Review Fix Exclusive Midtown International Theatre Festival Coverage: Laure Porché Talks ‘Woman Seeks God’

Review Fix chats with Playwright Laure Porché, who discusses her new production “Woman Seeks God,” which is set for a run at this year’s Midtown International Theatre Festival.

WOMAN SEEKS GOD by LaurePorché, directed by Kate Szekely; starring Laure Porché. A young woman’s quest for meaning intersects with her ancestor’s quest for a home in this one-person exploration through time, movement and words. Fri 8/05 @ 7:15pm; Sat 8/06 @ 2:15pm

For more on this production, click here.


Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Laure Porché: I had been thinking for years about a way to honor the story of my Russian great grandmother, Ekaterina, who had been kind of “intentionally forgotten” by my family. When it became clear that the auditions grind was not for me, I started thinking about creating my own work, and she came to mind immediately. I started out with the intention of drawing a parallel between our experiences being in a “voluntary exile”. But as I was creating the show and things started unfolding in my life, it became clear that the subject was not broad enough. I had to bring in my own pervasive sense of being exiled on Earth, and tumultuous relationship with a Higher Power throughout my childhood and teens. Only then could Ekaterina story truly emerge in a larger context.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Porché: Well usually I start by writing, but in this case I began by locking myself in the studio for 2/3h at a time, improvising and seeing what came up physically, and then writing what I remembered of what I’d done, what was more striking to me. Having seen a lot of one person shows being developed, I was very aware that my original ideas might be completely erased or modified by the process, and also that I really had to keep it as simple as possible, to the point where I could literally bring the show with me anywhere, and perform it in any conditions.

When I added material last January, the process was way more straightforward. I knew more or less what I wanted to add, I just had to figure out where. And of course, some things emerged that I hadn’t even thought of, like the doll of St Thérèse that becomes the doll of Vassilissa’s story.

Review Fix: What makes this different or special?

Porché: It leaves way more freedom for things to emerge organically. If I had started by writing it, I might have become attached to my own ideas for the show and its form before seeing what it wanted to become. Only when it started to emerge did I start writing full texts, and even then I felt I was writing them randomly. That seemingly random order ended up being the actual order of the first version of the show, but I didn’t see it until my director, Kate Szekely, pointed it out to me.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Porché: I learned that I can trust who I am, that I am enough. I learned that I didn’t enjoy being other people as much as I enjoyed being my own self onstage. I learned that if I stepped back from needing to create something “good” and just created what I needed to say, it would be good. I learned that the more personal I am in what I reveal of myself, the more it resonates with audiences, even if my actual experience is completely foreign to them. I learned so many things, I can’t write them all here.

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of something like this?

Porché: It’s extremely freeing. This might seem strange but performing has never been my favorite part of being a performer. I enjoy the creating process, the community, the work itself, but performing always felt somewhat contrived to me. This show is completely different. The moment I step onstage, I know I have complete freedom. I can be myself, literally, since this is my story and I wrote it. If I am fully present, I can do no wrong. There is nothing more empowering.

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Porché: If I am lucky enough to find a producer interested in the show, I would love for it to live as long as possible. I know it speaks to people, and it can spark questions that I think everyone need to ask themselves. Ideally I would love to travel with it and perform it anywhere people will have me.

Review Fix: What do you think your audiences will enjoy the most?

Porché: The general consensus by people who’ve seen it is that they enjoy the fact that they feel moved and can relate to it regardless of their own experience with spirituality. I also think that it has a good balance of humour and depth, but that’s just the author talking.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Porché: So many things that have nothing to do with theater. Right now what’s next is two months of traveling, training and performing. Seeking God has done me good so far.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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