MR. MARMALADE
Written by Noah Haidle
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama

Four-year-old Lucy is forever changed after she questions the relationship between her and her imaginary best friend, Mr. Marmalade. Mr. Marmalade examines how we teach children to deal with suffering caused by systemic norms.

Cast:
Will Brosnahan, Orlando Davis, Asa Gardiner, Jada Mayo, Timiki Salinas, and Aleyse Shannon

Design Team:
Kristen Clark (Costume), Alex Gibson (Lighting), Chen-Wei Liao (Scenic), Giulianna Marchese (Dramaturg), Sylvie Sherman (Media), Anthony Stultz (Sound)

Director’s Note:

One of the requirements for working with minors in the state of Pennsylvania is mandated reporter training. The three-hour course teaches you how to identify abuse. One type of abuse covered is chronic under-stimulation.  Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D. of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University defines Chronic Under-Stimulation as a kind of neglect where “on regular basis children have less interaction with the adults around them than is needed for healthy development.” As chronic under-stimulation is defined, images of a child peering out the window and sitting in front of a TV float past. This struck a chord with me.

I scoffed and said “That’s not abuse. That happened to me.” It never occurred to me to think of Lucy as abused much less myself. I asked myself “How did that make you feel?” I was taken back to the long hours I spent alone in my single mother’s locked office. No books. No games. I just had to sit with myself. I hated being in that room. It was then I realized Lucy’ was the victim of neglect. This production of Mr. Marmalade aims to explore the insidious abusive nature of systemic norms.