STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK
PHOTOS BY YANNA LANTZ
It was hard to pass up a play with the name “Idaho” in it when your theater company happens to be in Idaho.
And it didn’t hurt that the writing was fresh and witty.
That’s why The Spot will stage the Western premiere of “Dido of Idaho” Thursday, Nov. 30, through Saturday, Dec. 9.
“I ran across the title when I was choosing the season and ‘Idaho’ jumped out at me,” said Natalie Battistone, creative director of The Spot theater company.
“The dialogue whips past the audience,” she added. “On a superficial level, it’s super funny. But, beyond that, Abbie Rosebrock--the playwright--is a very talented writer. She’s very specific with how her characters speak. It’s as though she sat down and interviewed her characters so she could capture their styles just perfectly.”
The play, set at the University of Idaho in Moscow, features a Baroque music specialist with a drinking problem who is conducting a torrid love affair with her colleague, a married English professor.
She seeks relationship advice from her estranged mother and her partner Ethel but falls face first into her own mess before anyone can intervene.
She is awakened from a drunken stupor at the English professor’s condo by the professor’s wife, a runner-up in the Miss Idaho Pageant. And, with that, the play dives into such themes as finding self-worth when you’re steeped in despair, mired in guilt, wildly out of control and addicted to “love” for all the wrong reasons.
The play features Natalie Battistone as Nora, the music specialist, and Kevin Wade as Michael, the English professor. Page Klune plays Nora’s mother; Karen Nelsen, her partner Ethel, and Yanna Lantz, the beauty contestant.
Director Peter Burke describes the play as “very funny” and “kind of a madcap.”
“The playwright chose to set the play at the University of Idaho in Moscow because Moscow for her is reminiscent of Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters,’ and the idea of always longing to be somewhere else. The fact that it was set there is, of course, one of the reasons we were attracted to the play,” said Burke.
Members of The Spot like to choose material that provokes people to a conversation, Burke added, and this should easily do that.
“It deals with addiction, coping mechanisms, unresolved loss, the nature of true friendship and the cyclical nature of our habits and patterns. It asks ‘What are you willing to give of yourself to feel validated?’ ” he said.
Additionally, 80 percent of the characters are women—multigenerational, even. And that’s something The Spot has never seen before, noted Battistone.
“It’s refreshing and empowering to finally be producing a play full of women,” she said. “It’s incredibly special to be part of. We want to continue opening up dialogues and sharing stories that span all types of human experience, and this is a great step in that direction.”
The playwright Abby Rosebrock is a New York-based playwright from South Carolina whose play, “Singles in Agriculture”--about an army widow gunning for an Oklahoma fundamentalist at a dating convention for farmers--was a finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.
“Dido of Idaho,” which was developed with support from New York Stage and Film, was work-shopped at the Youngblood Unfiltered Festival for up-and-coming playwrights under the age of 30. It was also a finalist for AracaWorks: Chicago and an official selection of Labyrinth Theater Company’s Up Next Series.
“Dido” will officially premiere in the spring of 2018 at the Ensemble Theater in New York, which produces provocative contemporary works similar to that which the Spot does. In fact, the Ensemble Studio Theatre originated “Hand to God,” which The Spot produced during the summer of 2016.
Rosebrock is still tweaking the play—it’s undergone numerous changes even since members of The Spot got their hands on it six months ago.
“It’s a very exciting relationship we have forged with the playwright Abby Rosebrock. She has been super excited and interested in how we might develop it,” said Battistone. “And this is the last production of it that will happen before its premiere in New York.”
IF YOU GO…
What: Dido of Idaho
When: Nov. 30-Dec. 9. The play starts at 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Nov. 30-Dec. 2 and Tuesdays through Saturday, Dec. 5-9. Matinees will be offered at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 3, and Saturday, Dec. 9.
Where: The Spot
Tickets: $25 for evening plays at $22 for matinees, available at www.spotsunvalley.com. Student tickets for those 17 and older are $15.
Caution: This play is recommended for ages 17 and older due to language, heavy themes and violence.