Milwaukee-based theater artist Marcella Kearns comes from a proud Polish family. She remembers well what her maternal grandmother used to tell her, either while frying pierogi or rooting for the fall of the Iron Curtain:
“It takes a Pole to hold up the American flag.”
Now, Kearns is directing a play about a Polish immigrant woman trying to make a life for herself in New Jersey. Forward Theater opens “Ironbound” by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok in the Overture Center Playhouse on Jan. 29, running through Feb. 15.
“I’m half Polish on my mother’s side,” Kearns said. “My family immigrated a couple generations back. They worked in steel, which is how they ended up in Jersey. My grandmother and my great aunt actually grew up about 20 minutes from where this play takes place.”
Shelley Cornia designed the costumes for “Ironbound.”
“Ironbound” is set at a bus stop in New Jersey, where young Darja waits for a bus that never comes. The play’s timeline spans 22 years from 1992 to 2014. Through conversations Darja has with lovers and fated encounters with others, it paints a heartbreaking, heartwarming story of a single mother trying to create a new home in America.
Darja’s conversations with love interest Tommy, first husband Maks and a male sex worker named Vic are filled with hard truths, disarming vulnerability and quick-witted Slavic humor. Beyond an immigration story, “Ironbound” is a story of parenthood, complicated romance and calculated dreams.
“I think the thing that was most exciting about it for me was to be able to recognize hallmarks of culture and heritage within this piece, because it’s so specific,” Kearns said. “There’s a big sense of the given circumstances each of these characters has brought to the table in terms of the life they have lived. You can feel the humanity in everyone.
“That’s what this play is about: choosing to move forward when things get hard and what connections that resilience can bring.”
Theater as ‘a political space’
Assistant director Ali Mansouri, an Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, researched contemporary theatre in the Middle East, as well as political performances.
Shelley Cornia designed the costumes for “Ironbound.”
To support the themes in “Ironbound,” Kearns and Mansouri reached out to immigrant women in the Madison community and recorded interviews about their experiences. The video they made will be available to watch in the Playhouse lobby an hour prior to curtain. (It will also be posted at forwardtheater.com/show/ironbound starting Jan. 29.)
“I personally knew two of them from UW and they connected me with more women,” Mansouri said. The interviewees emigrated from India, Sudan, Israel, Croatia, Iran and Ecuador.
“Some of them were single mothers. Some had connections to the theater. By the end, we interviewed six women.”
Mansouri and Kearns asked, “What is your advice to women who want to move to another country?” The responses: “Find a community of people you can share your experiences with as a newcomer” and “Be whoever you want to be.”
According to Mansouri, theater is one of the few places for open discussion in Iran.
“As an Iranian, theater has always been a political space for me,” Mansouri said. “This is how we learn theater, as a political tool … and it has remained a place for alternative ways of thinking.
“Of course, here in America, there is much more free speech, but theater is still a great place of conversation and community.”
A universal immigration story
“Ironbound” gives audiences the chance to walk in Darja’s shoes, but the performers believe her journey is universal.
Cassandra Bissell plays the main character, Darja, in “Ironbound.”
“I am not a mother,” said Cassandra Bissell, who plays Darja and never leaves the stage. “Darja’s got a fight in her that Cassie doesn’t always have.
Josh Krause plays Maks, Darja’s first husband, in “Ironbound,” produced by Forward Theater.
“But I’d like to think I will carry that fight with me for my metaphorical children: my relationships, my art, and perhaps most prominently right now, my country. I hope that in moments of exhaustion and hopelessness I might think ‘If Darja could keep going, so can you, Cassie.’ I hope that she reminds me to sing.”
The team’s collective hope is that immigrants watching the play can feel welcomed, empowered and assured that there is a home here for them in the United States.
“This play does not shy away from how hard things get and how hard things can be,” said Josh Krause, who plays Maks. “Darja gets wrung out. There are times she’s got nothing left in her.
“But she has grit, she puts in the work, and this play does leave us with a sense of hope in humanity.”
After most performances of every production, Forward Theater hosts a talkback with the audience. Krause is particularly looking forward to this one.
“Our audience gets a chance to be seen, to be heard,” he said, “so that we all don’t walk away from this little time we spend together missing a chance to connect with somebody. I’m really excited for the next few weeks.”
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source captimes.com ’
