Nomad Theatre Company has experienced a lot of "firsts" since launching the nonprofit theater in earnest two years ago.
Here's another: The site-specific troupe is producing its first full-length play. Carey Crim's Paint Night is appropriately set in an undeveloped storefront that will one day be extra classroom space for the McLean County Arts Center.
The play features a multi-generational cast of women who connect at a sip and paint outing. It’s been called a Steel Magnolias for the 21st century, but director Cristen Monson said that’s not quite right.
“I don’t love that tagline,” said Monson, who also is one of Nomad’s two artistic directors. “It is so much more than Steel Magnolias.”
Monson said six women getting together for a bridal shower is where the similarities end.
“This play is so original because they’re not women complaining about their love relationships, about men. It’s not that kind of play. …It deals with so many issues,” Monson said.
That includes navigating life as a working mom or choosing to stay home, dealing with a sibling in crisis or generational and faith-based differences in views on sexuality and gender.
In a Zoom call with the playwright, Carey Crim told the cast and crew of Paint Night her play isn’t about those issues, per se.
“The issues just flow through the conversation as the wine gets poured and people become more open about what they really feel,” Monson said. “I think you leave not choosing any sides, but just looking at these powerful women. They’ve all done their lives in a different way.”
It’s Nomad’s biggest undertaking yet — not just as the first-ever full-length, licensed script they’ve produced.
Nomad is a site-specific theater company, building shows into unconventional spaces like a bar, a lakeside lodge or a courtroom. While the future McLean County Arts Center Annex fits Paint Night’s arty theme, the setting is a literal blank canvas. That’s meant scrubbing floors, building props and creating a cozy greenroom for the actors from scratch.
Are moms OK?
Producer Lauren Palmer said the extra work has been worth it. Many of the women involved in launching Nomad Theatre— Palmer also is on the board of directors and a working mom — can relate to stressors the characters in Paint Night feel and their need for to a space to express those feelings.
“We are not doing productions just for females, but I think this specific production really resonated with a lot of us,” Palmer said. “Each one of us has our own story. It is so real in this play. It makes so many connections for all of us. It tells a really important story that, especially today, we need to be talking about.”
In that spirit, Paint Night has an interactive, VIP option for audiences to participate in a paint and sip with Inside Out Accessible Art before the show. [Men are invited, too.] The package includes art instruction, refreshments from Shake It Up cocktail lounge and specialty cookies from Grove Street Bakery.
“In order for us to do what we do, we rely and thrive on these partnerships with local organizations and businesses,” Palmer said. “Not only are they excited to work with us, but they see the mutual benefit. We are bringing this community of artists together for this one-of-a-kind experience.”
Paint Night runs Feb. 20-March 1 at the McLean County Arts Center Annex, 206 E. Mulberry St., Bloomington. Tickets are $15-$45 at nomadtheatre.org.
