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Good Year for Hunters by

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Oh these little earthquakes
Here we go again
These little earthquakes
Doesn’t take much to rip us into pieces
-Tori Amos, ‘Little Earthquakes,’ 1992

Good Year for Hunters, a new play from Jess Barbagallo and Chris Giarmo, opened last night as the debut performance at New Ohio Theatre’s Ice Factory 2012. Inspired by Tori Amos’s seminal album, Little EarthquakesGood Year For Hunters is a queer horror play about a mysteriously orphaned brother and sister who fall in love with a closeted husband and wife. Like Amos, the characters struggle to find their own voices under oppressive religious, cultural, and sexual circumstances. Using a poor theatre aesthetic of minimalist design and physical acting, the Hunters cast creates a darkly comedic landscape of yearning turned nightmare.

Five years ago, Barbagallo approached long-time collaborator Giarmo with the idea to write a play based on Little Earthquakes. “What emerged,” Barbagallo told NYC theater blog Theater in the Now, “was this apocalyptic horror show about growing up queer and closeted.”

After rewrites during the workshopping process earlier in 2012, Barbagallo told Theater that she’s hopeful that Hunters has evolved to its fullest potential.

“I think we have made something ultimately sadder and more honest about loss and irrevocable choices,” she said. “I still want to think of it like a comedy though.  Comedies are often the saddest expressions.”

Barbagallo is clearly no stranger to comedy. As co-writer of the gay film review blog homoflix, she analyzes gay and lesbian movies on Netflix, sorting each into such categories as “Lesbiochemistry,” “Bad Gay,” and “Phagamones.”

Good Year For Hunters has three performances left through June 30th. Directed by Jess Barbagallo and Chris Giarmo, with sound design by Mike Cacciatore. The play also features Becca Blackwell, Jason Blaine,David Gould, Jo Lampert, Tina Satter, and Richard Toth.

Good Year for Hunters was developed through a residency with Dixon Place in NYC. Visit the Ice Factory 2012 website for tickets and more information.


S.J. Horwitz
S.J. Horwitz is a senior Visual & Media Arts major at Emerson College in Boston, MA, with a concentration in screenwriting. She was a recent fellow in the 2012 Writers Guild of America East Foundation On-Line Mentoring Program and has won the Ivy Film Festival short screenplay competition. She currently resides in New Jersey and is hoping to pursue a career in writing for television.


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