by

Cast lists for Watch City Steampunk Festival ’17 shows!

No comments yet

Categories: base instruments, performance, vivat regina, Tags: ,

We have our current casts for our next round of shows at the Watch City Steampunk Festival 2017, Mrs. Hawking parts 2 and 3, Vivat Regina and Base Instruments!

Vivat Regina by Phoebe Roberts

Mrs. Victoria Hawking: Cari Keebaugh
Miss Mary Stone: Circe Rowan
Mr. Nathaniel Hawking: Christian Krenek
Mrs. Johanna Braun: Remony Perlman
Mrs. Clara Hawking: Morgan Capodilupo
Officer Arthur Swann: Matthew Kamm
Frau Kirsten Gerhard: Sara Dion
Herr Christoph Austerlitz: Andrew Prentice
Ensemble: Travis Ellis, Ryan McClair

Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts

Mrs. Victoria Hawking: Cari Keebaugh
Miss Mary Stone: Circe Rowan
Mr. Nathaniel Hawking: Christian Krenek
Mrs. Clara Hawking: Morgan Capodilupo
Sergeant Arthur Swann: Matthew Kamm
Mr. Justin Hawking: Eric Cheung
Miss Elena Zakharova: Arielle Kaplan
Henry Cavil, Lord Seacourse: Andrew Prentice
Mr. Kiril Chernovsky: Lucas Commons-Miller
Miss Yulia Sherba: Ava Maag
Ensemble: Sara Dion, Travis Ellis, Ryan McClair

As always, I am so grateful for the cast members who are returning to their roles. Their talent and dedication has done so much to make these productions great. But it’s also an honor to welcome our new cast members, Christian Krenek as Nathaniel, Remony Perlman as Mrs. Braun, Lucas Commons-Miller as Kiril Chernovsky, and Ryan McClair in the ensemble. It’s always fascinating to see how different actors portray the same roles, and a show needs to be able to stand up to multiple interpretations to prove the strength of the script. And new perspectives will always bring freshness and originality to any endeavor. So I can’t wait to see what our new castmembers bring to our process– wish us all luck!

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts will be performed by the Chameleon’s Dish Theater at 2pm and 6pm respectively as part of the in Waltham, MA.

by

Want to be in the spring ’17 round of Mrs. Hawking shows?

No comments yet

Categories: performance, Tags:

We will be holding auditions for the next round of Mrs. Hawking performances this spring!

We are looking to cast:

  • Nathaniel Hawking, male, ages 20-35, English accent, major lead role in both shows
  • Johanna Braun, female, ages 20-45, German accent, supporting role in Vivat Regina
  • Kiril Chernovsky, male or female, ages 20-50, Russian accent, minor role in Base Instruments

There will also a small monetary honorarium paid to the selected actor upon completion of the show’s run.

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts are the second and third in a series of steampunk-themed stage shows that have been performed in repertory over the course of 2015 into this year.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Weekend of May 13th
As part of the Watch City Steampunk Festival in Waltham, MA

REHEARSAL INFORMATION
Rehearsals begin in mid March leading up to the performance dates in May. Rehearsals will happen mostly in the Porter Square area of Cambridge, with tech week leading up to the performance in downtown Waltham area.

AUDITION INFORMATION
Auditions will be held on two dates:

Sunday, February 26th from 7-9PM
Lesley University, Doble Campus
33 Mellen Street, Cambridge, MA
Doble Building, Room 209

Monday, February 27th from 7-9PM
Lesley University, Doble Campus
33 Mellen Street, Cambridge, MA
Doble Building, Room 209

Auditions will consist of reading from sides from the script. Accents required.

Please make an appointment. Walk-ins are welcome, but to guarantee your slot please send an email to mrshawkingweb@gmail.com with your headshot and resume to reserve a time.

If you would like to audition but are unable to make these appointed times, please e-mail anyway and arrange alternate accommodations.

by

Video recording of Base Instruments at Arisia 2017!

No comments yet

Categories: base instruments, performance, Tags: ,

We are proud to announce the video recording is now available for our performance of Base Instruments at Arisia 2017!

Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts

Base Instruments from sydweinstein on Vimeo.

We are so happy to be able to present part 3 of the Mrs. Hawking series recorded for you to enjoy whenever you like. Thanks so much to Syd Weinstein and crew, who filmed this at Arisia 2017 and edited it together for us.

Please be sure to visit our Shows page for the video recordings of all three of the Mrs. Hawking so far, and see how all the hard work of all the great artists in our cast and crew come together to tell these amazing stories.

by

Performances at Arisia 2017 accomplished!

No comments yet

Categories: performance, Tags: , ,

At Arisia 2017 this past weekend, Mrs. Hawking brought its two most recent shows, part 2: Vivat Regina, and the world premiere of part 3: Base Instruments. And I am so delighted to report that the performances went great.

