You Will Get Sick
By Noah Diaz
(workshop premiere production)
Directed by Benchmark Theatre Resident Guest Director Christy Montour-Larson

​It starts with your balance, but it begins to spread, as these things often do. Your legs numb, your grip-strength weakens, your arms go rigid and hard. Before long, you’re hiring a stranger to say aloud what you can't say yourself: that you got sick. A play in the second-person about learning to live in your own body as you find your way home.

April 22 - May 14, 2022
Performances are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm with additional Sunday matinees at 2pm.

Industry Night Performance - Monday, May 9th at 8pm
(No performance on Friday, May 6th due to the First Friday Art Celebration in 40West Arts District)

Director’s Note

In any given June, you will likely find me working on new plays in McCall, Idaho at Seven Devils Playwrights Conference.  In 2015, I met Noah Diaz when he came to work on his new play, The Motherhood Almanac.  A few years later, he was off to Yale School of Drama to get his MFA in Playwrighting.  In 2020, in preparation for this thesis, he wrote You Will Get Sick, inspired partly by an uncle who got sick, and his aunt who was there when he did. The play was fully designed, cast and about two weeks from first rehearsal when it was cancelled due to the COVID -19 pandemic.  

Seven Devils presented a zoom reading of the play that summer.  Even though it was written before COVID and takes place in “The Time Before Cell Phones,” there was something about that distance that resonated profoundly to me.  Those of us in the audience could certainly relate to the circumstances: A world turned upside down, an illness that presents with mysterious symptoms, a societal fear of getting sick, difficulty breathing and a struggle with how to let go. 

The 2021/2022 Benchmark Theatre Season is themed “Aftermath” as a response to the pandemic and subsequent shutdown as well as the cultural and social changes which developed and were impacted by the pandemic. When Benchmark asked for proposals that fit this theme, I immediately thought of this wondrous play.  

You Will Get Sick is about a man, unable to cope with a recent diagnosis, who posts a flier on a telephone pole and hires a stranger to tell the people in his life that he is sick. This is a world where there are giant birds plaguing a big city. There are scarecrows and cross-country travel.  It is about going home and facing the profoundly human task of saying out loud the things we cannot bring ourselves to say.

I think it is right that this sometimes humorous, sometimes heart-touching and always thought-provoking play, by one of the nation's most exciting up-and-coming playwrights,  is a part of Benchmark’s exploration into the “Aftermath.”  

It is an honor to give this play to you.

Christy Montour-Larson

You Will Get Sick

By Noah Diaz

WHERE: The Big City & then The Midwest

WHEN: The Time Before Cell Phones

CAST

ACTOR 1 - Peter Trinh

Peter is excited to be in his first Benchmark feature production, as well as back working with long time mentor, Christy Montour-Larson. Peter hails an accredited Bachelor of the Arts degree in Theatre from MSU Denver. Parker suffers from illness - in general - and Peter aspires to give a sensitive portrayal that anybody with illness can identify with. Credits include ONE WAY-BACK DAY with The Catamounts, AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS with Theatreworks, CONSPIRACY THEORY G with DCPA Off-Center, and THE WAR ANTHOLOGY with Curious Theatre (Henry Award - Best New Play, Best Ensemble). petertrinh.net

ACTOR 2 - Edith Weiss

This is Edith’s 5,239 production at Benchmark. (Kidding. She just wanted to see if you were paying attention.) This is actually her first show with Benchmark and she’s glad to be in the premiere of this exceptional play; and with such talented people. Recently Edith was seen in "Moon Over Buffalo" at Miner's Alley and "Murder on the Orient Express" at the Arvada Center. Other favorite shows include "Everybody" and "Men on Boats" at Catamounts and "Sweet and Lucky" at the Denver Center's Off Center. (Wow. Awkward wording.) Later this summer, Edith will be in "Dance Nation" in Boulder for Square Product Theater. After that she plans to take a very long nap. Thank you so much for being here.

ACTOR 3 - Sonsharae Tull

Sonsharae is honored to be a part of her first production at Benchmark theater “You Will Get Sick”! She was most recently seen “Cinderella” (Vintage) “Young Frankenstein” (Vintage). She received her degree from Metro State University in Denver and studied theater at Queen Mary University of London. Some of her favorite projects have been “Mary Poppins” (Vintage), “Little Shop of Horror” (Sasquatch Productions and Miners Alley Playhouse), “Crowns” (Vintage) and “Polar Express” (Colorado Railroad Museum). She wants you to know that we're all just trying to live!

ACTOR 4 - Brian Kusic

Brian is excited to be returning to the stage after a slow two years. Recently he has preformed in Ouray, Colorado doing ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged’. Brian studied theatre at MSU alongside Sonsharae and Peter, Christy was their professor. Brian is happy to be reunited with good friends.

