Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary is a new play by Larry Kurnofsky. The story opens on a party and follows thirty-something Marci (Darcy Fowler), who is trying to find her boyfriend in her pajamas through various connected people at various grown-up high school friend?s parties in the city. Marci?s quest is constantly hampered by her friends believing Marci is sometimes ?a little sad and a little strange? and her boyfriend is imaginary. Your Boyfriend features a whole host of characters; such as Cassandra (Risa Sarachan), her best friend (who?s not really), Beth (Kirsten Hopkins), who insists on using the formal Marcia and doesn?t hide her disdain, her gay roommate Toddwhatshisname (Debargo Sanyal), Carl (Zach Evenson) the only straight man at party in Chelsea, HunkyDave (Quinlan Corbett) who Marci was allegedly stalking, the divorce party of Paul and Paula Paul (Jordan Mahone and Danielle Slavick), Denise (Maya Lawson) who is engaged and seemingly obsessed with Marci, and last but not least, the not physically present boyfriend, Phillip Abramovich, an activist who lives off the grid.? Marci, who doesn?t own a cell phone and insists on being invisible or ?not really here?, is unsuccessful in her boyfriend finding mission, yet, she comes home with 3 cell phones, a tiara and lamp and she has turned all the characters on their side with honest observation. In the end it is Denise who calls Marci and shares a very personal story in camaraderie and the play ends in the exact opposite way it started, in silence and in friendship.
Your Boyfriend seems to be a musing on relationships, friendships, loneliness and perception. All of the characters are highly self-aware and articulate, with brief moments of amazing vocabulary and touching in their moments of honesty and openness. A phrase and idea that repeats itself is ?missing people?. The characters feel as though they are missing people in their lives, actual people or the idea of someone, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, true friends, so they use substitutes and stand-ins, which is a very human thing to do, everybody in the play does it, but Marci is the only one accused of doing it blatantly. While we never confirm her boyfriend is real, her boyfriend is real to her.
The idea of character perception is very fascinating to me, especially this week. By character perception I mean the idea putting someone or a character in a box you think they belong to, i.e. she?s the ?mean girl?, she?s ?the outsider?, he?s ?the friendly one, he?s ?the hunky one?.? Our media and entertainment perpetuate these ideas, and this week has been a fascinating conversation with the opinion piece by Polly Carl of HowlRound.com relating to the Guthrie season debate, and the recent release of (Spoiler Alert) Cabin in the Woods? which takes the horror movie character archetypes and tilts them on their heads. Your Boyfriend challenges the notion of character archetypes by pushing their boundaries and allowing them to do something wholly out of character and unexpected, something human.?In an impromptu mini-interview with Larry, he had this to say about the characters, and specifically the words he chose to gift them with
??I try to throw in a word or phrase for all my characters in all my plays that are designed to throw an audience. In real life, language transcends class and race and gender and educational background, so I try to make all my characters, regardless of their backgrounds, hyper-articulate, but also, at the same time, grasping for meaning with words and in connection with others.?
(Full disclosure line, I have worked with and share amicable relationships and friendships with Larry Kurnofsky, Kirsten Hopkins, Debargo Sanyal and Risa Sarachen)
Your Boyfriend May Be Imaginary?
?by Larry Kurnofsky
Directed by Meg Sturiano.?
?@?
Under St Mark?s Theatre, 94 St Marks Place?
remaining performances Friday &Saturday April 27-28, 2012 @8pm.?
Sold out online.Carissa Cordes grew up in the backstage of a regional theatre moving scenery, dressing people, and assisting stage managers. This means she is a ninja. She is a classically trained actress and has working experience in all aspects of production. She can even install a zipper. She has had a great eleven years in NYC and looks forward to where the next eleven will take her. She is on the reviewing squad for nytheatre.com, was the designer for Group, by Daniel McCoy in FringeNYC 2010 and also played Green Eyes in Deathwatch FringeNYC 2009.
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