The Warriors' Duet
Completes Sellout First Engagement
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| Samantha Ginn gives Fringe Central patrons a taste of Warriors the night before opening |
The Warriors’ Duet,
a play based upon my late daughter Laura Jeanne Morefield’s poetry, saw the
last of its sellout San Diego Fringe Festival engagements at 10th
Avenue Theatre Cabaret Sunday, July 7, 2013.
The play received a prize for best
selling Cabaret production. Directed by Katherine Harroff and Anne Gehman and
choreographed by Gehman, the piece featured Kathi Copeland as Mom and Samantha
Ginn as Laura, as well as a company of amazing, dedicated and emotive dancers.
They were Matt Carney and Shaun Tuazon as the men in Laura and her mom’s lives;
and Desiree Cuizon, Maria Juan, Soroya Rowley, and Stephanie Smith. Each was
selected for his/her unique qualities.
I am extremely grateful to everyone for this realization of
the text, which began as a 2012 staged reading directed by Claudio Raygoza at
ion theatre. I’m also grateful to composer Jake Heggie for allowing us to use fragments
of music from his album, Facing
Forward/Looking Back.
Jake began setting my poems soon after the premiere of his first opera, Dead Man Walking. Before her diagnosis, Laura and I attended the opening of Santa Monica's Broad Stage to hear the premiere of a Heggie work titled Facing Forward/Looking Back, which features my poem “Motherwit.” She and I went to Houston for the premiere of Jake's second opera, The End of the Affair, in 2003 and also to the opening of the Ellie Opera House in Denver in 2005 for the premiere of his At the Statue of Venus.
In 2008 Laura, Jake, Frederica von Stade and I were shipmates on a Crystal Symphony Black Sea cruise. This magnificent trip to Russia proved the last mother/daughter excursion before Laura’s fatal diagnosis. Nonetheless, during a week off from chemotherapy in 2010, Laura insisted we attend the Dallas world premiere of Jake’s opera Moby-Dick. She declared Heggie her favorite composer and subsequently, during a last ditch attempt to find a cure at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, she and Dan saw Dead Man Walking. So she and Jake were profoundly acquainted as well as contemporary in age. Laura even played 18 holes of golf with his teenage son shortly after Moby-Dick's premiere. She trusted Jake so completely that she sent him her ten favorite poems two months before she died. In 2014 he will set Laura’s extraordinary poem “The Work at Hand” in a concerto for soprano, cello and orchestra. Locale TBA.
In 2008 Laura, Jake, Frederica von Stade and I were shipmates on a Crystal Symphony Black Sea cruise. This magnificent trip to Russia proved the last mother/daughter excursion before Laura’s fatal diagnosis. Nonetheless, during a week off from chemotherapy in 2010, Laura insisted we attend the Dallas world premiere of Jake’s opera Moby-Dick. She declared Heggie her favorite composer and subsequently, during a last ditch attempt to find a cure at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, she and Dan saw Dead Man Walking. So she and Jake were profoundly acquainted as well as contemporary in age. Laura even played 18 holes of golf with his teenage son shortly after Moby-Dick's premiere. She trusted Jake so completely that she sent him her ten favorite poems two months before she died. In 2014 he will set Laura’s extraordinary poem “The Work at Hand” in a concerto for soprano, cello and orchestra. Locale TBA.
“The Work at Hand” is part of The Warriors’ Duet. Due to the incredible success of Warriors at the Fringe there is talk of
a remount very soon. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, you will find links to reviews and
a photo gallery below.
Reviews of The Warriors' Duet:
James Hebert SD Union-Tribune
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| Samantha Ginn, Kathi Copeland and company members in dress rehearsal Photo by Manuel Rotenberg |
Kris Eitland at San Diego Story
Carol Davis, The Examiner
Photo Gallery:
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| Matt Carney and Samantha Ginn in rehearsal for The Warriors' Duet Photo by Rich Soublet |
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| Laura's step brother Darrell Baldridge Samantha Ginn and Laura's husband, Dan Morefield |
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| Anton Denikin, Charlene, Laura's brother Charlie Ortego, Anya Ortego and Tatiana Denikin Photo courtesy of Robert Hampton |
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| Samantha Ginn and Charlene Baldridge Photo courtesy of Robert Hampton |
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| Lauren and Ann Santilli, Samantha Ginn, Greg Santilli and Kathi Copeland |
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