OUR STORY

CIRCUITOUS SITUATIONSHIP (they/them) was but a twinkle in Rose and Emmett’s eyes backstage at the FringeArts theater in the fall of 2022. A few weeks later, R and E enjoyed a couple-single drinks before performing in what could possibly-maybe be described as a convergence of shape-shifting jesters in a saphaggot-ful bathhouse (a bathouse full of sapphics, fags, and sapphic fags), but it was actually a preview of Cannonball and Fringe Festival works curated by Colby Calhoun, featuring Crackhead Barney, who genuinely thought Emmett was Rose’s husband. This was probably because the ‘Documentation Daddy’ that lives in Emmett, who embodies a whole cast of characters, was dutifully filming Shelly Nut and an incredibly long-donged British guitar technician who are but two of Rose’s characters. All to say- that long-donged-dude-persona probably ‘planted his seed’ in ‘DocuDaddy’s’ nether regions and Barney bore witness because she was spewing ‘lubrication’ (asking excellently direct questions) at this aforementioned convergence of shape shifting jesters who all set sail for the sapphaggot bathouse to exchange their ~fluid~ arts. This is how we ~think~ Circuitous Situationship was conceived. The name, like a pair of shoes, is a hand-me-down, first worn by the older footage of some naughty office workers filmed by a very respectful ‘voyeur’ (director), Dan Angelucci, who was asked to document this strange workplace where the hinges are off the office the door, ham is flung on a face, a donut has been dipped in coffee, and a dildo dipped in the donut. Rose and Emmett premiered this dance-for-the-camera industrial film as Circuitous Situationship, but eventually they realized that is actually their artistic relationship status and the film is now going by Office Best Practices and was last seen at Leah Stein’s Film Works, hosted by Leah and Shannon Brooks. Somewhere in the third trimester, or third paragraph in this case, Sonali Singh was invited to play their bassoon for the Situationship’s then-gestating art-baby, An Undertaking, and thus the two, who were already three (counting the yet-born undertakingling), called the quarters. Sonali became a critical member of Circ. Sitch’s deviant coven of care, providing heartfelt curiosities such as woodland chamber-music, boss percussion, and questions that help the whole situationship understand what the hell we’re doing besides being a hot hot mess of magic at a historical site, regarding An Undertaking at Laurel Hill Cemetery, but also regarding the historical site that is earth. Even though the undertakingling has been born, the labor is ongoing. One can’t quite tell what is a birth and what is an afterbirth, but the throuple’s material keeps bursting forth irreverently, with humor and the kind of honest-to-god madness that can make you develop a crush on more than one idea and decide to date them all. This is all to say: Rose Luardo, Emmett Wilson, and Sonali Singh mingle their multitudes in this project for fun, for freaks, for family*, for-ever. *A NOTE ON FAMBLY: An Undertaking would not have been possible without Mother Marcella (Emmett’s actual mother dressed in a nun habit, playing the part VERY WELL) yelling about wanting to form a union because she felt overworked. And Dad-Gal (Emmett’s actual father, Ray Wilson) playing guitar for the FUNeral that began this show that we created right after Rose had joined Sonali in the Dead Dad Club. We celebrate and grieve the complexities of life preceding death, and all of it swaddled in the fabric of family.