THE SPLATTER PLAY

A NOTE ON DRAMATURGY by SARAH HAJKOWSKI

When reflecting on dramaturgy for The Splatter Play, two words that sum up my sense of the show are gruesome and kooky. These I use with the utmost affection both for the world invented by the playwright, and the concept given life by its director and production team. The materials comprising Splatter’s dramaturgical display are imagined as the paraphernalia, the miscellaneous stuff, that might be accumulated in the kind of reality its characters inhabit. Here eldritch studies and frankensteining are established fields of study, arch rivalries and convoluted plots rule the day, and extremes and caricatures are parameters to play in. 

Abby Auman’s script invites us to escape the strict confines of our reality; to scale treacherous cliffs and warp through doors to one of her own making, but even extraordinary or other-than-human figures confront human problems. In the display you will see cheerful brochures and advertisements, twists on media in Auman’s favorite flavors: sci fi, horror, black comedy, and hopefully get a taste of the blood-spattered universe the Splatter team has given birth to—a bit of an appetizer for all the liquid audience immersion we’ll be spraying your way.

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