ACTOR 5 - Josue Miranda

Josue is thrilled to be working with Benchmark on the World Premiere of You Will Get Sick. He is a recent graduate of the University of Northern Colorado's Acting program. Josue previously appeared in a variety of productions across Colorado at the Cherry Creek Theatre Company's My Name Is Asher Lev, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival's 2021 Season and their Violence Prevention Tour, Curious Theatre Company's recent production of Refuge, and has even worked with the Creede Repertory Theatre's Young Audience Outreach Tour. Josue is grateful to the community and his loved ones for their continued support.

CREATIVE TEAM

Director - Christy Montour-Larson

Assistant Director - James Brunt

Scenic Design - Lisa Orzolek

Assistant Scenic Design - Cheryl Brodzinsky

Light Design - Jeremiah Miller

Projection Design - Neil Truglio

Costume Design - Susan Rahmsdorff-Terry

Sound Design - Jason Ducat

Prop Design - Wayne Breyer

Noah Diaz (Playwright): Noah Diaz is a playwright and screenwriter from the Iowa/Nebraska border. Productions include Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally (Center Theatre Group/Kirk Douglas Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage), and The Swindlers (Baltimore Center Stage). Commissions from La Jolla Playhouse, Roundabout Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club/Sloan, The Great Plains Theatre Commons, Baltimore Center Stage, and Audible/Amazon Studios. His work has been developed with Two River Theater, The Sol Project, First Floor Theater, Seven Devils New Play Foundry and The Playwrights Realm, where he was a Page One Resident Playwright. Noah is a recipient of the ASCAP Cole Porter Prize and a five-time recipient of playwriting awards from The Kennedy Center. He has written for the upcoming TV series Joe vs. Carole (Peacock), Vampire Academy (Peacock), Up Here (Hulu), and is currently developing various onscreen projects for Hulu, 20th Century, and the team at Eva Longoria’s UnbeliEVAble Entertainment. MFA: Yale School of Drama.

Christy Montour-Larson (Director): Christy’s work has also been seen in Colorado at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts (SHADOWLANDS) the Arvada Center (THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK), Creede Repertory (AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY) Local Theatre, Town Hall Arts Center, Phamaly, BETC, Theatreworks and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Nationally, Christy has directed at Pioneer Theatre, Tent Theatre, New American Theatre, Rochester Civic Theatre, the Duluth Playhouse, Dark Horse Theatre and for Seven Devils Playwright Conference. A member of the Artistic Company at Curious Theatre for over 18 years, her recent directing credits include THE LIFESPAN OF A FACT and THE SECRETARY.

A passionate supporter of new work, she has directed many staged readings and world premieres, including; MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL by Lee Blessing, SUICIDE, INCORPORATED by Andrew Hinderacker, NO MORE SAD THINGS by Hansol Jung, TWO DEGREES by Tira Palmquist, GENERAL STORE by Brian Watkins and THE RAPE OF THE SABINE WOMEN BY GRACE B. MATHIAS by Michael Yates Crowley.

Christy’s accolades include 4 Colorado Theatre Guild Henry Awards, out of 13 nominations. She has also been named Top Director by the Denver Post, Westword, 5280 Magazine and CBS4 Denver.

BFA in Theatre from University of Minnesota, Duluth. MFA in Directing from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Proud member of Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Stage Manager - Andrew Horn

Lead Carpenter - Jeff Jesmer

Scenic Build Assistance - Christian Edris, Andrew Horn, Marcus Pirozzoli, Marc Stith & Neil Truglio

Lighting Assistance - Andrew Horn

Charge Artist - Cheryl Brodzinsky

Production Photography - McLeod9 Creative

Program Design - Marc Stith

Producer & Front of House Management - Haley Johnson

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President: Joseph Black

Secretary: Abby Apple Boes

Treasurer: Gloria Shanstrom

Board Member: Melanie Mayner

Member At Large: Rachel Clark

Executive Director: Haley Johnson

BENCHMARK EXECUTIVE TEAM

Executive Director - Haley Johnson

Artistic Director - Neil Truglio

Strategic & Marketing Director - Marc Stith

SPECIAL THANKS

40West Arts, Chicano Humanities & Arts Council, Colorado Creative Industries, Colorado Theatre Guild, The E Project Board of Directors, Lakewood BID, Redline Contemporary Art Center, The Scientific & Cultural Facilities District, Seven Devils New Play Foundry; John Ashton, Beck, Brit & Chantelle, Christian Edris, Jack Johnson, Andrew MacLean, Marcus & Mason, Bill Marino, Louise Martorano, Rich Munoz, Joseph & Mary Pirozzoli