ARTISTIC PROJETS
Dario Fo's They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay!!
In 2019 I directed Dario Fo's Italian Farce, They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay! at the Mendocino Theatre Company located in the beautiful Northern California Coast. In this production I focused on representing our globalized world. The struggles of these characters in Milan, Italy could easily take place in Los Angeles California. What happens when we have to steal to put food on our table?
Reviewer Marilyn Motherbear Scott writes. . . "Through these parades and marches, the community is informed, united, empowered. Let us not forget. Katherine Jean Nigh, director, leaves no stone unturned. Each moment makes its mark. The crossing of the absurd and the dramatic, the outlandish and the straight-forward, the merging of the crude with the elegant complexity of language that says it all, through gesture, through words, through making it all matter is the container of this play and this production."
And "Director Nigh takes us far beyond the conventional aspects of drama and of farce, into the often desperate and always tender feelings of working class people who deserve more than a hard time. This class struggle has existed, it seems, for time without end. All the workers want is to have enough, and some to share. Nigh takes us there. I mean, she takes us Here, merging Italy with America with Brexit Britain and other people and nations around the world. And so we laugh. So much laughter. Enough to make us weep."
For full review see: https://www.mendocinobeacon.com/2019/03/14/pay-digs-deep-into-the-class-conundrum/
My Channel
Stand and Deliver
During the spring of 2013 I served as an assistant to the director and as acting coach for a production of Stand and Deliver at Pomona College directed by Alma Martinez, one of the original members of El Teatro Campesino. In addition to my directing contributions to the project, I also created a blog to chronicle our rehearsal experience.
http://standanddeliveratpom.blogspot.com
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pomona-college/14816223489/in/photostream/
What A Stranger May Know
In 2012 at Whittier College, I directed a play written by Erik Ehn in commemoration of the Virginia Tech Massacre; this performance was “non-traditional”, taking place outdoors in a gorilla theater style. This performance was part of a nation-wide project commemorating the anniversary of the horrific school shooting.
http://www.quakercampus.com/content/virginia-tech-shooting-victims-remembered-honored
http://www.quakercampus.com/content/virginia-tech-tragedy-receives-whittier-theatre-treatment
Korimakao Workshop (see video below)
In January of 2017 I went to Cuba to participate in the directing process of a play about the life of Fidel Castro. For this process I utilized my focus on physical theater and combining European and non-Western directing methods. Here is a video from that process:
El Coleccion de Cristales/The Glass Menagerie an adaptation of Tennessee Williams's play by Hector Garza.
In 2013 I directed a staged reading of Coleccion de Cristal, a bi-lingual adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s Glass Menagerie written by Hector Garza. This performance took place at the bilingual theater Casa 0101 located in East Los Angeles and featured film, television and stage legend Alma Martinez. This was a workshop production that I hope to develop into a full production. (Photos and video not available becaue of equity regulations).
Other recent artistic projects/collaborations and workshops:
In 2014 I conducted a workshop at the TIYYA foundation - an organization in Irvine, CA that works with refugee children from Iraq and Afghanistan. I co-faciliated an afternoon of activities using theater games and exercises to help children form community bonds and to get to know each other better. For more please visit: http://tiyya.org/2014/09/02/dramarama-dr-kathy-nigh/
In 2013 I served as a dramaturg for Playbuilders of Hawaii's production of Yes I Am a community-written play about the LGBTQ community of Honolulu. I worked on editing and adapting the script.
In 2012 I produced Brain Craze and Catholic Daze a night of performances that addressed society’s treatment of mental health issues and the relationship between sexuality and religion. This performance took place at the well-known queer Highways Performance Space as part of their BEHOLD: a Queer Performance series.