A DEEP SPACE PERFORMANCE RESIDENCY
“Look Out” | Photo by Mikhail Lipyanskiy
“Look Out” A Work In Progress by Sara Farrington
Look Out is a ferocious two-hander set in 1999, written by Sara Farrington and directed by Melissa Firlit.
Synopsis
Mara and Ruth Glass are teenagers, a drama kid and a punk loner, trapped inside the bedroom where their mother attempted suicide earlier that evening. Over the course of the piece, the girls un-puzzle the anti-feminist motivators behind their mother’s life and suicide, evoking the portrait of a woman destroyed by society, misogyny, Hollywood and diet culture. As the girls await a phone call with news of their mom, they unravel their very existence, in turns playacting, mimicking, obfuscating, blaming, physically and verbally sparring, all of which has a double meaning in their world. Like two Cassandras, they also predict the dark world approaching on “the other side of the century.”
Look Out uses imagery and symbolism from Homer's ODYSSEY, Ginsberg's HOWL, Wharton's ETHAN FROME, 90s pop music, and more, in this feminist breakdown of death, afterlife, before-life, entropy, god, meaning, nihilism and finally a disturbing epiphany.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Sara Farrington’s BrandoCapote | Photo by Miguel Aviles
SARA FARRINGTON (Playwright)
Sara is thrilled to be bringing her new play Look Out to the beautiful NACL. Sara is a NYC/NJ playwright and a co-founder of Foxy Films theater company w/ Reid Farrington. Her work has been called "dazzling" by The New Yorker and "brave, almost foolhardy" by The New York Times. MFA: Brooklyn College with Mac Wellman. Publications: The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde (53rd State Press), A Trojan Woman, Mickey & Sage (both @ Broadway Play Publishing, Inc), Leisure, Labor, Lust (Next Stage Press), Look Out (forthcoming), Dora Maar (forthcoming). Sara wrote the book & lyrics for Dr. Uncanny Presents: Moreau '96 a musical composed by David Van Tieghem and directed by Reid Farrington, adapted from Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau directed by David Gregory, courtesy of Severin Films. Sara’s play CasablancaBox was commissioned as part of HARP @ HERE and nominated for two Drama Desk Awards. Her play A Trojan Woman has toured to Mixed Blood Theater, Minneapolis, Magic Theater, San Francisco, MAC Theater, Belfast, NI, The Kings Head Theater, London, Luna Stage, NJ, Powerhouse Theater, Vassar College. Other plays include: Dora Maar (The Fold, Paterson, NJ & Spring 2023 Mercury Store Residency), BrandoCapote (The Tank 2019), Mendacity (film version, official selection of the NYC Indie Theater Film Festival), The Return (commission from the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Near Vicksburg (Incubator Arts Project) and The Rise & Fall of Miles & Milo (FringeNYC Award for Outstanding Playwriting). She is currently building a piece from a transcription of a counseling session between Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald. Sara is the creator of the popular Substack “Theater Is Hard,” a weekly manifesto on the existential life of the contemporary playwright. You can subscribe to it HERE.
MELISSA FIRLIT (Director)
Melissa is a director and educator based in New York City with national and international credits. Her work has been seen at 59E59 Theaters, Luna Stage, Mile Square Theatre, Creede Repertory Theatre, and the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Internationally, she has directed multiple productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and toured Ireland with Misterman. Her directing credits span contemporary plays, musicals, and new works, including Lonely Planet, Jekyll & Hyde, Red, A Few Good Men, Dracula, Men on Boats, Trojan Women, Goodbody, and Pirates of Penzance. Dedicated to supporting emerging voices, she has developed and premiered new plays through platforms such as id(iots) at play, VoxFest (Dartmouth), Dragon’s Egg, and the Thingamajig Playwrights Festival. Her work has been recognized with nominations for the Henry Award for Outstanding Director of a Musical, as well as honors from the New York Innovative Theatre Awards and commendations at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, reflecting her range across theatrical styles. Melissa is the Artistic Director of Resolve Productions, a New York–based company committed to developing new work and creating meaningful community impact. She holds an MFA in Directing from Rutgers University and currently serves on the theatre faculty at both Fort Lewis College and CAP21/Molloy University, where she mentors and trains the next generation of theatre artists.
HANNAH LEHRER (Performer)
Hannah is thrilled to be returning to this kickass team of ladies on Sara Farrington’s wonderful new play! As a graduate of Molloy University's CAP21 Theatre Arts program, Hannah has had the privilege of performing, directing, and developing new works and is an enthusiast of new and experimental theater. A huge thank you to Sara and Melissa, as well as NACL, for promoting innovative work in our ever-changing industry.
KATHLEEN MACARI (Performer)
Kathleen is an equity actress residing in NYC. Since graduating Niagara University in 2016 for Theatre Performance and Production, she has traveled the world as a performer. Most notably, she has been seen in the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, on the World Premiere National Tour in the original cast of Million Dollar Quartet Christmas, on Norwegian Cruise Lines, and in many regional productions across the U.S.