The Siblings Play delves deep into the psyche of a teenage girl and her two brothers left to raise each other in their parents’ absence. The play looks at the ways these three teenagers protect, love, fight, and diminish in the wake of their family history and the complexity of growing up with parents who are too young to be parents in the first place. In The Siblings Play, Santiago gives voice to characters rarely seen on the stage with theatricality, poignancy, humor, and empathy.
“I like subverting familiar narratives; focusing on heroes adjacent to the ones we know. The Siblings Playis a coming-of-age tale most don’t see,” said playwright Santiago. “I grew up with kids who did the parenting in their families. We cooked the meals for our siblings. We innovated ways to generate income. We did so at the expense of our education. We rose earlier and fell to bed last so we were often tired in class. I know those kids. And for them, I want to be a resource. With this production of The Siblings Play,I want them to hear: you are visible and your value can never be wasted.” (rattlestick.org)
Ren Dara Santiago is a Fila-Rican playwright from Yonkers and Harlem. She is the TOW Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, who will World Premiere The Siblings Play in Spring 2020. Something in the Balete Tree, a 2019 Finalist in the National Playwrights Conference, was written with the support of Gingold Theatrical Group, Clubbed Thumb, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. The Siblings Play has had development at The Cherry Lane Theatre (Mentor Project), Labyrinth Theater, MCC Theater, and Ojai Playwrights Conference. Other plays include Battle; Come to Starr Street; The Gods Play; Little Stories; Big World; Love + Animation. She is a teaching artist with The National Theater Institute & the Playwriting Lab at MCC Youth Company; guest artist in Playgrounds at The Lark; member of Rising Phoenix Rep; founding member & former Artistic Producer of Middle Voice at Rattlestick; & an eternal member of The Baldwin Project by Lucy Thurber. Ren is the proud recipient of the MCC Alumni Award and the inaugural recipient of Rising Phoenix Rep’s Cornelia Street American Playwriting Award.
Siblings Play Cover Characters Settings Notes
Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator
Paperless Program for Siblings Play
