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| Maria Knox and Samie Detzer (photo by Cassandra Bell) |
The Hunchback of
Seville
By Charise Castro Smith
Directed by Jen Wineman
Starring Samie Detzer, Libby Barnard, Rose Cano, Maria Knox
Through June 30, 2014
Washington Ensemble Theatre doesn’t do plays most other
companies would do very often. Their tastes run to bizarre, outlandish,
boundary-stretching, unconventional, fantastical, and other such adjectives
that denote unusual theater choices. Their world-premiere presentation of The Hunchback of Seville by Charise
Castro Smith fits them very well (the “V” in the header).
Castro Smith and director Jen Wineman brought their baby to
WET via the outreach that former Ensemble member and Yale graduate Michael Place
enabled. They
brought their project as a team and agreed that they would both come and be
resident during a development process that resulted in Castro Smith being
present for a month of rehearsals. Devin Bannon, an Ensemble member, says that
is “unprecedented” in their history of developing scripts.