Centaurs

Centaur’s hybrid self has the torso, arms, hands, head, and mind of a human, and the legs, rump, tail, and sex of a horse. Because of their liminal status, half-man and half-animal, these embodied mash-ups hold an uneasy and divided place in the mythological canon. When a centaur enters your myth, you will get one of two personas; either you encounter a wise and knowledgeable teacher in total control, with a wry and nuanced perspective on civilization…or you encounter an untamed savage, governed only by base and barbaric appetites. Will your centaur be ruled by the top half, or by the bottom? You can’t be sure. This creature, and its fundamental biologically-wrought tension between society and nature, has proved among the most enduring of the Greek monsters, popping up everywhere from medieval times to mid-century Disney to the contemporary world of Harry Potter. As long as we wrestle with the two halves of our selves, as long as we each undergo the private war between impulse and restraint, there will be centaurs in our stories.

Of her play about centaurs, Meg Cohen writes: “Centaur, or The Horse’s Ass,” is a postmodern vaudeville comedy for two hilarious women, who spend a fleet forty minutes taking turns being the butt of the joke.

CENTAUR or THE HORSE’S ASS by Megan Cohen
Directed by Ellery Schaar
Staged Reading on November 6, 2014

Megan Cohen is the most frequently-produced female playwright in the SF Bay Area, with over 24 shows and readings in 24 months. Named one of SF Weekly’s “Theater Artists to Watch” in Jan 2013, she was also profiled in the Sept-Oct 2013 issue of Theater Bay Area Magazine as an artist to “Keep An Eye On.” She’s worked with hundreds of local theatermakers to create shows in bars, in black boxes, and on beaches. With Olympians Festival founder Stuart Bousel, she co-hosts the monthly theater party and flash-fried-on-the-spot performance festival “SATURDAY WRITE FEVER” at the Exit Café. She’s a charter member of the San Francisco Neo-Futurists, (an ensemble of writer-performers), and appears in their constantly-rotating weekly show “Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind: 30 Plays in 60 Minutes.” This is her 4th year as an Olympian; previous plays include 2011′s neo-noir cop drama “Joe Ryan” (Orion), 2012′s festival closer “Zeus” (Winner of that year’s SEBATA award for Best New Play), and 2013′s Homeric adaptation “A Totally Epic Odyssey,” the festival’s first full-length solo show, currently in its second developmental phase leading up to a series of free public performances. Website: MeganCohen.Com Twitter: @WayBetterThanTV.