfolds in a series of scenes in and around a health club. Five women, from a variety of widely differing backgrounds, meet in a T'ai Chi class. The male instructor is unseen, a voice from the wings. He introduces them to T'ai Chi, which is a mixture of meditation and self-defense. Over a period of time the women, among them a young mother, a personnel director and a corporate lawyer, discover the strength that friendship among women can provide. But even this knowledge can prevent one of them, a meek but modestly ambitious office worker who is encouraged and supported by her fellows, from a failure of courage at the crucial moment. The play ends dramatically, with recognition that each woman is responsible for the quality of her own life.

The Most Massive Woman Wins  

by Madeleine George

Directed by Rachel Morrissey

Co-Produced by Frank Pasqualino and Samantha Gaies

Synopsis:

This play is a frank but funny look at how the contemporary beauty myth affects women's perceptions of their bodies. The play begins intriguingly, with four women in the waiting room of a plastic surgeon's office, each anticipating a liposuction treatment. The actresses have drastically different body types, suggesting that "fat" may be a state of mind that most women share. Except for the briefest exchanges, the women never speak to each other, and the play unfolds as a series of monologues, short scenes and cruel schoolyard rhymes that reveal why the women believe that surgery will help them feel better about themselves.

George crafts many sharp, well-observed moments and clever lines, from a rhapsody about bringing on sweets to one woman's rhetorical question, "Why does everyone tell me I have beautiful skin?"