Quit Bitchin'
Written by Anna Marjorie Fitzgerald
Composer: Jeremiah Tuner
Directed by Juliette Carrillo
Sound Design: Melanie Falcón
Stage Manager: Daniel Rosales
Costume Design: Christian Alvarez
Lighting Design: Aria Roach
Scenic/Projection Design: Rojin Bolandbakht
University of California, Irvine Department of Drama
2023-2024 Season
Artistic Direction
Quit Bitchin' follows the story of 6 women, in a rural town, and how their lives intertwined. These are not mere 6 women though, they are modern representations of women from Greek mythology. Although these are women living in modern times, there are portions of the show when they flashback into their mythological counterparts. The show tackles themes of love, struggle, and most importantly rage. The show revolves around female rage, our characters rage, and how that shows up in their every day lives. For us, as a design team, our goals for this show were two fold; representing the rage of our characters onstage, and seamlessly moving from when the characters are their modern counterparts to their mythological versions.
Photo by Vincent Olivieri
As the composer, the director and I came to the agreement that the actors would sing live for the interludes. We also decided to record an ensmble in addition to the actors as we wanted to build the scale of the interulde scenes to be larger, and have a backing track that the actors can sing over during the show to stay on tempo and in pitch.
Photo by Vincent Olivieri
I worked in collaboration Irene Messoloras, Associate Chair at the music department at UCI, to gather an ensemble together to record the pieces for the show. I decieded to record with a full female ensembe to keep with the themes of the show, and due to the fact that only women would be singing live during the show.
Photo by Vincent Olivieri
Prelude
This is the top of show sequence. This piece introduces us into to the world of the show, and the internal rage of the characters. In this moment, we are shown the characters as their mythological counterparts.
Photo by Jeanine Hill
Interlude #1
In this interlude, we see the characters close to being their most rageful. Up until this point of the show, the characters have been in a wave of rage. Their emotions crescendo to a boiling point, and then decrescendo back to normal. I wanted to build a piece that reflected that in the energy and pace that they snag.
Photo by Jeanine Hill
Interlude #3
This interlude takes place towards the end of the show. The characters have struggled yes, but they are all getting to a point of reconciliation and peace. Although the past interludes have been filled with pain and rage, this interlude is supposed to give us a sense of joy and closure that the characters feel.
Photo by Jeanine Hill