Saint Joan of the Stockyards
Roble Theater, Stanford University, May 2017
Lili Lim, Gianna Clark, Claire Breger-Belsky (Black Straw Hats) | Photo Credit: Frank Chen
By Bertolt Brecht
Directed by Jessi Piggott
Boom, bust and blood. Bertolt Brecht’s Saint Joan of the Stockyards chronicles the social worker Joan Dark’s futile battle with the gruesome corruption of the meatpacking industry. Charity and good will are no match for the all-conquering machinery of capital as it devours cattle and workers alike. Featuring an all-women cast and a riot grrrl punk chorus, this production splatters audiences with the raw, extreme horror of economic and environmental injustices, just as fresh (or rotten) now as they were when the play was written in 1931.
"For me/Mauler, it’s been a ~journey~ thinking about what it means to attempt to replicate a kind of hegemonic white masculinity—critique / subversion / deconstruction, or affirmation / upholding? & what does it mean for me, an able-bodied mostly-femme white person to insert myself at the top of the food chain?”
--Lillian Bornstein (Mauler) on drag & privilege
Emma Rothenberg (Graham) and Emma Jackson-Smith (Slift) | Photo Credit: Frank Chen
Press:
Alessandro R. L. Hall, "'Saint Joan of the Stockyards' gives power to the people." Stanford Daily, 5 June 2018
Pictured: Ensemble in Finale | Photo Credit: Frank Chen
“The thing that got me was the anger. Because I was a teenage girl I thought I had no right to be angry. Riot Grrl gave me the permission to express my rage.”
--Gianna Clark (Joan Dark) on discovering Riot Grrl
Jessi Piggott
Feb. 2017
From the Stanford TAPS blog
Program, Saint Joan of the Stockyards
Designed by the cast, front cover by Stefanie Okuda