My Tiger, My Lover: Play by Dramahound Productions

It was mid-May when I got an email from Monika via my website.

“This is Monika, Miho's friend - the one with the 3 kids and the gallery.

I actually did something really wired. I did organized a play around your body of work about the tiger - tamer and did not quite ask you if you are willing to show your pictures with Open Source?

The weirdest thing is that the actors are ready soon!

I am really sorry about inviting you so late.

The problem was that I did not have any space and no guarantee of anything happening.
but now I am pretty sure it will happen.

Anyways I would like to invite you formally to show in a solo show with open source in June. We are opening a new space.”

So, that’s how I learned that someone wrote a play based on my drawings, the playwright had already chosen actors, and they were ready to rehearse soon. And Monika wanted me to show my works in her gallery in a month. And I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Someone was writing a play around my work and I didn’t know about this until, well, they’re ready to rehearse for a show?” It was bizarre and I didn’t know what to make of it at first, though I thought it was really cool that my work inspired someone to write a play. So, I said yes, and in June, we had the exhibit and the performance.

“My Tiger, My Lover,” written by Anne Phelan was as inspired by my drawing, “Mi Tigre, My Lover” series. The play was performed during the opening for my exhibit at the Open Source Gallery’s new space in Brooklyn, New York in June, 2011. The cast included Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah the tiger. It will be directed by Tamara Fisch, with costumes by Sidney Shannon.

Rajah in Anne Phelan’s play was a chatty tiger and spoke to Mabel a lot, acted as he was a man in her life. Morphing between being a man and a tiger, Rajah was a jealous lover, a baby, a demanding and controlling “husband”, and a wild beast all in one. This neurotic man/tiger, Rajah, played by Grigolia- Rosenbaum was amazing. Mabel played by Cotton Wright was equally amazing. Her delicate face and feature took completely different look once she had hold of the whip. Anne’s play showed their relationship as co-depending, controlling, obsessive, yet somewhat loving.  I always thought that their relationship was destructive and loving at the same time, with real physical danger presented by wild animal, which Mabel seemed to crave excessively in her life. I found her life inspiring nevertheless. Mabel Stark was a renowned female tiger trainer in the early 1900s when the circus was in its golden age. Mabel survived many severe mauling by her tigers and had five husbands, but she seemed to have always preferred tigers. This was a woman who dedicated almost her entire life to training tigers for the circus. Pretty courageous choice for career in her time, and even in our time.  View the artwork from “Mi Tigre, My Lover”.

Read Anne Phelan's blog about her play.

Cotton Wright as Mabel Stark
Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum as Rajah
Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo 

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Tom Bovo

Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki



Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki



Photo Credit: Naoe Suzuki 

Special thanks to both Cotton Wright and Jacob Grigolia- Rosenbaum for their wonderful performance, and Tom Bovo for his beautiful documentation.

Anne Phelan is now trying to make this short-play into the full-length version, and hunting for money to produce it. The play is now called “The Tiger Play”.