The Nightmares Desire Kept for Me
Originally performed in Westchester, NY, at SUNY Purchase, November 1999
Written by: Alex DeFazio
Directed by: Alex DeFazio, Jody P. Person & Christine Patafio ("The Poems"); Jody P. Person ("Mixed Up Molly Eden")
Cast: "The Poems" (Act I): Laura Adams, Helene Fitzpatrick, Colleen Fougere, Christine Patafio, Jody P. Person, Lindsay Pollack, Kellie Ryan (Corps d'Action)
"Mixed Up Molly Eden" (Act II): Renee Burdette (Molly), Lindsay Pollack / Kellie Ryan (Lee)
Crew: Genevieve Fanelli (Stage Manager), Ryan Shannon (House Manager), Genevieve Fanelli & Beth Ryne (Lighting Design), Andrew Sarroff (Sound Design for "A Poem for Ophelia"), Alex DeFazio (Sound Design), Jody P. Person (Set Design), Helene Fitzpatrick (Music Composition & Supervision), Kellie Ryan (Cast & Rehearsal Photography), Tom Bloom (Performance Photography), Illana Lampert (Graphic Design), Beth Ryne (Performance Coach), Patrick Sciarratta (Mime Consultant)
Funded by Elixir Productions
Synopsis (by theatre critic Philippa Wehle, from her Preface to The Nightmares Desire Kept for Me):
In The Nightmares Desire Kept for Me, Alex DeFazio demonstrates once again his remarkable gifts as poet and playwright. Composed of six poems and a one-act play, "Mixed up Molly Eden," this new work is both lyrical and diverting, whimsical as well as intensely serious.
DeFazio's characters love acting, playing roles, dancing. They warm to applause and perform with gusto. Even the introductory poems are not solitary musings but parts of an ongoing dialogue addressed to another who shares the poet's fancies. And in performance they are danced, enveloping us in the verbal music DeFazio so skillfully weaves.
"Mixed Up Molly Eden," a two-person drama, introduces us to another of DeFazio's child/women characters living in a world of fantasy and flight. More child than adult, caught in a grownup's world of dos and don'ts, Molly too is forced to face painful truths and unpleasant memories. Named after a smile, Molly might have been destined to live in the Eden her last name suggests. But, as she says, the name Eden is "enough to repulse a small child." It leads to nothing but a grimace and a blank.
Thus Molly must get her cluttered apartment straightened up for the arrival of Mother, Father, Ex-Husband, and Unborn Child. She must un-mix her mixed up life. Spurred on by her alter-ego, her imaginary playmate Lee, who checks in regularly to help her through the day, Molly revisits her past and confronts her disturbing nightmares with courage as well as playfulness. One can only hope her journey will end in the secret garden of one of DeFazio's poems, a garden of "pine needles and secrets and wishes too," a place where Molly might be born anew.
"Mixed Up Molly Eden" was also produced off off Broadway at Surf Reality, January 2000. An additional production occurred at Wright State University, OH, June 2001 (dir. Nicholas Barnard).