Experiments: Creatures: Sea Level
By maura nguyễn donohue
Read by members of The Great Jones Rep
Creatures: Sea Level is a collection of works that weave historic moments together with Asian and American lore adjacent to aquatic beings both real and fantastic.
Sky Meets Sea is a 1,000-year love story between St. Patrick and a Vietnamese Medusa, that converges on the banks of the Mekong River during the war between Vietnam and America.
God Molecule references songs from Woodstock 1969 while engaging in a raucous battle between the depressed Japanese ex-pat Godzilla, his cousin, seep, a Colorado River Toad who is endangered due to human demand for his psychedelic sweat and Monsoon, their girlfriend and world traveling bringer of rain.
fire:flies re-imagines a swampland’s firefly mating season as an immersive rave. Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums and Big Sur make appearances in a meeting of the beat generation's love of nature and complicity in feeding a culture of concrete roadways.
War Score - Perry Yung reads a brief performance score about loss and love, written for him on his 60th birthday camping trip and inspired by U2's War album.
Sea Level is part of the Great Jones Rep Company's Creatures project, conceived and led by donohue and Erik Ehn. The planned two-week occupation of 74 East 4th St. in October 2025 invites artists, theologists, scholars and the public to engage with a variety of liminal beings as prophets of compassion in an era of great ecological precarity.
Experiments Play Reading Series
For the 23rd season of La MaMa Experiments we will focus on theatrical works in progress addressing mental health issues. No one is more familiar with the need to create greater access to mental healthcare than our New York audience, who come face to face with this crisis on a daily basis. After 3 years of a global pandemic, all of us are feeling the upsurge of anxiety and depression, but these trends have been on the rise long before Covid-19. The works this season shed light on important, personal stories and deal with this subject matter in many different and unique ways. From tongue in cheek comedies to absurdist tragedies, Experiments hopes to create a season that will destigmaify, enlighten and, yes, even entertain.