Kennedy's Children
at The New School of Northern Virginia

Reviewed on March 10, 2018

Marieska Luzada
Dominion High School
Submitted for publication to Cappies News

A schoolteacher, an actor, an activist, a Vietnam veteran, and a wannabe Marilyn Monroe walk into a bar. Isolated in their own worlds, the five individuals lament about their own issues in the 1970s as a silent bartender controls the quiet atmosphere, marking the beginning of "Kennedy's Children" at the New School of Northern Virginia.

A drama written by Robert Patrick, "Kennedy's Children" first opened on November 3rd, 1975 at the John Golden Theatre. The play centers around American idealism and the fallout of the 1960s, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the Vietnam War to the Civil Rights Movement. The plot revolves around lost heroes and their ability to cope with hardship and downfall.

The New School of Northern Virginia put on an intense spectacle of both drama and dark comedy with the way the actors perceived both the joys and sorrows of the 1960s. Each person created their own separate world, encompassing their individual perspectives of dealing with adversity while breaking the fourth wall with the audience. Additionally, each character created subtle references to others in the intimate atmosphere of the typical New York bar. Furthermore, the actors did an excellent job connecting with each other, even as they are all isolated in their own atmospheres.

Although not one or two singular actors had a specific breakout during the show, all the actors created climactic moments in sharing their story to themselves and the world. Emily Ocasio, who portrayed Wanda, exemplified the true emotions of an American shaken by Kennedy's assassination. Staying consistent throughout the show, Ocasio delivered the theme of finding oneself after the outbreak of hardship. Ethan Ocasio, who played Sparger, impressed the audience with his powerful monologues and the channeling of an individual constantly struggling. His matter-of-fact tone emphasized his subtle comedic way of dealing with his problems to establish a close connection with the audience.

Theodore Testa, who played Mark, perfectly encapsulated the confusion and delirium of a Vietnam veteran who has received a perspective of death and war. His body language and charisma allowed the audience to see through his emotion and trauma as his inner conflict progressed throughout the performance. Mary Beth Doebel, the actress who portrayed Rona, encompassed the true passion of an individual participating in political activism through her powerful voice in her monologues. Exemplifying a mature role, Doebel captured humility within Rona as her passion built up to her final moment in the play. Annie Kraemer, who played Carla, demonstrated a reverse in time as her channeling of Marilyn Monroe conveyed her idolization of the Hollywood figure. Kraemer's different postures resembled an individual struggling with loss and corruption in the public eye. Although placed in a non-speaking role, Joe Neff (Bartender) demonstrated a relationship with each character with his reactions to each of their struggles. Neff had the responsibility of controlling the atmosphere of the bar while respecting the isolation of each character.

The quiet atmosphere of the New York bar set the intense tone for the show. The production developed the intention of making the bar looking more of a mediocre quality to establish the imperfections within all the different characters. Additionally, the smooth lighting transitions between each character emphasized each one's isolation while sharing their thoughts to both themselves and the world.

Overall, the New School of Northern Virginia captured the feelings of individuals experiencing the rise and fall of the 1960s. Each actor conveyed their character's story to display the experience of finding oneself in a society that can corrupt the sole individual.

Karlee Skaggs
W. T. Woodson High School
Submitted for publication to Cappies News 2

"Have you seen my moral compass?"

These are the first words to catch the eye upon entering The New School's black box theatre, before any actor has even taken a breath to speak. They are written on one of many vibrant 1970-esque posters adorning a wood-paneled wall that has been grained with care behind an authentic-looking bar. It is an intimate setting for the intimate show, Kennedy's Children by Robert Patrick, a show composed entirely of monologues. It weaves together the stories of five people who have seen the world and the lives they hoped crumble at the hands of the 1960s.

In a black box theatre, every audience member's eye becomes that of a critic. Such proximity to the performers requires much more attention to detail in terms of both the set as well as the stage business, as you can't brush off errors with a "They won't be able to tell from the stage." The set design has not only acknowledged this challenge but has used it to its advantage, as is visible in the messy neatness of the chalkboard menu, the intended cheapness of the bar itself, the period-appropriate posters and the drinks in the characters' glasses, wonderfully appropriate to each.

Standout and heart of The New School's production is Ethan Ocasio, who in the character of Sparger has been given the platform to display the fullness of his acting ability. Ocasio did not let a single line go to waste, from the sarcastic comments delivered with brilliant comedic timing to traumatic recollections, he smoothly demanded the attention of the audience with the discernable comfort of a seasoned actor.

