The Play
A Play Where Nothing Happens is a semi-autobiographical play written by Maizy Broderick Scarpa, based in part on their upbringing in rural New England.
The play first appeared as a reading at the Shakespeare & Company Fringe Festival in 2016, in Lenox MA. It was also featured as a reading at Berkshire Voices in 2021. While SUNY Oswego's production is not the world premiere of the show, we are delighted to have a chance to present this exciting work.
In personal correspondence with Maizy Broderick Scarpa, they shared a very specific goal for what the play was designed to do:
"I wrote the piece to create space for people––my past selves included–– to see the under-represented parts of themselves (young, rural, queer, non-iconic, in-process etc) to tell a story that maybe they didn't know was allowed to be a story, let alone something that could be put on a stage. I hope it provides a little bit of space and validation, let’s them breathe a bit deeper and expand even just a centimeter farther into the universe. That is my primary goal. In my ideal world, it also holds/opens space for those who grew up in a more heteronormative context-–maybe even those who don't realize that cis-het-patriarchy is a context––to recognize those parts of themselves that they had to shrink to survive. Cuz EVERYONE has to shrink––or actively resist pressure to shrink––some parts of themselves to survive into adulthood (at least in the cultures I’ve grown up in). I hope your creative team meetings, rehearsal processes, these email exchanges, and eventually the performances themselves, will help to make that space for everyone involved, even in the tiniest of ways!"