Sleeping Giant

October 4 - November 3, 2024
By Steve Yockey
Directed by Jenny McConnel Frederick
  • 1020 Connecticut Avenue NW
    Washington DC 20036
DIGITAL PROGRAM

When a firework-filled marriage proposal goes very wrong, the accompanying explosions wake up something very old that has been sleeping in the nearby lake for thousands of years. What follows are intimate, darkly comic, and sometimes startling vignettes about the lengths people go to when they desperately want to believe in something.

Written by Emmy-nominated Steve Yockey, the playwright of previous Rorschach shows VERY STILL AND HARD TO SEE and REYKJAVIK, and the emmy-nominated creator of the TV series THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (HBO) and the DEADBOY DETECTIVES (Netflix).

Rorschach’s temporary home, a 2-story former men’s clothing store at Farragut North offers an engaging lobby experience with visual art, photo ops, and a gift shop to explore before descending into the subterranean theatre and bar.

“…eerie… epic… oddball and otherworldly… met the script’s challenges with unholy glee.”

THE WASHINGTON POST

This project is produced in partnership with Lerner Enterprises and The Golden Triangle BID and with support provided by the DC Commission for the Arts and Humanities.

FEATURING

Robert Bowen Smith
Erin Denman
Sydney Dionne
Jacob Yeh

Understudies

Semaj Kelly
Tiana Lockhart
Sarah Millard
Taylor Stevens

Designers

Set Sarah Beth Hall
Costumes Ashlynn Ludwig
Assistant Costume Designer Jillian Skara 
Lighting Dean Leong
Assistant Lighting Designer & Master Electrician Daelyn Funk
Sound Thom J. Woodward
Props Aoife Creighton
Video Kylos Brannon
Intimacy Coordinator Lorraine Ressegger

STAFF

Production Manager Germar Townsend
Technical Director Madelyn Southard
Stage Manager Leica Long
Assistant Stage Manager Natasha Sánchez
2nd ASMs Jillian Skara, Mardelle Singleton
Production Associate Sean Flaherty

PRODUCERS

Randy Baker
Jenny McConnell Frederick

MEDIA

Photos by DJ Corey Photography

PRESS

“Rorschach Theatre’s production of Steve Yockey’s SLEEPING GIANT reveals itself in layers. As its peculiarities bloom, so do its insights. As the monster rises from the deep, so do the monsters among us — and the lost, the forgotten, the lonely, the hopeless, and the hopeful.”
DC THEATRE ARTS
"SLEEPING GIANT does not rely on jump-scares, but the dread of a world beyond our living room that holds no respect for either our moral sentiments or normative expectations. And yet, this production allows it to be both wickedly and subtly satirical."
WASHINGTON CITY PAPER
"If you’re thinking this sort of material might be right up Rorschach Theatre’s alley — they’re working in a vacant Rochester Big & Tall store at the moment, not in an actual alley, though I wouldn’t put it past them — you’re onto something."
WASHINGTON POST