Another notable performance came from Annie Kraemer, who portrayed Carla, a Marilyn Monroe-wannabe. Kraemer did a wonderful job differentiating her character from the other females with marvelously dainty stage business and a sophisticated, breathy speech pattern maintained solidly throughout the entirety of the show. Even more impressive was her believable devotion to dated, and at times taboo notions, leaving her monologues enjoyably conversational.

Though Kennedy's Children only chronicles five stories, a sixth, silent actor (in this case, the charming Joe Neff, the Bartender) never leaves the stage. Neff performed commendably with the difficult task of being an actor-prop hybrid; his stage business was authentic but not distracting, and the premeditated nature of his business was evident in its variety.

As an ensemble, The New School's cast of Kennedy's Children was small, but fierce. The collective emotional arc contributed to by all the actors was a lovely and clearly conscious messa di voce, and the difficult subject matters were handled by these young actors with exceptional poise. The cast's cohesiveness echoed that one question through the wood-paneling, the black box, into the parking lot and the minds of audience members on their way home.

"Have you seen my moral compass?"

Grace Molinaro
Falls Church High School
Submitted for publication to Patch.com

The year is 1974. America is still high on an overdose of 1960's drugs, shaken and bleeding from the Vietnam War, and in shock after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. A fresh sexual revolution is liberating homosexuals, while old Marilyn Monroe-type sex symbols are broken remnants of a fading era. Hippie culture is fracturing into violence after a decade-long march for peace and rights. In The New School of Northern Virginia's production of Kennedy's Children by Robert Patrick, the world is changing too fast for anyone to keep up.

Kennedy's Children is a presentation of monologues revealing the inner thoughts of Wanda, Sparger, Mark, Rona, and Carla-- five lost souls washed up in a bar. As the silent bartender refills their glasses time and time again, the five reflect back on their lives in the 1960's: their wins and their losses, their hopes, and their broken dreams.

The highlight of the play was seeing every actor bring a distinct character to the stage, which proved vital in such an intimate play. Ethan Ocasio as Sparger, a struggling gay actor, drove the show's energy. He delivered his monologues with passion and articulation that kept the audience clinging to his every word, whether comedic, tragic, or gruesome. Ocasio built a world around him that made him appear to be carrying on genuine conversations, even though he was addressing figments of the character's imagination. Annie Kraemer as Carla, a failed actress aspiring to be the next Marilyn Monroe, fed off his energy and employed it as a base for her own emotional soliloquies. She illustrated her disillusioned reflections of sexual encounters and show business with an airy voice quality that hinted at Marilyn's mannerisms and eloquently crafted her physical movements to correlate to the faded grace of an older, sadder woman. The rest of the cast indulged their charisma and flair to build their own exceptional performances.

The set was simple yet stunning, using the intimate stage space to recreate a 1970's bar. All the posters were time accurate, the walls and floors were painted wood, and it perfectly set the tone of the show. Lighting was also effective, drawing attention to specific moments and characters by focusing on actors during their monologues while darkening the rest of the stage. For such a small theater, the tech built a creative, innovative, and nearly professional world.

Kennedy's Children is an exceptionally mature play for a high school, but The New School of Northern Virginia conquered it with pensive flair. It was deep and poignant, and although set in a bygone era, it resonated with the youthful audience on a way that made them contemplate the trials and purpose of existence. It was a dark but rare gem in the world of high school theater.

Julia Sands
Falls Church High School
Submitted for publication to Connection

The setting is New York, 1974. It's a rainy Valentine's day eve, and six individuals sit alone inside a cheap bar, dwelling upon the lives they lived in the past decade. Each story unfurls the past until it becomes the present, and the 60's, that rioting, war-infested glamour era, takes a painful breath and lives again. This is the story The New School's production of Kennedy's Children tells.

Lights open onto a simple yet intricate set. Painstakingly painted wood grain patterns on its floor and walls of the seedy bar not only demonstrates the finesse of the tech department (Isabella Chevez, Gary Gao, Maia Samuelian, and Harry Sheikerz), but brings a stark realism to the play.

Then our characters enter, sitting apart from each other, their solitude of mind materializing into the physical setting. They begin to tell their respective tales as a silent bartender (Joe Neff) serves them drinks. Wanda (Emily Ocasio) opens the play by revealing she is fanatically devoted to the Kennedys a decade after the infamous assassination. It is her story of the death of John F. Kennedy that creates the backdrop from which the other characters draw.

