Overview
John and his daughter Caitlyn are birders. As they scan the skies over their backyard in suburban Maryland looking for elusive birds, years go by. Relationships begin and end. Children grow up and parents age. The climate and the world change in small and vast ways. BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA takes a close look at the relationship of a father and daughter over the course of a decade as they struggle to understand the parts of one another that defy understanding.
Casting & Production
Casting
JOHN — A scientist and an avid birder. Ages throughout the play from his late 50s to late 60s. White, probably.
CAITLYN — A copy editor for a conservative news outlet. Ages throughout the play from her late 20s to her late 30s. John’s daughter. White or mixed race.
Production Note:
John and Caitlyn take nearly everything the other says personally.
Setting
Place
John’s yard. Baltimore County, Maryland.
Time
Present.
Reviews
“This exquisitely subtle, luminous, elegiac father-and-daughter drama is not to be missed.”
—Broadway World
“BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA is a lyrical, funny, and painful play that should be on your must-see list. It says so much, and the 90-minutes fly by.”
—The TVolution
“There’s a depth charge of feeling beneath the everyday talk, a sense of two lives unfolding, and time in all its jolting discontinuity and its continuity.”
—Westword
