Rob Melrose

BONE TO PICK & DIADEM
by Eugenie Chan
The Cutting Ball Theater

Rob Melrose Artistic Director

January 14 - February 13, 2011

Directed by Rob Melrose

Set Design by Michael Locher

Costume Design by Jocelyn Herndon

Lighting Design by Heater Basarab

Original Music / Sound Design by Cliff Caruthers

Featuring Paige Rogers

"Richly metaphoric, poetic and provocative...Melrose stages Diadem with a light touch... Rogers infuses the tale with poignant sunniness, enhanced by her own sweet songs and Laura Arrington's choreography. As Rogers navigates [Bone to Pick's] intertwined elements of warfare, sexual longing, meat butchering, hunger, geography and incestuous undertones, Chan's writing chills and thrills to, yes, the bone."  

-Robert Hurwitt

The San Francisco Chronicle​

BONE TO PICK & DIADEM - THE CUTTING BALL THEATER

Director • Translator • Playwright     

"Rogers, a deft storyteller and a versatile mimic, could not have been better cast. Her easy command of the stage, under the direction of Rob Melrose, makes for an enchanting performance."

​-Lily Janiak

The Split End

Photos by Rob Melrose

"Paige Rogers plays both versions and her performance is heart stopping.  She’s radiant as Ariadne (Diadem), still tinged with the afterglow of first love and a whiff of hope.  Her Ria (Bone to Pick) has all the edginess earned from a lifetime of hard knocks. One woman, one stage, devoid of artifice.  Raw emotion at its finest."

​-Dogmom's Dish​

Bone to Pick is available for touring through The Cutting Ball Theater.

Check out the full production video below.  

Inquiries: rob@cuttingball.com 

"Cutting Ball has revived Bone to Pick,with the impeccable Rogers back in the role that she so masterfully defined. The play – a Cutting Ball commission – has been so successful that Chan was commissioned to write a companion piece. The result is Diadem, the play that now occupies the first half of the evening....What makes this re-telling so effective is the way Chan makes the story feel ultra-contemporary without sacrificing the scope and mythic size of this ancient story. And through Rogers, we connect with the emotion of hope about to crash and of old wounds that never stop aching. There’s also a whole lot of weirdness, and why not? We’re talking Minotaurs and Zeus here, apocalypse and possible insanity.

Michael Locher’s gorgeous set gives the plays an otherworldly feel – the quilt-like squares of his metallic backdrop are incredibly effective at capturing the flashes and shadows of Heather Basarab’s eloquent lighting design.

This is challenging, rewarding theater filled with power, humor and beauty."

-Chad Jones

theaterdogs