Directed by Tea Alagic
Written by Frederike Roth
Adapted by Tea Alagic and Kristina Mendicino

Scenic and Costume Design: Zane Pihlstrom
Lighting Design: Gina Scherr
Sound Design: Brian MacQueen
Stage Manager: Shawn Senavinin

Featuring: Kristen Connolly, Eric Gilde, Jessi D. Hill, Brad Love, Thomas Russell, & Joseph Tapper

Photos by Gina Scherr

Production Overview
Performed by the Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts at 217 Park Street in New Haven, Connecticut, Piano Plays features a cast including Jessi Hill, Kristen Connolly, Joseph Tapper, Eric Gilde, and Brad Love.

Staged in a stark, presentational style, the production centers around a dilapidated piano that anchors both the physical and emotional landscape of the performance. The instrument becomes a focal point for the actors, shaping the rhythm and tone of the piece as much as the performances themselves.

About the Play
At its core, Piano Plays explores the sexual exploitation of a washed-up cabaret performer who, in this adaptation, takes on the persona of a Madonna impersonator. Through this figure, the play examines how media culture and celebrity identification can function as escapist fantasy—one that distorts perception and obscures the realities of everyday life.

The production amplifies these themes through exaggerated, often grotesque characterizations. While this approach highlights the absurdity embedded in the subject matter, it also pushes the material into sharply comic and at times uncomfortable territory, blurring the line between critique and spectacle.

Critical Response
As noted in The New Haven Advocate (August 2005) by Christopher Arnott, the production engages with its themes through a heightened and theatrical lens, using stylization and satire to interrogate fame, identity, and exploitation, though at moments it risks tipping serious subject matter into near-absurd comedy.