Patty Red Pants

“ Highly Recommended – Chicago Reader “In Trista Baldwin’s Red Riding Hood-derived erotic allegory, Patty and her friend Becky grapple with their awakening sexuality while processing a peer’s murder in the woods. Baldwin’s snappy teen vernacular and winding poetic images allow Blackbird Productions’ expert cast–Lois Mathilda Atkins, Salena Hanrahan, and Wil Fleming as various manifestations of the wolf–to express the allure and danger of losing one’s innocence. In short, the wolf is everywhere–in Mormon stepfathers, in leering biology teachers, in first loves–and sometimes he’s welcome (suck on that, Brothers Grimm). Kristin Reeves’s video images of flames licking wolf-ridden forests amplify the mood, though the tree trunks in which the monitors are embedded obstruct our views. As richly as Baldwin conveys the girls’ inner lives, however, she struggles to resolve the story, reducing it finally to an R-rated episode of Dawson’s Creek. Still, this is an exciting, soulful work” – Kim Wilson, Chicago Reader 3/3/05

“In Trista Baldwin’s 2003 play, “Patty Red Pants,” the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” is treated to a Freud-meets-pop-culture revision in this solidly engaging first-time effort from Blackbird Productions. The story centers on two best friends, Patty Red Pants and Becky Bloom (Blackbird co-founders Lois Mathilda Atkins and Salena Hanrahan), and their burgeoning teenage obsession: sex. Fifteen and giddy, they sneak out in the middle of the night ? drunk on Everclear and Tang ? and tear through a nearby forest in a rebellious stupor. This is where they meet up with the metaphorical wolf of the story, a shape-shifting male presence (Wil Fleming) who is looking to party ? a thrilling but dangerous situation. As Patty slurs at one point, “Becky’s passed out and I’m too drunk to walk home.” The wolf-boy can only swallow and reply: “Cool.” Baldwin’s characterization of men is too simplistic and two-dimensional ? here, they exist only as sex fiends ? but she captures a nuanced dynamic between the girls, with its Gen-X touchstones (sticker-covered Trapper Keepers) and fluctuating moods that bring to mind the short-lived TV series “My So-Called Life.” Director Kimberly Senior’s production has a brisk, hazy-memory quality to it, accentuated by Barry Bennett’s underwater tinkling music. Scattered around the theater are video projections by Kristin Reeves, who has layered photo stills of a forest with smoke curls, fire ripples and sloshing water ? animating all that is both beautiful and hazardous” – Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune 3/8/05