Hear from Jacob Marx Rice, playwright of A THOUSAND NATURAL SHOCKS

Hear from by Jacob Marx Rice, playwright of A THOUSAND NATURAL SHOCKS May 18 & May 19, 2025, at 7pm PT.  The Festival Premiere Presentation is directed Directed by Tracy Ward

Potrero Stage & Simulcast/On-Demand thru May 31
Admission: $0-$50 (donations gratefully accepted) or Festival Sponsorship

A Thousand Natural Shocks follows Kennedy, who is doing okay! Her depression is under control, she’s got a stable job, and her wife adores her. But when the couple decides to make a baby, they must navigate the chaos of IVF, the inevitability of pain, and the Tik-Tok teen crashing on their couch. Taking its title from Hamlet’s famous monologue, the play takes us on a journey through the increasingly fraught trials and tribulations of modern love and life. Featuring. Catherine Castellanos (Doctor), Zoe Chien (Jennifer), Rebecca Pingree (Molly), Jeunee Simon (Kennedy), and Maryssa Wanlass (Laurel).

Jacob Marx Rice has written plays that have been produced and developed at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center, The Finborough Theatre in London, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Flea Theater, The New Ohio, Atlantic Theatre Stage 2, and others. His play Chemistry has premiered in seven cities across three continents. Recent prizes include the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, an Ensemble Studio Theater Sloan Commission, and the Faculty Award from the NYU/Tisch Department of Dramatic Writing. MFA: NYU.

HEAR FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT:

The play talks about pregnancy, childbirth, and adoption. What drew you to write about these topics?
I’m fascinated by how rarely we discuss the realities of having children, especially given how central it is to the continued existence of the human race. There are so many aspects of building a family that society ignores or misunderstands. Some of these are small, like how everyone talks about pregnancy being nine months. Other oversights feel bigger and more dangerous to ignore: the complexities of getting pregnant while on medication for mental health, the incredible amount of work that goes into IVF, the complex issues surrounding transracial adoption. These things shape millions of lives, but talking about them makes people uncomfortable so we just breeze by. Luckily, theater is the best medium I know for talking about things that make people uncomfortable.

Can you tell us more about the title?
It’s from Hamlet’s soliloquy, where he refers to “the heart ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” I’m so fascinated by the idea that life is inextricable from pain: every single person you pass on the street has been hurt a thousand times in a thousand different ways that would take your breath away. And every single one has pushed through that pain to build a life anyway. We are all the heirs to heart ache, and we pass down the risk of pain to our kids. It is the fundamental nature of being human: we know life will hurt us and we want it anyway (at least most of the time).

Pain, both physical and emotional, is an important theme in your play. At the same time, the play features a humorous, vernacular language. Can you talk about this duality and what effect you hope they would have on the audience?
To me, pain and comedy aren’t a duality, they are the same thing (why else are pratfalls are so funny?). I think humans developed comedy as the coping mechanism for a world that is fundamentally strange and terrifying. In a world with no pain, there’d be no need for humor. But as long as we’re stuck with this world, we might as well get some funny jokes.

What surprised you during the creation of this play?
This cast is so good. I knew from auditions they were going to be fantastic, but every time I think I’ve gotten used to how good they are, they dig deeper or find another joke and I’m shocked again. It’s just such a gift to get to work with actors who are capable of finding all the beauty and humor and humanity in the script and letting it bloom for the audience. I think people are going to be as blown away by their talent as I am.

For more information on A Thousand Natural Shocks or to reserve tickets, click here.