Base Instruments represents a real achievement and step forward for the series. It’s the most technically demanding piece on all fronts. The piece is the longest with the most complex of all the plots and character arcs, requiring more from the writing and acting than any previous. Its production needs were on a bigger scale, requiring more sets and the accompanying set pieces.

And to my great pleasure and pride, Team Hawking conquered all those challenges. Our actors’ heartfelt performances brought the cast of characters believably and compellingly into the stage stage of their journeys. Our tech crew took phenomenal charge of all the many moving parts needed to fully flesh out this world. And I was deeply honored to hear from many people what I’d begun to suspect through this process— that part III: Base Instruments truly is the best installment yet. All the varied effort and craft that goes into the making of the show, from the design to the building to the portrayals to the execution to the writing, all came together to bring our storytelling to the next level.

I am intensely grateful to everyone who made that possible. My brilliant crew of designers and volunteers who physically made the show happen. The talented, dedicated actors who brought the characters to life. The enthusiastic audience who showed up to support our art. The staff of Arisia, particularly Persis Thorndike, for believing in us enough to give us the time and the resources to perform at the convention. And of course my technical director Bernie Gabin, without whose expertise, work, and passion none of this would be possible. Thank you all, for every moment we’re in your thoughts and all the time you’ve devoted.

Soon we’ll be displaying the excellent pictures taken by Anna Munch, our official photographer to the event. And we’ll have video to post taken of Base Instruments at the convention performance. But in the meantime, please enjoy the videos of our previous shows, and see the steps taken in the journey to get where we are today.

by

Our ace heroine

No comments yet

Categories: character, Tags: ,

ebbf3d31-a91b-45cb-96ac-5285e96bdd33

One thing that makes the Mrs. Hawking series unique is that we not only have a queer protagonist, she is of a kind you very rarely see represented– our hero is an asexual aromantic, and it’s very important to the conception of her character.

A large part of her story is the difficulties she faces in maneuvering through a world that has no understanding of asexuality. The social expectations surrounding her provide constant challenge– the way she has no inclination toward romantic love, the stranglehold she found in the obligation of marriage, and not only the inability to reciprocate the Colonel’s feelings for her, but even to relate to them. She herself doesn’t have a word for it, only the sense that she is different from most others, and perhaps even beyond their understanding, even those who work hardest to grow closest to her.

While love and romance can be fun threads to explore, and our story deals with them in the form of Nathaniel’s marriage and Mary’s developing relationships, it also takes some of the emphasis on romance as the only kind of truly significant relationship. The most important connections in the story are unconventional and not easily defined– not as simple and clear cut as parent and child, or simply friends, but complicated by familial love, the bonds between teammates, and the relationship between mentor and protege. Mary’s role as Mrs. Hawking’s student makes the girl the most important person in her life, while Mrs. Hawking s not simply Nathaniel’s aunt, but an important figure of authority and approval whose validation he desperately craves. And while there is no romance between Mary and Nathaniel, the intense struggles they weather together make an unbreakable friendship between them.

I enjoy the chance to explore some of the more unexpected bonds that can form between people, and demonstrate that romances are not the only important connections in people’s lives. I think Mrs. Hawking’s asexuality helps not only represent a subgroup that is not often present in fiction, it helps redshift the focus to the wider spectrum of meaningful human relationships.

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts will be performed January 13th-15th at the Boston Westin Waterfront Hotel as part of Arisia 2017.

by

“I Saw Three Ships” – a Mrs. Hawking holiday scene

No comments yet

Categories: character, scenes, Tags: , , ,

I don’t know where this came from. It’s a little seasonally-appropriate Hawking scene popped into my head tonight, and I scribbled it down in a few minutes just for amusement’s sake. It’s probably never going to fit into any of the plays, but it was an opportunity for some cute character moments, and one really fun line. It’s nice to see them just in a low-stakes character moment that’s purely fun and sweet, rather than all mired in drama.

It made me smile; I hope it does you too. 😁

img_3207
“Three Ships”
From the Mrs. Hawking series
By Phoebe Roberts

MARY STONE, housemaid and apprentice society avenger
VICTORIA HAWKING, society avenger and her mentor
NATHANIEL HAWKING, her nephew and assistant

