Apple Bottom

An Irons in the Fire Project

Written by Karina Billini
Directed by Candis C. Jones

Synopsis

The plastic surgery procedure, Brazilian Butt Lifts, are sweeping the wallets of the women in Miami. And the staff at the post-BBL recovery house, Apple Bottom Spa, hopes to ride on this wave. Krissy, Winnie, and Caro are just regular women, with their own butt augmentations experiences, who are responsible for taking care of multiple patients who walk through their doors. When a humble childhood neighbor, Andrea, and a high-strung black-fishing social media influencer, Belinda, arrive as new patients, Apple Bottom Spa struggles to keep both women and the house afloat. An intimate examination of female-to-female caregiving, body dysmorphia, and what it means when the brown/black female body is both ostracized and commodified by the masses.

Performed By

Amara Granderson
Camila Moreno
Gabi Samels
Merlixse Ventura
Garnet Williams

Stage Manager: Hannah Sgambellone

Playwright

KARINA BILLINI [she/her] is a Dominican-American playwright, poet, and educator from Brooklyn. Karina completed her undergraduate degree in playwriting at Marymount Manhattan College (2011) and received her MFA in Playwriting from The New School for Drama (2018.) She is a proud alum of the New Harmony Project Conference, Ensemble Studio Theatre's Youngblood, Pipeline PlayLab, Gingold Theatrical Group's Speaker's Corner, among others. Her plays have been workshopped and/or produced at Alliance Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New Harmony Project,Teatro Vivo, Cherry Lane Theatre, among others. Her plays include: 2144 South St (Barrington Stage’s Bonnie and Terry Berman’s New Play Award Finalist), Faded (Williamstown/Alliance/Kendeda Finalist), Becoming Lucy (EST/Teatro Vivo), and All The Helium Hearts Over Belt Parkway (EST). She is a recent recipient of the 2021 Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation commission.

Director

CANDIS C. JONES [she/her] Selected credits: Detroit ’67 (D.C. Signature Theatre), Black Solo Plays (Willamstown Theater Festival), cullud water, shadow/land (The Public Theater), 53% Of (The Alliance Theater), B*tch (Page 73), Everybody (NYU Tisch), Trapt (Joe’s Pub), House of the Negro Insane (Bay Area Playwrights Festival), Pipeline (Detroit Public Theater), Nike (A.C.T. New Strands Festival), The Wolves (American Academy), Brother Rabbit (New Black Fest), Name Calling (Kennedy Center), Morning in America (Primary Stages), TEMBO! (Zanzibar International Film Fest), School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play (Cincinnati Playhouse). Awards and Fellowships: 2016 Lilly Award, WP Theater’s 2018-2020 Lab, Drama League alum.

Poster Art by Sean Devare

Apple Bottom was originally commissioned by The Ensemble Studio Theatre / Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project.