The Children’s Farm
By Sean Dunnington
Directed by Ciera Eis
In The Children’s Farm Sam runs away to California to live with her cousins Joey and Lauren (and their sock puppets) after being outed, tormented, and exiled. While there, Sam wraps herself in a fantastic world of wonder and love where she can truly be herself. She calls this place “The Funny Farm,” a riff off of Joey and Lauren’s nickname for therapy. Traversing a decade and a half of role-playing and therapy, this drama weighs forced family, roots, and finding freedom on the farm.
CAST
Ashleigh Kennealy, Emma Simpson, Mikee Loria, Laurent L.J. Hall
CREATIVE TEAM
Set Designer: Laura Hyman
Lighting Designer: Michelle Hoselton, Cassie Barnes, Desired Effect
Sound Designer: Michelle Hoselton
Costume Designer: Denise Altaffer
Stage Manager: Michelle Hoselton
Dramaturg: Victoria Gardner
Produced
New Voices at Town Hall Theatre Co.
Director’s Notes
The Children’s Farm is fierce, raw, beautifully poetic, and yet crisply human play. This is a dynamic, memory play on family belonging, the exploration of queer identity, otherness, therapy, and childhood resilience. Personally, growing up as a child of divorce in a small town, this play mirrors what it means to grow up in a religious community as a queer woman, and explores the unconventional models of family. It is a play that touches on childhood counseling and family dynamics with authenticity and heart. I invite you to dive in and explore these beautiful characters that Sean has created, to experience their stories, and listen with open hearts to a narrative that you might have not experienced before.
Stealing the words of a mentor of mine, this play has teeth and it bleeds. This piece has a pumping heart, and it is the words of a playwright who will do incredible things and the story of the unconventional family that needs to be told.
Ciera Eis 