London, England – December, 1884
~~~

(MARY dusts in the parlor, humming the Christmas carol “I Saw Three Ships.” MRS. HAWKING enters to choose a book from the shelf, then exits. MARY begins softly singing.)

MARY: (singing) I saw three ships come sailing in, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day. I saw three ships come sailing in, on Christmas Day in the morning.

(She glances after MRS. HAWKING to make sure she’s gone. Then she goes and gets a flour sack containing a garland of evergreen with holly berries. She holds it up and dances around with it a little, singing louder now.)

MARY: (singing) Wither sailed those ships all three, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day? Wither sailed those ships all three, on Christmas Day in the morning?

(She begins to string up the garland over the mantlepiece and along the parlor wall.)

MARY: (singing) And they sailed into Bethlehem, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day. And they sailed into Bethlehem,, on Christmas Day in the morning.

(She dances around the room.)

MARY: (singing) And all the bells on earth shall ring, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day. And all the bells on earth shall ring, on Christmas Day in the morning.

(She dips and twirls, singing at the top of her voice. Without her noticing, NATHANIEL enters, and he hangs back watching her with a smile on his face.)

MARY: (singing) Then let us all rejoice again, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day! Then let us all rejoice again on Christmas Day in the morning!

(As she belts out the last note, she spins around to see MRS. HAWKING reenter frowning. She crosses back to the bookshelf, glaring at MARY’s decorating as she goes. She snatches a book off the shelf.)

MRS. HAWKING: Bethlehem is landlocked.

(She exits. MARY turns sheepishly and sees NATHANIEL standing behind her, grinning. After a moment, he takes up the last verse and she joins him.)

BOTH: I saw three ships come sailing in, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day! I saw three ships come sailing in, on Christmas Day in the morning!

(They break off together, doubled over into laughter.)

Gilded Cages and Mrs. Frost by Phoebe Robertsand Bernie Gabin will be performed at 7:30pm January 18th and 3:30pm January 19th respectively in the Grand Ballroom of the Park Plaza Hotel as part of Arisia 2019.

by

Winner of the Arisia 2017 membership raffle!

No comments yet

Categories: supplemental, Tags:

img_3068
Circe Rowan (Mary Stone) and Cari Keebaugh (Mrs. Hawking)

This December, we’ve been offering a chance to enter a raffle to win a two full weekend memberships to Arisia 2017. All you had to do was repost our show information page on social media with the hashtag #mrshawkingatarisia.

Today we’ve randomly drawn the winner! The recipient of our prize is:

Dave Maddaluno!

We’ll be in contact today, but feel free to reach out about how you’d like us to transfer the memberships. Thank you so much to everyone who entered!

you_doodle_2016-11-28t17_29_29z

Can’t wait to see you at our shows!

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts will be performed January 13th-15th at the Boston Westin Waterfront Hotel as part of Arisia 2017.

by

Hawking Arisia membership raffle 2017

No comments yet

Categories: miscellany, Tags:

Want to catch our shows at Arisia 2016, but the cost of membership is a little too high for you? Well, here’s your chance to win two full weekend memberships for FREE in Mrs. Hawking’s Arisia membership raffle!

you_doodle_2016-11-28t17_29_29z

For the next two weeks, we are raffling off not one but TWO passes to the Arisia 2017 convention! This will give you complete access to all hours and events of the con in the Westin Waterfront Boston hotel January 13th through 16th.

To enter:

– Share the show information page or our 2017 poster on social media— Facebook, Twitter, Gogle+, Instagram
– Tag us in the post! You can use @mrshawkingweb for Twitter and Instagram, or tag our Facebook page, or use the hashtag #mrshawkingatarisia
– Each share across the platforms counts as one entry
– Share across as many platforms as you like for additional entries

Entries will close on Wednesday, December 21st at 12AM. A winner will be drawn at random and announced at 12PM on the 21st. The selected person will provide us with their contact information so that we can transfer the Arisia memberships into whatever names they choose. We shall be pleased to have you as our guests at our performances!

Happy sharing!

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts will be performed January 13th-15th at the Boston Westin Waterfront Hotel as part of Arisia 2017.

by

Show times at Arisia 2017!

No comments yet

Categories: miscellany, Tags:

We are officially on the schedule at Arisia 2017!

you_doodle_2016-11-28t17_29_29z

The MRS HAWKING shows
By Phoebe Roberts

VIVAT REGINA
Friday, January 13th at 7:30PM

and

BASE INSTRUMENTS
Saturday, January 14th at 4PM
Sunday, January 15th at 12PM

In Grand Ballroom B

At the Westin Boston Waterfront
425 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210

Please come join as at Arisia 2017 this January and come see our shows, including the debut performance of Base Instruments!

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments by Phoebe Roberts will be performed January 13th-15th at the Boston Westin Waterfront Hotel as part of Arisia 2017.

by

Vivat Regina and Base Instruments at Arisia 2017

No comments yet

Categories: miscellany, Tags:

img_2790

MRS. HAWKING part 2 and 3

at the Arisia 2017 Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention

presented by The Chameleon’s Dish Theatre

Vivat Regina
by Phoebe Roberts
Friday, January 13th at 7:30PM

and

Base Instruments
by Phoebe Roberts
Saturday, January 14th at 4PM
Sunday, January 15th at 12PM

you_doodle_2016-11-28t17_29_29z

In Grand Ballroom B

January 13th – 17th
in the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel
at 425 Summer Street, Boston, MA

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 … 23 24