CRITICS PICK, THE WASHINGTON POST:

TeresaCastracane4.jpg

"It’s an impressive performance: Rose smoothly takes on everything from the light Texan twang of a rival to the posh Brit accents of guest speakers and the swaggering-bashful patter of the handsome young frontman for an outfit called Praise Cr3w. Taffety Punk Theatre Company is giving this a limited run at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, but it’s sure to surface again." — Nelson Pressley

“Nuanced yet still deeply critical and hilarious. The funniest thing I’ve seen onstage this year.” - Baltimore City Paper, Critics Pick

“Funny, sharp satire. Rose’s sharp writing and indelible charisma makes Mom Baby God a necessary show for our times." — Matt Cohen, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER (critics pick)

DC METRO THEATER ARTS: Outstanding Performance in a Professional Production

“…as playful as it is powerful. Its form is delightfully comedic and dramatic, and Rose’s versatile portrayal of Destinee and the other characters she meets is enthralling. A profound fusion of personal politics and compelling performance.” —John Stoltenberg

About MOM BABY GOD:

Take a cupcake, put on a name tag, and prepare to be thrown into the world of the Christian Right, where sexual purity workshops and anti-abortion rallies are sandwiched between karaoke sing-alongs, Christian EDM raves and pro-life slumber parties. An immersive dark comedy experience about sex, gender, and coming-of-age in the Christian Right, written and performed by Joey Rose. 

It’s 2017 and the anti-abortion movement has a new sense of urgency. Teens4Life is going live from the Students for Life of America Conference where right-wing teenagers are vying for popularity while preparing for political battle. Our tour guide is fourteen-year-old Destinee Grace Ramsey, ascending to prominence as the new It-Girl of the Christian Right while struggling to contain her crush on John Paul, a flirtatious Christian boy with blossoming Youtube stardom and a purity ring. 

MOM BABY GOD takes us inside the right-wing’s youth training ground at a more urgent time than ever.

PERFORMED BY JOEY ROSE, WITH YOU <3

Destinee is a 14 year old anti-abortion activist and Belieber with a Youtube channel. These Youtube channel videos are incorporated into the world of MOM BABY GOD, an immersive coming-of-age experience taking you inside the Christian Right, following Destinee as she attends the largest national anti-abortion conference in the U.S.

Performed by Joey Rose with you <3

SHOW HISTORY

An immersive solo show based on extensive immersive research within the youth wing of Christian Right movements, MOM BABY GOD has toured nationally to sold-out houses and partnered with abortion rights and sexual health activists and organizations across the U.S.

In 2018 MOM BABY GOD was workshopped for the first time with a full cast, at D.C.’s Theater Alliance <3

Past director collaborators! —>

Emma Ayres, Em Weinstein, Amelia Acosta Powell, Kathleen Akerley, Lise Bruneau, Otis Ramsey-Zoe, É Boylan

Photos by Teresa Castracane

Photos by Teresa Castracane

Audience praise for MOM BABY GOD

“Amazingly realistic and brilliantly acted portrayal of the pro-life movement from the inside that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time. Scary good!”

--Loretta Ross, Co-founder & National Coordinator SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

Dave Zirin, The Nation Magazine

“Mom Baby God picked me up and threw me into that nostalgic moment when I decided that making political work was my future. I sat with my mouth open, and watched, while drenched in that memory, super excited for this team of humans to jump off a cliff into tomorrow. Madeline Joey Rose's incredible acting display took me on a ride through an exhilarating cast of characters that will undoubtedly propel them into a full and rewarding future as a performer. Their stamina was commendable, and their personification, stunning. The story is compound, but simple, the acting is heroic. The lighting, video, and stage design is effectively simple. And the emotion runs deep. Joey and their team have created an incredible seed that will certainly grow into whatever they want it to grow into. And that is fucking exciting.”  

--JD Samson, Artist



“There are few cultural acts more difficult and more daring then the effort to create political art. The prospects for failure are towering. Either the message gets muddled under a miasma of interpretive hooey or the audience gets treated to a didactic dirge.

That is why my praise for Joey Rose’s one-person play Mom Baby God is so boundless and so unqualified. Mx. Rose, who is not only an actor but an utterly unapologetic reproductive rights activist, plays half a dozen different participants at a Students Right to Life conference. From the pro-life rock stars and celebrities to confused teenagers and awkward moms, Mx. Rose inhabits their characters with scathing satirical intent but also a deep sense of their subject’s humanity. Perhaps you never feel like you are watching caricatures because the play is based on Mx. Rose own undercover research and interviews in the right to life movement, with an overwhelming amount of the dialogue taken directly from their mouths. 

In addition to the political message, Mx. Rose presents a harrowing youth culture where the bewildering, confused sexuality of the young is crudely manipulated by adults to create fighters for fetal justice. See this play. It is a tour de force that serves both the movement for reproductive rights and the art of theater with extreme effectiveness. Bring Mom Baby God your campus. Bring it to your community and relish the spectacle of art as a force for social change”.

--Dave Zirin, The Nation Magazine

“Here's a word I didn't expect to use to describe Mom Baby God: fun! But it really is, in a warm and inclusive way that feels not unlike one of those epic best-friend conversations that manages to be both life-altering and silly at the same time.  Madeline Joey Rose turns in a tour-de-force performance that's effortless, ferocious and heartbreaking, and manages to humanize many of their characters even while exposing the tangled web of ways their cause dehumanizes women. If you care about sexual politics or abortion rights, go see Mom Baby God. If you just want to have a smashingly entertaining night at the theater, go see Mom Baby God.”

-- Jaclyn Friedman, Author of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape

-- Jonathan Solari, Founding Artistic Director, The New Brooklyn Theater

“MOM BABY GOD is one of those rare instances where political thought is strengthened and complicated through theater. The flawless performance and intricately human writing open the doors to a terrifying world we too easily dismiss. The magnetism of the play itself is what will shock an audience into action.”

-- Jonathan Solari, Founding Artistic Director, The New Brooklyn Theater



PRE- JOEY BABY MUSIC PROJECTS (punk/postpunk)—>

My roots are in Boston and D.C.’s DIY punk scenes. I started playing drums by ear at 14, toured in the bands Ultra Beauty and Tomboy, and was commissioned to compose a punk soundtrack for the U.S. premiere of Amelia Bullmore’s Di and Viv and Rose with guitarist Ali Donohue.

MBG - The 1st NATIONAL TOUR, directed by Em Weinstein

Additionally featured in The Boston Globe, The StrangerThe Nation, Bitch Magazine, Ms. MagazineDigBoston, The Le Sigh, Recaps, Impose, The Free George, The Lincoln Journal Star, MassLive, Washington City Paper, Gapers Block, Willamette Week, Boston Hassle, BDC Wire, The Daily Nebraskan, Berkshire on Stage, The Spectator, The PostStar

Right-wing press for MOM BABY GOD:

MOM BABY GOD was secretly filmed by an anti-abortion activist, leading to a right-wing media campaign 🙃

Also featured in: Students for Life of America official website, The Jill Stanek blog, Lila Rose’s Live Action News, Texas Right to Life, LifeNews, The National Review