by The Happiest Medium on March 3, 2012
The Happiest Medium review by guest contributor Katelyn Manfre
For those of us tucked up in the Northeast part of the country, Hurricane Katrina is a distant memory, a tragedy of nearly a decade ago. But for those still feeling the effects down South its presence is constant. Siobhan O’Louglin gives a voice to the personal stories in her solo show, The Rope in Your Hands (playing at The Red Room). Through thirteen different first-hand survivor accounts, O’Loughlin deftly moves through the before and after of one of the most devastating disasters in recent memory.
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by The Happiest Medium on February 5, 2012
Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?
The Rope In Your Hands
Written and performed by Siobhan O’Loughlin
Directed by Danielle Skraastad
The Rope in Your Hands, written and performed by Siobhan O’Loughlin, is an interview-based solo show featuring the stories of thirteen different survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Show Times:
- Wed 2/22 @ 9:30pm
- Sat 2/25 @ 8:00pm
- Wed 2/29 @ 8:00pm
- Sat 3/3 @ 11:00pm
- Sun 3/4 @ 6:00pm
Answers by Siobhan O’Loughlin
(Writer, Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Siobhan: The Rope in Your Hands is based on interviews I conducted with survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The title is an actual quote from a homeless man I interviewed in the French Quarter—he said to me, “You got a man drowning in a lake, huh? And you got a rope in ya hand? You don’t debate about whether or not you throw a man a rope!” For me, this embodies the show itself: if we have the ability to help each other, we should. The rope is in your hands as well as mine. It is in our hands.
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by Stephen Tortora-Lee on November 16, 2011
15 months ago I had the opportunity to review 23 Feet In 12 Minutes as it premiered in the 2010 NYC Fringe Festival. Since then this show has made it to New Orleans and back with some wonderful work-shopping in the Cape Cod Theatre Project along the way. It came back to New York as part of the All For One Festival and I was lucky enough to see the newly evolved work. While the show only had a 2 day run I thought I’d do an in-depth exploration of the piece highlighting the evolution from the version I saw 15 months ago. I hope 23 Feet In 12 Minutes will continue to be performed and developed in the future, and continue to have a wider and wider audience, because while it gives gripping stories of many of the tragic human consequences that happened following the touchdown of Hurricane Katrina, it also shows us the best of humanity.
Written by Mari Brown, performed by Deanna Pacelli, and directed by Pamela Berlin and David Travis this new revision moves from the free-flowing stream of conciousness writing and performing in the premiere version, to a well thought out piece where every action (or inaction) seems carefully weighted and balanced to tell a story with a beginning, a middle, and a NOW. At the end I think anyone who sees this will want to do whatever they can to help prevent disasters – wherever they happen in the world – from getting this out of control again by emulating the people they’ve seen represented in this show. Last time I wrote a review, I compared everyone to heroes. This time I think it is more apt to compare them to saints both because the Saints are the New Orleans team, but also because I hope that these stories can help others learn to live by the examples given by Saints in the spiritual sense. The fact that all of these characters in 23 Feet In 12 Minutes came from interviews of real people makes it even more inspiring — and akin to the history of what elevates a person to sainthood.
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by Stephen Tortora-Lee on August 27, 2010
6 Characters Based On 60 Interviews in 60 Minutes Equals Countless Emotions
Deanna Pacelli is a hero. Or several of them actually, and also a victim, and often enough some observers. In 23 Feet in 12 Minutes Deanna puts on many characters and pulls stories from many moving moments as she recounts the events starting with Hurricane Katrina from the eyes of 6 characters drawn from more than 60 accounts of what happened after the storm hit, the water rose, and chaos spread.
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