Sparger (Ethan Ocasio), a gay actor, follows suit. He begins by creating the clever facade of a bored artist that deteriorates into a painful earnestness as he reveals the trauma of losing a found family of artists to a violent suicide. Ocasio is a dynamic presence on stage and arguably the strongest of the detached ensemble. Each brash quip he makes, each eccentric jerk and motion forms a character that is as tragic as he is comical.

Rona (Mary Beth Doebel), a former hippy, tells her story next. It is a story of a revolution in the age of drugs and music, and the terrors of police brutality. As she recounts the unraveling of the protest era, Doebel allows the character's emotions to escalate until she bursts into tears. The overwhelming desperation of the moment is one of the most genuine and moving moments of the show.

Mark (Theodore Testa), Vietnam war veteran, enters next. He reads diary entries from his time in the war that reveal the deteriorating, paranoid mind of a man under the constant brutality of war. Testa's intense and devoted character building is impressive; even when not speaking, he can be seen engrossed in his entries, anxiously tapping his feet as he is overflows with nervous energy. The entries end with his revelation that he killed a friend and mentor under the delusion that he was a Viet Cong infiltrator, a haunting yet anti-climactic ending.

Carla (Annie Kraemer), a failed starlet turned go-go dancer, sat the most centrally of the characters. With her faux Marilyn Monroe dress and breathy voice, she embodies the used and discarded dime-a-dozen woman, an anachronism in present time. Kraemer is the most successful of the group in portrayal of a physical deterioration as well as a mental one. Her vomiting, smeared lipstick and ruffled hair and unsteady speech makes her the most convincing drunk in the bar, something that is heightened when she reveals that she is overdosing on sleeping pills as she tells her story.

These alternating monologues finish, leaving only a haunted audience and morose silence in their wake. Yet these stories are undeniably human in their loss--the loss of loved ones, of heroes, of sanity. It is their humanity that makes us fall in love with them, and The New School's production tells this story as humanly as possible. That is all that can be asked.

Aubrey Winger
Loudoun Valley High School
Submitted for publication to Fairfax County Times

The skies open up as a tumultuous downpour floods the streets of New York City. Five people drown their sorrows in a bar, hoping that a sense of anonymity and a bottle of liquor will help them forget their past, even just for a night. The New School of Northern Virginia's intimate production of Kennedy's Children was a testament to the broken dreams of the downtrodden and the shocking resilience of the human spirit.

Written by Robert Patrick, Kennedy's Children depicts five Americans in a New York City bar on Valentine's Day in 1974. The characters, with the exception of the bartender, are completely unaware of each other, and communicate to the audience through a series of intertwining monologues that reveal their innermost fears and heartbreaking life experiences.

Wanda (Emily Ocasio) captured the essence of an old soul as she reminisced about the glamorous life of the Kennedys. Rona (Mary Beth Doebel) had a similar sense of maturity on the stage. She delivered her monologues with a level of passion and conviction that paid tribute to the political protesters of the era.

Carla's (Annie Kraemer) contrasted the other two female characters with her sweet femininity and adoration of Marilyn Monroe. However, her desperation for fame and frustration with the sleazy men of the film industry gave her character an element of depth and reliability.

Although Joe Neff tended to the bar without saying a word, he actively involved himself in the production, creating a quintessential barkeep persona through his wry facial expressions and consistent stage business.

Ethan Ocasio (Sparger) exuded confidence as he swaggered around the stage, perfectly encapsulating the flamboyance of his character. He delivered his darkly comedic monologues with authenticity, relishing in the ludicrousness of his career as an underground theatre actor. As he became more inebriated, Ocasio juxtaposed his lively anecdotes with moments of profound vulnerability, revealing his harrowing past with an incredible level of intensity.

Mark (Theodore Testa) deteriorated from a spunky soldier with an air of innocence to a tortured war veteran haunted by his days on the battlefield. His inner conflict bubbled to the surface as he conveyed his trauma through a series of letters and journal entries. With every twitch and wide-eyed accusation he transformed, eventually consumed by a drug-induced paranoia.

As a whole, each actor found levels in their delivery, using heightened levels of vocal expression and inflection to atone for the lack of interaction between characters. Their soft tableaus during monologues added to the atmosphere of the bar without distracting from the person speaking.

The stark contrast of the isolationist lighting alluded to the fact that each character was entirely alone in their struggles. The details in the set, from the wood grain on the bar and floor to the period flyers that hung on the wall, gave the entire production a gritty authenticity.

The New School of Northern Virginia encapsulated the despair felt throughout America in the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, giving a voice to the countless Americans who lost sight of hope through their touching production of Kennedy's Children.