OUR CHILDHOOD SUCKED

OUR CHILDHOOD SUCKED is a collaborative theatrical experiment that began in September 2020. The team is composed entirely of marginalized theatermakers including Enid Brain, Ludmila Brito, Stephanie Fongheiser, Talia Frank-Stempel, Daniel Kunkel, Danielle Phillips, Alizae Powell, & SMJ with additional support from Nicky Khor & Alyssa Samuelson.

We have been conditioned all our lives that we have to look, dress, stand, act, speak, breathe and write in a certain way in order to advance our careers. In the theater and entertainment world, these things are even more heightened and happen more often than people really understand. 

Pop culture and media have a HUGE impact on what we normalize as a society. This show addresses exactly that process of purging ourselves from the toxic traits that were shown to us. By confronting this, we start the healing process and hope to inspire many others who are currently repeating to themselves the harmful narratives that were infused into our system from the start of our lives. 

OUR CHILDHOOD SUCKED is a part play, part informative podcast, part audio drama.
Check out our feature in HowlRound: https://howlround.com/podcasts-and-zooms-and-plays-oh-my

Five former teen stars are invited back for a Disney+ reunion special and the pilot for the reboot of the show they made famous, Dating Academy. However, through s’mores, script readings, identical twins, and an ominous church set, they discover that something more sinister (and exploitative) may be awaiting them.

Read the current draft here.

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY

OUR CHILDHOOD SUCKED was selected to be a part of the Art House Productions’ INKubator 2020-21 Cohort from October 2020 to May 2021. The residency with Art House culminated in a virtually staged reading on May 6, 2021. The reading featured Danielle Truss (Manny), Alizae Powell (Riley), Talia Frank-Stempel (Jade), Daniel Kunkel (Chase), Stephanie Fongheiser (London & Chris), and Nicky Khor (Josh) in their originated roles. The reading was directed by Ludmila Brito, dramaturged by Enid Brain and produced by Alex Tobey.

An in-person reading was held at The Tank on October 16, 2021, after receiving funding from the City Artists Corps Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts. The reading featured Danielle Truss (Manny), Alizae Powell (Riley), Talia Frank-Stempel (Jade), Evan Moore-Coll (Chase), Annie Fang (London & Chris), and Nicky Khor (Josh). The reading was directed by Ludmila Brito, production stage-managed by Alyssa Samuelson, dramaturged by Enid Brain, and assisted directed by Callan Whitley.

OUR CHILDHOOD SUCKED was developed as a part of the Spring 2023 Multi-Gen Lab with the Entertainment Community Fund & Moxie Arts NY. The Lab was facilitated by Jac Ford.

Staged Reading at The Tank, October 2021

OUR CHILDHOOD SUCKED
The Podcast

Over the span of this podcast, you’ll hear the entire devising process leading up to the first reading of OUR CHILDHOOD SUCKED as part of the Art House Productions INKubator New Play Festival that took place in May 2021. We came together to discuss our most formative yet problematic memories from pop culture in hopes of exposing our (and our audience’s) biases, blind spots, & insecurities, naming them, and acknowledging the need to move past our love for nostalgia.

DATING ACADEMY
The Audio Drama

A companion piece to the play, DATING ACADEMY is an audio teen drama that satirizes the high drama of the Teen Soap genre. Summerville Academy is one of those schools that has a dark cloud permanently looming over it. Every day there is a new drama, a new murder, a new hookup, a new affair, and a new person who becomes possessed by a demonic spirit. Manny, Jade, Riley, Chase, London, & Chris find themselves at the center of every controversy possible.